Out of the Darkness: The Germans, 1942-2022

by Frank Trentmann

#1 Most Important Political Book of 2023, Sueddeutsche Zeitung (Germany)
A Best Book of 2023, The Telegraph (Great Britain)

A gripping and nuanced history of the German people from World War II to the war in Ukraine, including revealing new primary source material on Germany's transformation

In 1945, Germany lay in ruins, morally and materially. Its citizens stood condemned by history, responsible for a horrifying genocide and war of extermination. But by the end of Angela Merkel’s tenure as chancellor in 2021, Germany looked like the moral voice of Europe, welcoming more than one million refugees, holding together the tenuous threads of the European Union, and making military restraint the center of its foreign policy. At the same time, Germany's rigid fiscal discipline and energy deals with Vladimir Putin have cast a shadow over the present. Innumerable scholars have asked how Germany could have degenerated from a nation of scientists, poets, and philosophers into one responsible for genocide. This book raises another vital How did a nation whose past has been marked by mass murder, a people who cheered Adolf Hitler, reinvent themselves, and how much?

Trentmann tells this dramatic story of the German people from the middle of World War II through the Cold War and the division into East and West to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the struggle to find a place in the world today. This journey is marked by a series of extraordinary moral admissions of guilt and shame vying with immediate economic concerns; restitution for some but not others; tolerance versus racism; compassion versus complicity. Through a range of voices—German soldiers and German Jews; displaced persons in limbo; East German women and shopkeepers angry about energy shortages; opponents and supporters of nuclear power; volunteers helping migrants and refugees, and right-wing populists attacking them—Trentmann paints a remarkable and surprising portrait spanning eighty years of the conflicted people at the center of Europe, showing how the Germans became who they are today.

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

789 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 20, 2024

Reviews

[Marquise · Rating 1 out of 5]

If Germany were a fictional villain in a book instead of a country, I'd have called theirs an "imperfect redemption."

In books, a redemption arc ends up with acknowledging the sin or crime, repenting of it, being forgiven, and making amends. Sometimes, that making amends for the sin or crime means the villain aspiring to redemption has to lose his life as part of atonement.

But Germany isn't a fictional villain. It's the country that gave us the real life villains par excellence: the Nazis. We frame them as the villains in this era's story, so their denazification is likewise framed in terms of redemption. But have they achieved redemption or, as this book puts it, their "moral transformation" has got them out of the darkness that Nazism threw them into?

I'm probably an outlier and this might be controversial, but I don't consider Germany's denazification as particularly remarkable or even praiseworthy. Mainly because:
a) They let many of the perpetrators, accomplices, and bystanders go unpunished,
b) The repenting wasn't done by the perpetrators or accomplices but the descendants,
c) The process was politically-driven more than morally motivated,
d) The process was forced down Germany's throat through utter and complete defeat and not by choice,
e) The amends weren't made by the perpetrators or accomplices but the descendants,
f) There was troubling delay in acknowledging and compensating certain victim groups, such as the Roma and the disabled,
g) Germany never ceased having racism, xenophobia, and antisemitism issues, or to use this book's argument against itself, Nazism was gone because it lost but Nazi tenets stayed,
h) For all the "never again" and virtuous signalling and moral superiority posturing, Germany didn't refrain from creating ties with questionable and genocidal regimes (hint: what modern country has concentration camps that Germany is friendly with?),
i) The facile "But look at Japan!" deflection.

And I could cite more, but I think these are enough to paint a picture as to why I'm not impressed in the least. When you reach rock bottom, the only way is up, so Germany's denazification, as imperfect as it was, is the bare minimum to me. It's the least they could do, and they don't deserve any praise for doing the bare minimum. That other countries with shady pasts haven't done the same to exacting German standards' satisfaction doesn't earn Germany an ego-boosting pat in the back, especially not at the expense of Japan, about which the language barrier has fomented misconceptions (there's Westerners who still believe Japan never apologised for their own WWII crimes even once). Unfortunately, this book doesn't escape such whataboutism, because it tries to elevate Germany's "moral transformation" that ended Nazism by putting down the UK/US for their struggles with their past slavery and imperialism, and mentioning self-righteously that at least there's no Yasukuni Shrine in Germany because no other country ever has done this much moral soul-searching and recovered their moral standing by purging Nazism out, restructuring their historical education methods, and learning to be empathetic to the 1 million Muslim immigrants they took in (I wonder why antisemitism rose, then?), and a myriad other cherry-picked examples of the supposed moral transformation for good that is now Germany's outstanding social legacy.

