Vergangenheitsbewältigung is a composite German word that describes the process of dealing with the past (Vergangenheit = past; Bewältigung = management, coming to terms with, mastering), which is perhaps best rendered in English as "struggle to come to terms with the past". The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States The German word Geschichtsaufarbeitung (lit. "processing of history") is more or less synonymous, but less common.
Contents |
Historical development
Vergangenheitsbewältigung describes the attempt to analyse, digest and learn to live with the past, in particular the Holocaust. The Holocaust (from the Greek el ''ὁλόκαυστον'' (el-Latn holókauston holos, "completely" and kaustos, "burnt" also known as The focus on learning is much in the spirit of philosopher George Santayana's oft-quoted observation that "those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it. George Santayana ( December 16, 1863, Madrid &ndash September 26, 1952, Rome) was a Philosopher, Essayist " As a technical term in English, it relates specifically to the atrocities committed during the Third Reich, when Adolf Hitler was in power in Germany, and to both ongoing and historical concerns about the extensive compromise and co-optation of many German cultural, religious, and political institutions by National Socialism. Nazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany under the regime of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers Hi and welcome to Wikipedia! Please understand that this article is frequently vandalized and vandalism is reverted immediately Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Nazism, which was a short name for National Socialism (Nationalsozialismus refers primarily to the Ideology and practices of the National Socialist German The term therefore deals at once with the concrete responsibility of the German state (the Federal Republic of Germany assumed the legal obligations of the Reich) and of individual Germans for what took place "under Hitler," and with questions about the roots of legitimacy in a society whose invention of the Enlightenment collapsed in the face of Nazi ideology. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. The Age of Enlightenment or The Enlightenment is a term used to describe a phase in Western philosophy and cultural life centered upon the eighteenth century Nazism, which was a short name for National Socialism (Nationalsozialismus refers primarily to the Ideology and practices of the National Socialist German
More recently, the term Vergangenheitsbewältigung has also been used in the former German Democratic Republic to refer to the process of working through the brutalities of Communist institutions. The German Democratic Republic ( GDR; Deutsche Demokratische Republik DDR; commonly known in English as East Germany) was a Socialist state Communism is a Socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless Society based
After denazification
Historically, Vergangenheitsbewältigung often is seen as the logical "next step," after a denazification driven at first under Allied Occupation and then by the Christian Democratic Union government of Konrad Adenauer. Denazification (Entnazifizierung was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society culture press economy judiciary and politics of any The Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands) is the largest Political party in Germany. Konrad Hermann Josef Adenauer ( 5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967 was a German Statesman. It dates from the late 1950s and early 1960s, roughly the period in which the work of the Wiederaufbau (reconstruction) became less absorbing and urgent. The 1950s Decade refers to the years of 1950 to 1959 inclusive The 1960s decade refers to the years from the beginning of 1960 to the end of 1969 Having replaced the institutions and power structures of National Socialism, the aim of liberal Germans was to deal with the guilt of recent history. Vergangenheitsbewältigung is characterised in part by learning from the past. This includes honestly admitting that such a past did indeed exist, attempting to remedy as far as possible the wrongs committed, and attempting to move on from that past.
Role of churches and schools
The German churches, of which only a minority played a significant role in the resistance to National Socialism, have led the way in this process, developing a specifically German post-war theology of repentance. The German Resistance refers to those individuals and groups in Nazi Germany who opposed the regime of Adolf Hitler between 1933 and 1945 Theology is the study of a god or the gods from a religious perspective Repentance is a change of thought and action to correct a wrong and gain Forgiveness from the one wronged At the regular mass church rallies, the Lutheran Kirchentag and the Catholic Katholikentag, for example, this theme is developed as a leitmotiv of Christian youth. Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the teachings of the sixteenth-century German reformer Martin Luther The Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchentag ( German for German Protestant Church Congress) is a movement of lay members of the Evangelical Church in Germany.
