The Shadow of National Socialism: Overcoming History and Victimhood in Post-War Germany

Abstract

The conceptions of how Germany overcame its history is one that is glorified. Often perceived as a flawless example of how a nation is able to make amends and build up a new partnership regionally, the German case continues to be relevant in the 21st Century. Yet, looking at the evidence proves that such an attitude towards the German case is fundamentally flawed in its assumption that Germany in the Post World War II period was in favour of historical reconciliation. On the contrary, Germany was eager to forget and forged its own victim mentality according to the pains it went through. After the failure of the de-nazification period, for over a decade, Germany remained reluctant to address its own past, overcome and make amends for the crimes it had committed. After an emergence of a new generation of political active students that called for a revision of the conservative status quo, the perspective on historical matters in Germany slowly began to shift. As this paper will argue, the early reluctance to overcome history was not just a social phenomenon, but also a direct consequence of democratic power politics. Likewise, the eventual overcoming of history also rests upon a democratic framework, that of opposition party politics that facilitated a return to Realpolitik in foreign policy.