Konrad H. Jarausch. After Hitler: Recivilizing the Germans, 1945-1995. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. xiii + 379 pp. $35.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-19-512779-9.

Konrad H. Jarausch. Die Umkehr: Deutsche Wandlungen, 1945-1995. Munich: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, 2004. 500 pp. EUR 29.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-3-421-05672-6.

Reviewed by Dieter K. Buse (Department of History, Laurentian University)
Published on H-German (January, 2007)

Civilized Germans

The idea that Germans have become civilized after leading the last century in commission of barbarous acts is gaining currency. Prolific historian Konrad H. Jarausch has laid out many arguments and superb information as to why our focus should shift from analyzing the establishment of the Third Reich and its actions, to examining how German society attained a new humanitarianism after World War II. Die Umkehr, slightly revised in the English edition as After Hitler, does credit Allied efforts to re-orient Germany by disarming the military and purging Nazi leaders, but mostly points to the accomplishments of the Germans themselves: the slow shift from the nation as a central value and the internalization of democratic norms, especially during the turbulent late 1960s and early 1990s. While acknowledging other studies that suggest Germany has taken a long and circuitous route to the "West," Jarausch has reservations about the concept of "western" and instead underscores the establishment of civic learning processes. Oddly for an historian who has written so much solid German history, however, he underestimates or omits discussion of internal historical traditions on which postwar German society could and did draw, including: federalism, social democracy and the role models of exiles and resisters of the Third Reich. Further, he might have considered the influential work of the central and regional offices for political education (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung and the associated Landeszentralen für politische Bildung), which helped disseminate new values. Paradoxically, the German version of Jarausch's book has been adopted for distribution by their central office. The idea that a whole society needed to be re-civilized might be considered arrogant, though persons privileged to have encountered Jarausch would know that he is anything but. Hence, the term Umkehr in the German title is perhaps more appropriately neutral than the English subtitle. It does not evoke questions as to whether societies such as those that organized the killing of two million Vietnamese and never apologized or compensated for it, or initiated illegal wars under false pretenses, may also need to be re-civilized. Leaving such politicizing issues aside, Jarausch's study does re-pose fundamental ethical and moral issues and hence is to be welcomed.

That the publishers are aware of what might attract different audiences to this book is evident in the divergent pictures on the covers of the two books. The German cover has a bus and Volkswagens at a mountain viewpoint and on the back an American soldier overseeing the removal of an Adolf Hitler street sign. The English version has children playing among ruins in front of the silhouette of the Berlin Gedächtniskirche. Unfortunately those are the only images employed in either version. Both books begin with descriptions of the photographs taken by an American correspondent in 1945, yet none of them none are reprinted. Illustrations might have helped buttress the studies to show the great changes being described; for instance, the novelties of the "new old capital" Berlin, but especially the style of the more casual and more open society of recent years.

The prefaces of the German volume and its English translation also present different issues, with the German one recounting Jarausch's personal path to the study and the English one addressing historiographical matters. The introductions, like the contents, are almost identical and speak first to the Zivilisationsbruch by presenting contemporaries' shock at the degree of inhumanity evident in the camps. Next, major attempts to evaluate National Socialist barbarism are judiciously reviewed. For instance, Jarausch succinctly summarizes the debates about Germany's "special path" and recent claims about its westernization. Jarausch states, "This interpretation correctly points to Germany's geographic shift westward, its political and economic bonding to the West, as well as the Americanization of its consumption and popular culture. And yet this view also treats the West as an unreflected standard, failing to scrutinize its historical liabilities such as slavery, imperialism, and exploitation and presents an idealized image that has long been discredited by feminist and post-colonial critiques" (p. 11). The author thinks the concepts of "rupture of civilization" and "civil society" are more appropriate, especially since the latter posits an ideal and helps avoid the suggestion of an uncritical success story. When he turns to the tasks for a history of Rezivilisierung or "rehabilitation," in the English, Jarausch indicates that he wants to follow the learning processes of individuals as well as of the collective. He wants to define the nature of a "long and diffuse process of rethinking" (p. 15), a process shaped and experienced in different ways by people coming to terms with their own past, by institution that sought to explain their collaboration, one evidenced in public debates that led to the dissemination of new social values. In service of this goal, he seeks to elucidate the "actual changes in political behavior" (p. 15). One of the strengths of this study is the attempt to integrate the experiences of eastern as well as western Germany. Hence the books are centered on three major questions: whether the occupation succeeded at destroying Nazi influences, whether the 1960s brought decisive progress in democratization, and whether the unified state became normal, or do hegemonic tendencies remain?

