The Unmasterable Past: History, Holocaust, and German National Identity, With a New PrefaceBringing his book up to date with reflections since its first publication a decade ago, Charles S. Maier writes that the historians’ controversy gave Germany a chance to air the issues immediately before unification and, in effect, the controversy substituted for the constitutional debate that a united Germany never got around to holding. The premises of national community, whether formulated in terms of legal culture, inherited collective responsibilities, or patriotic habits of the heart, had already been subjects for vigorous discussion. |
Contents
9 | |
Habermas among the Historians | 34 |
A Holocaust like the Others? Problems of Comparative History | 66 |
German History as Case History | 100 |
A Usable Past? Museums Memory and Identity | 121 |
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Common terms and phrases
American Andreas Hillgruber anti-Semitism argued argument Auschwitz Berlin Bitburg Bonn Bracher camps claim comparison concept conservative controversy critical critique culture debate democracy democratic Deutsche Deutschen Deutschland discourse earlier East effort Ernst Nolte essay exhibits extermination fascism Federal Republic Fest Final Solution Frankfurt am Main genocide German history German national Germany's Geschichte gulag Habermas's Hans Mommsen Hans-Ulrich Wehler Hildebrand Hillgruber Hillgruber's historians historicization Historikerstreit historiography Historische Hitler Holocaust Ibid idem ideological insisted intellectual interpretation issue Jewish Jews Jürgen Habermas Jürgen Kocka Klaus Hildebrand Kohl legacy less liberal major Martin Broszat Meier memory ment Michael Stürmer modern Mommsen moral Munich murder museum nation-state national identity National Socialism National Socialist Nationalsozialismus Nazism neoconservative Nipperdey Nolte's Nonetheless past political postmodern postwar problematic question regime responsibility Revolution role society Sonderweg Soviet suggested terror Third Reich tion tradition trans University Press Vergangenheit victims Wehler Weimar West German Western York