The main institutionally driven sphere of Vergangenheitsbewältigung is in the schools, where in most German states the centrally-written curriculum subjects every child to repeated lessons on different aspects of National Socialism in German, history, politics and religion classes from the fifth grade onwards. A school (from Greek σχολεῖον - scholeion) is an Institution designed to allow and encourage Students (or "pupils" Germany (Deutschland is a Federal Republic consisting of sixteen States, known in German as Länder (singular History is the study of the past particularly the written record Those who study history as a Profession are called Historians Etymology Politics Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos Fifth grade (called Grade 5 in some regions is a year of Education in the United States and many other nations Typically there are school trips to concentration camps, and Jewish Holocaust survivors are often invited to schools as guest speakers, though the passage of time limits these opportunities. Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people commonly in large groups without trial PLEASE TAKE NOTE************
In philosophy
In philosophy, Theodor Adorno's writings include the lecture Was bedeutet die Aufarbeitung der Vergangenheit? ("What is meant by the working through the past?"), a subject related to his thinking of "after Auschwitz" in his later work. Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund Adorno ( September 11, 1903 &ndash August 6, 1969) was a German -born international sociologist This work is often seen as consisting in part of a variably implicit and explicit critique of the work of Martin Heidegger, whose formal ties to the Nazi party are well known. Martin Heidegger ( September 26, 1889 &ndash May 26, 1976) (ˈmaɐ̯tiːn ˈhaɪ̯dɛgɐ was an influential German philosopher Heidegger, distinct from his role in the Party during the Third Reich, attempted to provide a historical conception of Germania as a philosophical thought of German origin and destiny (later he would speak of "the West"). Germania was the Latin Exonym for Alexander Garcia Düttman's Das Gedächtnis des Denkens: Versuch über Heidegger und Adorno (The Memory of Thought: an Essay on Heidegger and Adorno, translated by Nicholas Walker) attempts to treat the philosophical value of these seemingly opposed and certainly incompatible terms "Auschwitz" and "Germania" in the philosophy of both men in a manner that is not simply comparative.
The cultural sphere
In the cultural sphere, the term Vergangenheitsbewältigung most frequently arises as the name of a movement in German literature, characterised by such authors as Günter Grass and Siegfried Lenz. German literature comprises those literary texts written in the German language. Günter Wilhelm Grass (born 16 October 1927 is a Nobel Prize -winning German Author and Playwright. Siegfried Lenz (b 17 March 1926 in Lyck ( Ełk) East Prussia) is a German writer who has written twelve Novels Lenz's novel Deutschstunde and Grass's Danziger Trilogie both deal with childhood under Nazism, and are a good starting point for this literature.
The erection of public monuments to Holocaust victims has been a particular theme in Germany's Vergangenheitsbewältigung. A monument is a structure either explicitly created to commemorate a person or important event or which has become important to a social group as a part of their remembrance of past Concentration camps such as Dachau, Buchenwald, Bergen-Belsen and Flossenbürg are open to visitors as memorials and museums. Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people commonly in large groups without trial Dachau was a Nazi German Concentration camp, and the first one opened in Germany located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions Factory near the Buchenwald concentration camp (German Konzentrationslager or 'KZ' Buchenwald) was a Nazi concentration camp established on the Ettersberg (Etter Mountain near Flossenbürg is a municipality in the district of Neustadt an der Waldnaab in Bavaria in Germany. A museum is a "permanent institution in the service of society and of its development open to the public which acquires conserves researches communicates and exhibits the Most towns have plaques on walls marking the spots where particular atrocities took place.