Jarausch thinks that the Allied demilitarization of institutions took place quickly, though the mental aspects of the process required a longer time. And with that Jarausch begins to muster and lay out a great deal of evidence about German attitudes. He draws heavily and fruitfully on the life stories in the Walter Kempowski archive, some literary works, the cinema and opinion polls. The desire for peace and hopes of avoiding involvement in Cold War conflicts are underscored by pointing to the number of people in uniform before 1945, earlier respect for the military and the previous pride in the country's history of warfare. Defeat brought about a new understanding of these matters; proposals for rearmament and possible recourse to arms henceforth encountered skepticism. Jarausch suggests that the "Allied consensus had a decisive influence on this transformation" (p. 44). The break with nationalism also occurred under the tutelage of the Allied powers, and Jarausch illustrates their carrot-and-stick approach to media, schools and culture. In addition, the magnitude of defeat paralyzed the populace, which was forced to rethink radical nationalism. Some looked for ways to escape confronting the situation, including emigration. Searching for a place to lay blame and donning the mantle of victimhood in the early postwar years were quickly displaced by the realization that extreme nationalism had led to disaster. In this section more personal, as opposed to collective, examples might further have buttressed the argument. The "flight from Germanness" (p. 64) by the 1960s, for instance, is more asserted than shown and perhaps cannot be readily demonstrated. The later contrast between the outlook of some intellectuals, termed "negative nationalism," and the "increasingly positive self-image of the majority of the populace" (p. 65) calls for many illustrations and does not account for the contrary outlook among some West German intellectuals. One thinks of authors such as Werner Weidenfeld in the early 1980s, who was encouraged by Helmut Kohl and posited a new West German identity and pride, including hints at acceptance of "the tradition of positive exceptionalism" (p. 70). But such quibbles aside, Jarasuch describes well the process of de-nationalization and acknowledges "that the issue of national identity has not yet really come to rest in Germany" (p. 69). Nor in most countries, as a Canadian can add.

Jarausch treats economic issues in a similar fashion, by chronologically providing an overview that starts with Allied restructuring, the establishment of socially-oriented institutions with checks and balances in West and a command economy in East Germany. The slow return of the market after 1947 in the west, and the upward climb of production until 1966, is followed by a section on the limits of the "German model." Here eastern and western Germany are treated separately and the account is not as detailed as in previous sections. Jarausch concludes that "unlike with militarism and nationalism, the economic lessons of the Nazi experience have only been half learned" (p. 95). He sees the populace scurrying under the skirts of the state whenever a downturn occurs instead "of trusting in its own strengths and organizing the countermeasures as a civil society" (p. 95). However, he provides no example of other societies that rely on their own strengths in such situations and leaves "countermeasures" unspecified.

The second and third sections of the study, "Contradictory Modernization" and "Challenges to Modernity," operate in the same fashion as the first, but use the crucial events of the 1960s and the 1990s as the axis around which to pose similar questions. In part 2, the stabilization of the political structures and the acceptance of democracy are recounted. In part 3, the challenges of unification, especially in reintroducing questions of national values and economic norms, are analyzed. Jarausch shows in nuanced form the manner in which those events helped push Germany toward normality. He cites opinion polls, which "reflect a gradual turn away from authoritarian patterns of thought and a tentative embrace of democratic values" (p. 145). The 1960s proved decisive, in that democracy became a catchword in West Germany through public debates. In contrast, the GDR's limited attractiveness to its own populace meant that the "apolitical majority of the population slowly reconciled itself to democracy" (p. 146). When summarizing the successes of the Federal Republic and the way criticism corrected faults, Jarausch claims "the list of civilizational achievements was long and impressive," including "firm guarantees of freedom, a high degree of legal security, much effective legislation, a government well aware of problems, a smoothly functioning federalism, a dense safety net and a broad associational base" (p. 153). Examples of federalism and associations at work would have buttressed the larger argument. Similarly to Mary Fulbrook, who argued in German National Identity after the Holocaust (1999) without laying out the evidence that regions provided a prime basis for identity among postwar Germans, the claim is in need of detailed demonstration, perhaps by analysis of test cases from the corners of the country. Jarausch does illustrate that "the Germans' own contribution to the anchoring of democracy was certainly more decisive" (p. 154) than the Allies' efforts; he demonstrates this claim with an account of the 1960s protests against authority and the ways they were surmounted in a civilized fashion.