To me, that's precisely the biggest issue with this book: it relies a lot on harping on the (sincere or PR-driven) efforts made post-WWII to clean Germany's ugly reputation and rehabilitate it through the actions of people who had nothing to do with the Holocaust. It's so much like the children of the serial killer crying and paying the victims for the killings of the father. What redemption can there be when the culprits aren't the ones doing the repenting and compensating? This book tries to deal with the fact that the denazification wasn't done by or on the actual perpetrators by positing this newfangled hypothesis that the moral transformation that made denazification possible started not in 1945 when Germany was in ruins but in 1942, when a triumphant Third Reich suffered their first and most famous defeat at Stalingrad. Well, for a start, I'd point out that this means the book is arguing that Germany wouldn't have been denazified, er, morally transformed and cleansed, if they hadn't lost the war. If Stauffenberg had succeeded and Germany had got agreeable peace terms instead of unconditional surrender, would they have been denazified? If we apply the logic of 1942, then no, they wouldn't have. Also, the theory means that the moral transformation was driven by fear of retribution and not by, you know, actual morality and acknowledgement of having done wrong. With the 1942 frame, you don't regret the bank robbery but fear the sheriff hanging you high and dry for it.

But the weakness of the 1942 argument is the sourcing. The support Trentmann uses for his idea is anecdotal accounts by people, non-Nazi "good Germans" at that, about what they knew about the genocide of Jews and others and their reaction to that. The reaction, however, isn't positively transformative, it's fear and apathy and burying heads in the sand. If moral change had happened, you'd have expected those people to actually do something with that knowledge, wouldn't you? But they didn't. They still went along, they still became complicit. There's no hint of any moral transformation in 1942 as much as anxious talk of defeat and suffering from the vengeance of the victims and the Allies upon the realisation that Germany is losing. Not a good look, and it again cinches the vibe of malfeasance that fears the law's retribution rather than regretful concern for the victims.

To be fair to Trentmann, he does acknowledge that Germany's "moral transformation" isn't smooth and that there's numerous bumps in the road. But he doesn't discuss such bumps in the road much, sometimes only mentions them and other times they're omitted altogether. For example, there's no in-depth discussion of Germany propping up Russia's autocratic government in the Ukraine chapters, it's mentioned and that is it. Same with Germany's ties with China, and don't ask Trentmann what is fuelling the rise in antisemitism in Germany, because for that you'll have to look elsewhere. And what about Germany's own colonialism? Don't ask me, I didn't learn anything about it from this book. Any mention of radical Islamic elements fuelling antisemitism in Germany as much as the far-right? I don't know what you're talking about, nothing to see here. And so on.

So, in sum, it's a flawed book that mostly works as an overview of how Germany faced their historical guilt and responsibility for WWII and the Holocaust, which has been all over the place rather than exemplary: from initial self-pitying (we were also bombed! raped by the Soviets! millions of our innocent killed!) to self-exculpatory (we didn't know! it's all the fault of those Nazis! clean Wehrmacht!) to self-flagellating (pay Israel! we should patronise other countries for perceived repetition of our sins! monuments and recognition to victims and the few German resistance heroes! mandatory tours to Holocaust sites! sue the Nazis amongst us!) to whataboutism (but look at Japan! look at how racist they're in the US! but Britain/France/Poland are more xenophobic! my Oma sold apples to Sophie Scholl!) to self-contradictory and hypocritical (chumminess with Putin, selling key infrastructure and tech to China despite the Uyghurs). The image that emerges isn't of a country having got out of the darkness, but of a country that's struggled to come to terms with its past and done it mostly because they had no other choice, and that now faces moral challenges it has failed to rise up to (the far-right, supporting Ukraine). Perhaps it was crucial to lose WWII to change Germany, but that change was made possible because they had Mr Cowboy with his Tomahawks behind them since right after defeat, making it possible for Germany to reinvent themselves as a country of merchants first and foremost. But a moral beacon they aren't, no.

I received an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Yuri Krupenin]

Я искал входную точку в новейшую историю Германии, и в том числе, возможно, в силу новизны темы для меня — нашёл наверное неплохую.