When the seat of government was moved from Bonn to Berlin in 1999, an extensive "Holocaust memorial", designed by architect Peter Eisenman, was planned as part of the vast development of new official buildings in the district of Berlin-Mitte; it was opened on 10 May 2005. Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located about 20 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia Berlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. Peter Eisenman (born August 11, 1932 in Newark, New Jersey) is an American architect Localities of the Mitte borough The new borough of Mitte consists of six localities Mitte (the former Mitte borough Moabit Events 1291 - Scottish Nobles recognize the authority of Edward I of England. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The informal name of this memorial, the "Holocaust-Mahnmal" is significant. It does not translate easily: "Holocaust Cenotaph" would be one sense, but the noun Mahnmal, which is distinct from the term Denkmal (typically used to translate "memorial") carries the sense of "admonition," "urging," "appeal," or "warning" rather than "remembrance" as such. The work is formally known as das Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas (English translation, "The Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe"). Some controversy attaches to it precisely because of this formal name and its exclusive emphasis on Jewish victims. As Eisenman acknowledged at the opening ceremony, "It is clear that we won't have solved all the problems — architecture is not a panacea for evil — nor will we have satisfied all those present today, but this cannot have been our intention. "
Other European countries
In Austria, ongoing arguments about the nature and significance of the Anschluss, and unresolved disputes about legal expressions of obligation and liability, as well as more recent concerns about the ascent of "Haiderism",Austria[›] have led to very different concerns, and to a far less institutionalized response. Austria (Österreich ( officially the Republic of Austria (Republik Österreich The ( German: "link-up" also known as the, was the 1938 Annexation of Austria into Greater Germany by the Nazi Jörg Haider (January 26 1950 – October 11 2008 was an Austrian politician
Poland has maintained a museum, archive, and research centre at Oświęcim, better known by its German name of Auschwitz, since a July 2, 1947 act of the Polish Parliament, while Czechoslovakia established in the same year what was known first as the National Suffering Memorial and later simply as the Terezín memorial in Terezín, Czech Republic, better known for its part in the Holocaust as Theresienstadt. Poland (Polska officially the Republic of Poland An archive refers to a collection of historical records and also refers to the location in which these records are kept Oświęcim (Auschwitz Yiddish Oshpitsin אָשפּיצין Romany: Aushvitsa, Osvyenchim, Czech: Osvětim "Auschwitz" redirects here For the town see Oświęcim Auschwitz-Birkenau () was the largest of Nazi Germany Events 310 - Pope Miltiades is elected 626 - In fear of assassination Li Shimin ambushes and kills his rival Year 1947 ( MCMXLVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Czechoslovakia may also refer to what is now the Czech Republic and Slovakia. For the Nazi concentration camp see Theresienstadt concentration camp. The Czech Republic ( ˈt͡ʃɛskaː ˈrɛpuˌblɪka short form in Česko ˈt͡ʃɛskɔ also called Czechia, For the Nazi concentration camp see Theresienstadt concentration camp. In the context of varying degrees of Communist orthodoxy in both countries during the period of Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, historical research into the Holocaust was politicised to varying degrees, and Marxist doctrines of class struggle were often overlaid onto generally received histories, which tended to exclude both acts of collaboration and indications of abiding antisemitism. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 Eastern Europe is a general term that refers to the Geopolitical region encompassing the easternmost part of the European continent. Marxism is the political philosophy and practice derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Class struggle is the active expression of Class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective Antisemitism (alternatively spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism; also rarely known as judeophobia) is the Prejudice against or hostility
There remains the difficulty that the advance of the Einsatzgruppen, Aktion Reinhardt, and other significant events in the Holocaust did not happen in the Third Reich proper (or what is now the territory of the Federal Republic), and that the history of the memorials and archives which have been erected at these sites is not easily disentangled from that of the Communist regimes which possessed them for more than four decades after World War II. Einsatzgruppen ( German: "task forces" "intervention groups" were Paramilitary groups formed by Heinrich Himmler and Operation Reinhard ( Aktion Reinhard or Einsatz Reinhard in German) was the code name given to the Nazi plan to murder Polish Jews Given that the seizure of so much of Central and Eastern Europe, and the accompanying violence directed against various Slavic groups, Jews, Communists, prisoners of war, and so-called partisans, was part and parcel of the Nazi idea of the German nation, and that the forced departure of German settlers and ethnic Germans (the Volksdeutsch) living in the extended Reich before the advance of the Red Army was amongst its consequences, the memory of the violence accompanying German occupation and then evacuation of that land is another abiding element of this struggle. Central Europe is the Region lying between the variously and vaguely defined areas of Eastern and Eastern Europe is a general term that refers to the Geopolitical region encompassing the easternmost part of the European continent. Communism is a Socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless Society based This page describes the origins and historical use of the term Volksdeutsche. The Red Army ( Russian: Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия R aboche- K rest'yanskaya K rasnaya A rmiya
Analogous processes elsewhere in the world
In some of its aspects, Vergangenheitsbewältigung can be compared to the attempts of other democratic countries to raise consciousness of earlier undemocratic historical eras, such as the South African process of truth and reconciliation, or the Czechoslovakian or Polish lustration. A truth commission or truth and reconciliation commission is a commission tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government in the hope of resolving conflict The Republic of South Africa (also known by other official names) is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa This is about the South African body For similar bodies in other countries see Truth commission. Czechoslovakia may also refer to what is now the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Poland (Polska officially the Republic of Poland Lustration has two meanings historical and modern Historically- It was the term for various ancient Greek and Roman purification rituals Comparisons have also been made with the Soviet process of glasnost, though this was not mainly focused on the past but rather on achieving a level of open criticism necessary for progressive reform to take place (which generally assumed the maintenance of a continued monopoly of the Communist Party). The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 (Гла́сность)is literally defined as publicity and sometimes figuratively interpreted as "tipping a vase to let someone see into the vase but not the bottom of the vase" The on-going efforts in eastern Europe and the independent states of the former Soviet Union to reconfigure how the communist past is remembered is sometimes spoken of as a postsocialist Vergangenheitsbewältigung.