Outlining the limited explanatory power of the approaches of sociology and political science to the youth rebellions, Jarausch affirms the need to place events into historical context. Again he profitably employs autobiographical accounts to demonstrate generational tensions as well as outlooks. He traces some individual biographies to illustrate the variety of motivations involved while pointing to the problems of higher education, opposition to the slaughter in Vietnam, bourgeois conformity and silence about World War II as causes of unrest. Marxism as a reference point for the protesters brings Jarausch to mention labor movements and their activities in social emancipation, though their role in re-civilizing German society is given little consideration in the previous parts of his account. He does not dwell on it here either, as he examines anti-authoritarian social psychology and "notions of participatory democracy" (p. 168). The novel methods of the protesters are clearly delineated, including the use of new media tactics. The quick growth and the diversity of the social movement as well as its disintegration brings to the forefront the basic question of what importance the events identified with 1968 did hold for the re-civilizing of Germans. Jarausch presents the negative impact, especially the emergence of terrorist and anarchist groups, by citing the assertions of some critics. But generally he suggests the revolts opened Germans up to fun (I was reminded of the film Zur Sache Schätzchen[1968]), to women's and ecological movements and citizen's initiatives, especially on peace. He notes that "the Federal Republic eventually managed to channel these new social movements back into regular politics" (p. 178). A society of pluralities became an acknowledged value, since the return of the conservatives to power in 1982 could not reverse the changes. He concludes that "the sociocultural impact of the generational revolt ultimately made a vital contribution to the establishment of a more tolerant civil society" (p. 181).

The disappearance of the GDR provided novel challenges for all Germans and hence Jarausch includes a situational report from just before and during its collapse. The role of western institutions and funds could have been given more coverage, since that issue later raised the first wave of resentment about the extent of the right to participate in the unified state. Jarausch's account of the actual overthrow is one of a "civic revolution" achieved by public demonstrations, grassroots organizations and freedom in the media. He acknowledges that the eastern idealists were no match for western pragmatists, a state of affairs that exposes an implicit question about the civic values of those holding power. In contrast, Jarausch insists that the "act of self-liberation ought to retain an exemplary meaning for the emerging common civil society" (p. 213). It is probably too early to tell, but present indications hint that the initial liberating act has been overshadowed in the minds of many who perceive that a colonial annexation occurred after it. Persistent high unemployment and continued east-west migration have resulted in a strengthened leftist and extreme rightist pattern of voting in most eastern states, though this pattern has been accompanied by little violence. In the last section Jarausch details the revival as well as eventual control of "fear of foreignness."

Going back to the ethnic cleansing at war's end, the "guest worker" influx and the advent of asylum seekers, Jarausch highlights the violence of the early 1990s. This is a succinct and thorough account of the manner in which a populace which saw itself as a homogeneous ethnic group was quickly transformed by demographics and labor needs but only slowly adapted mentally. Jarausch notes that the "'so-called' foreigner problem remained largely unresolved in the old Federal Republic" because of a lack of "consensus on immigration" (p. 246). Similarly, he thinks the issue remains open, despite the decline of violence and changes to the legal status and voting rights of immigrants. One could add that the recent use of questionable characterizations of Muslims by a pope of German background might temper some assumptions about the tolerance learned in certain German milieus.

In general Jarausch provides the best basis thus far for reflecting on the positive transformation of, historically, one of the world's most problematic countries. Others will look at parts of the society and continue to see racism and xenophobia, a welfare-dominated economy and perhaps too much reliance on the state. But Jarausch has demonstrated clearly what has fundamentally changed about Germany and substantiates his point that the direction of that change can only be applauded. The Germans have heeded Willy Brandt and "dared" more democracy in a civilized fashion.

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Citation: Dieter K. Buse. Review of Jarausch, Konrad H., After Hitler: Recivilizing the Germans, 1945-1995 and Jarausch, Konrad H., Die Umkehr: Deutsche Wandlungen, 1945-1995. H-German, H-Net Reviews. January, 2007.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=12790

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