UCSB Hist 133C,
L 16:
The Presence of the Nazi Past, 1945-1960s
by Prof. Marcuse, Feb. 11, 2004
How did Germans "come to terms" with events in the Nazi period?
Considerations 1: terminology
Considerations 2: perspective
Remember back to L2: What was Nazism?
And: how did Germans respond to its end?
1 & 2 felt by former Nazis
3 by opponents of Nazis
4 by Allies
|
Reactions to the Allies, 1945ff
My thesis: "the 3 founding myths"
Nov. 9, 1945 Speech by Dachau Mayor
Ladies and Gentlemen!
How peaceful life once was here! Dachau, once the epitome of rural stolidity
and earthiness, closely bound to its artists and their noble cultural efforts
for more than a century! To mention only a few of the names that carried Dachau's
reputation into the world: Christian Morgenstern, ... Karl Spitzweg, Wilhelm
Leibl, Lovis Corinth, [Max] Slevogt, ...
That was once our Dachau!
But then non-local sadists came and settled on the outskirts of our city, and
with horror and fear we had to watch as they defiled the name Dachau in the
eyes of the entire civilized world.
For twelve long years the concentration camp weighed like a nightmare upon us.
At the beginning sparse reports about the inmates of the camp leaked out to
us. But after construction was complete the hermetic isolation left us with
only dark premonitions about the fates and human suffering behind the concrete
walls topped with barbed wire.
Dante's saying should have been written over the gate: "Abandon all hope, ye
who enter!" We know that since 1940 alone at least 28,000 people died a miserable
death. The lists show that 220,000 passed through the camp.
And the name of our beloved Dachau is associated with all of these cruelties!
But the real Dachau was different!
Today, with pure hearts and clean hands this "other Dachau" commemorates all
of the victims whose blood has soaked our native soil and whose ash covers the
paths within the camp.
You dead, however, who have been taken up by our native soil, rest there in
peace! Your memory shall not only be honored by a monument of stone, but we
will carry it in our hearts as long as the heavens allow us to breathe the air
of freedom, and allow the sun of peace to shine.
And in the future Dachau shall once again become a center of true culture and
respect for human rights, for the good of our city and all of humanity.
The 1950s: repression or displacement?
What's the difference, does it matter? (things that historians think about)
3 original myths evolve to fit new situation:
Germans as Victims (Opfer)
 |
Above: "To the Victims" with
stone, grass, bronze figures. |
The 1960s: Anamnesis
Anamnesis (opposite of amnesia)
Adminstrative