In popular culture
Political satirist Roy Zimmerman has a song called "Vergangenheitsbewaeltigung," on his album Security. Political satire is a significant part of Satire that specializes in gaining entertainment from politicsusing political cartoons politicians and public affairs Roy Zimmerman is a Californian satirical singer-songwriter and guitarist with outspoken left-wing opinions [1]
References
See also
- Functionalism versus intentionalism
- Sonderweg
- Historikerstreit ("Historians’ Dispute")
Sources
- Frei, Norbert; Vergangenheitspolitik. Functionalism (or structuralism) versus intentionalism is a historiographical debate about the origins of The Holocaust as well as most Sonderweg (literally "special path" is a controversial theory in German Historiography that considers the German -speaking lands or the country The Historikerstreit (“historians' quarrel” was an intellectual and political controversy in West Germany about the way the Holocaust should be interpreted in Die Anfänge der Bundesrepublik und die NS-Vergangenheit. Munich: C. H. Beck, 1996. [In English as Adenauer's Germany and the Nazi Past: The Politics of Amnesty and Integration. New York: Columbia University Press]
- Geller, Jay Howard; Jews in Post-Holocaust Germany. Columbia University Press is a University press based in New York City, and affiliated with Columbia University. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Cambridge University Press (known colloquially as CUP is a Publisher given a Royal Charter by Henry VIII in 1534
- Herf, Jeffrey; Divided Memory: The Nazi Past in the Two Germanys. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997. Harvard University Press ( HUP) is a Publishing house, a division of Harvard University, that is highly respected in Academic publishing.
- Maier, Charles S. ; The Unmasterable Past: History, Holocaust, and German National Identity. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988.
- Maislinger, Andreas; Coming to Terms with the Past: An International Comparison. Andreas Maislinger (born 26 February 1955 in St Georgen near Salzburg, Austria) is a prominent historian and the founder In Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Identity. Cross National and Comparative Perspectives, ed. Russel F. Farnen. New Brunswick and London: Transaction Publishers, 2004. Transaction Publishers is a Publishing house that specializes in Social sciences books and journals since 1962
- Moeller, Robert G. ; War Stories: The Search for a Usable Past in the Federal Republic of Germany. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001. University of California Press, also known as UC Press, is a Publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in Academic
- Moeller, Robert G. (ed. ); West Germany Under Construction: Politics, Society and Culture in the Adenauer Era. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997. The University of Michigan Press is a University press that is part of the University of Michigan.
- Pross, Christian; Paying for the Past: The Struggle over Reparations for Surviving Victims of the Nazi Terror. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. The Johns Hopkins University Press is a Publishing house and division of Johns Hopkins University that engages in publishing journals and books
Content notes
^ Austria: Haiderism's growing popularity was protested by many Austrians as proto- or neo-fascism after its electoral successes in the Austrian legislative election of 1999 and subsequent entry into coalition government with the Austrian People's Party. This page specifically pertains to fascism after World War II In Austria, the legislative election of October 3, 1999 (elections for the National Council of Austria) caused a major upheaval in the political The Austrian People's Party ( German: Österreichische Volkspartei, or ÖVP) is an Austrian Political party.
Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic