After Hitler: Recivilizing Germans, 1945-1995

by Konrad H. Jarausch

In the spring of 1945, as the German army fell in defeat and the world first learned of the unspeakable crimes of the Holocaust, few would have expected that, only half a century later, the Germans would emerge as a prosperous people at the forefront of peaceful European integration. How did the Germans manage to recover from the shattering experience of defeat in World War II and rehabilitate themselves from the shame and horror of the Holocaust? In After Hitler , Konrad H. Jarausch shows how Germany's determination to emphasize civility and civil society, destroyed by the Nazi regime, helped restore the demoralized nation during the post-war period. Unlike other intellectual inquiries into German efforts to deal with the Nazi past, After Hitler primarily focuses on the practical lessons a disoriented people drew from their past misdeeds, and their struggle to create a new society with a sincere and deep commitment to human rights. After Hitler offers a comprehensive view of the
breathtaking transformation of the Germans from the defeated Nazi accomplices and Holocaust perpetrators of 1945 to the civilized, democratic people of today's Germany.

Genres: History, Germany, European History, Politics, World War II, Nonfiction

400 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Konrad H. Jarausch is the Lurcy Professor of European Civilization at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Reviews

[Kristie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used this as the textbook for a class on post-war Germany. Jarausch goes beyond a recitation of dates and events to investigate aspects of intellectual history and "Alltagsgeschichte," or history of daily life, all while pursuing a central, organizing question: have the Germans in fact rejoined the "civilized world" and established a robust, democratic civil society? (On balance his answer is "yes.") The result is a book that attempts to communicate not only what the Germans did and had done to them post-1945, but also how they felt about it.
The book's major weakness is its superficial treatment of East Germany. Jarausch takes the view that it is time to write post-war German history as ONE history, rather than parallel histories of the two Germanies. But, writing in a period of post-Cold War triumphalism, Jarausch seems far less interested in the experience of East Germans. This results in a less-than-balanced treatment of the two parallel societies, at least until the GDR's final decade and the aftermath of unification.

[Dan Harder · Rating 2 out of 5]

The organization leaves much to be desired and the writing style is exceedingly dry. Despite the importance of the subject, it rests on broad conclusions and assumptions about societal perceptions rather than citing evidence from the era’s policymakers and their aims, which would be exceedingly useful to policymakers today. The narrative is ungrounded, jumping from decade to decade and back again, with no recall to previous passages to drive any central thesis home.

Perhaps my biggest gripe is the blatant disregard for social liberal/ democratic socialist constructs, with a rigid adherence to the “sanctity” of free markets, as if the West v East German perspective put an end to the debate between the only two available options.

If you’re one of the unfortunate students forced to read this book, I highly recommend reading only the beginning sections of each chapter and part. It will be the best way to lift any kind of consistent narrative from these pages.

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid but does neglect international observation of the "recivilizing" process.

[Carlos Filipe Bernardino · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book to understand the desanazification of Germany after Second World War. Liked the author approach to the psycological point of view from the individuals and the country.

[Clayton Whisnant · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting a survey, but was happily surprised to find instead a series of very interesting thematic essays on Germany's reintegration into the West after World War II. I'm not entirely convinced about the theme of "recivilization." Though it is an interesting way to breathe new life into the "Sonderweg" paradigm, in the end I'm not sure this is a paradigm worth saving. Furthermore, I thought that he at times takes too much advantage of the linguistic links between "civilization," "civilian," "civil society," and just plain "civil." Despite these reservations, I do think that these essays are quite good, both on their own and together. The author did a good job at summarizing the research on postwar Germany, and then isolating and filling in some holes in the scholarship. The material on West Germany is stronger than the sections on East Germany, but in general I would say that this is a very useful and readable work.

[Manuel J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an open ended description of the pathway followed by the germans after the end of World War II. It's an interesting approach for at least two reasons: first, by allowing the reader to know more about such a long and difficult path, a path that is still not finished today; second, it will allow the reader to reflect about how other nations may deal with traumatic events, namely, his own country. Sometimes, we may think that Germany was unique in certain regards. I think we should know better, and look to our own countries, perhaps using shorter or longer time frames, depending on the case. We will almost certainly find some events that will benefit, in order to reach some sort of closure, from the german "experiment" described in the book.

[Kali · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of thoughtful essays about German culture and polity in the postwar era. I found his description of the emergent narratives of the "rupture of civilization" and the "suffering of the nation" compelling, and were connected to the tensions between the "urge to purge" Nazis and remnants of Nazism (supporting the belief that the Nazis were somehow identifiably outside the German norm) and the desire to forget and erase. Other essays discuss the reasons and effects of the German rejection of nationalism, the effect of U.S. intervention on the drafting of the new German Constitution, and the rise of German youth culture in the 1960s.

[Myrivername · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was almost the most scholarly work that I have read, in the way it was written, but still interesting enough for me to finish it. It talks a lot about the total change in culture that had to happen for Germany to recover from the Nazi regime, and it made me think a lot.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

finished almost all of it...couldn't make it through the last bit