Но я не думаю что автор хорошо работает с данными. Бесчисленное количество раз у меня поднималась бровь и я думал "окей, Плохая Вещь в сырой статистике **многократно** выросла между 1985 и 2010: это точно не знак прогресса в диагностике?". Пару раз (при наличии достоверной цепочки цитирования; статистика приводится либо [иногда] без источника, либо [часто] отслеживающейся только до газетной публикации) короткая проверка показывала что да, вполне возмножно (сбор статистики по домашнему насилию в отношении детей полицией в ранней точке, социальными службами и школьными психологами в поздней). Потом мне закономерно стало скучно и я по умолчанию начал относиться к любой статистике в книге с недоверием. Про цитирование результатов за 2020 год в любой социальной статистике не буду начинать. Грустновато, ядро книги интересное.

[Kristian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sehr guter Überblick über die deutsche Geschichte aus dem Blickwinkel von gesellschaftlichen Debatten, Organisationen und "Aufreger"themen. Trentmann beginnt im Zweiten Weltkrieg und beendet seine deutsche Geschichte mit dem Ukrainekrieg. Dabei werden verschiedene Themen gestreift: Erinnerungskultur, Suche nach Heimat (von verschiedenen Gruppen bis hin zur heutigen Thematik), Wiedervereinigung, Außenpolitik, Geldwirtschaft, Sozialpolitik und Unweltschutz. Dabei wechselt er immer wieder zwischen "Geschichte von oben" und "Geschichte von unten", was die Vielfalt des Buches ausmacht und politische Entscheidungen immer wieder mit den Thmem der Gesellschaft rückkoppelt und so auch das gewandelte gesellschaftliche Klima abbildet.

[Anna Beers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find the sole review with 100+ likes on this book quite off-putting. One thing that stands out is the pre-occupation with the idea that the author refuses to investigate whether Muslim immigrants are responsible for rising antisemitism in Germany. The greatest share of antisemitic incidents recorded in Germany are and have been perpetrated by white supremacists. Germany is currently grappling with an ascendant white supremacist political party which is antisemitic and, incidentally, hates Muslim immigrants. While studying the origin of antisemitic beliefs in Germany is worthwhile, some perspectives are not pursued by historians simply because they do not hold much merit.

Something else that strikes me as odd in that review is the idea that the book largely exonerates Germans. I am not in the habit of levying judgment on entire ethnic groups or citizenries, but boy does the entire German project come off poorly in this book. The author writes in a variety of ways about how the generation that experienced the Nazi era was consistently self-absorbed and unreconstructed in a way that disgusted pretty much anyone outside of white, Christian Germans. While many have written about how subsequent generations took up the cause of memory culture with more genuine enthusiasm, that enthusiasm clearly falters whenever things get difficult. This is most clearly shown in how white ethnic Germans have responded to their various waves of immigration. First, they show generosity and goodwill, arguably drawing from a history of guilt and/or shared migration experience. But as soon as the support of immigrants requires and actual tradeoff in who receives resources or power in their society, a violent backlash ensues. Not too different from elsewhere, it turns out.

The author also takes pains to note that present-day Germany is not a moral paragon, and seems to lay most of the blame for this on the lack of consideration for its, and everyone's, colonial history, and their uncritical embrace of neoliberal politics. Both sound right, but something this book left me thinking about is the task of rebuking a specific white supremacist past in the context of a world which remains, otherwise, generally white supremacist. While there are many admirable individual stories of reparation in this book, it's hard not to think that Germany's prememinent place in the world today is almost an evitable, gravitational effect of the fact that it embodies a white elite that most other powerful countries idolize. I would love to read more about the enduring legacy of this benefit of the doubt.

I admit it is interesting for a country to have a self-concious sense of morality at all. The current right-wing US majority sees all of the world as an extension of a patriarchal houshold, where policies are chosen to enforce authority for its own sake or take revenge for an injured pride. The neoliberal alternative has a muted and besides totally incoherent moral vision, partly because it famously has not bothered to deal with its own atrocities (slavery, genocide). Part of the reason I first wanted to read German history was to better understand memory culture, and how it might look in the US. It remains profoundly unimaginable.

One thing that is really missing from this book is something like social movement history. There is some. The author is somewhat dismissive of leftist organizations in the second half of the 20th century, arguing that they didn't have the juice to organize in the midst of the German miracle. And the peace, environmental, and anti-nuclear movements are extensively covered -- which makes sense, as they seem to be particularly German movements. However, it feels as if organizations not led by white Germans, say those advocating for immigrants' rights, are neglected. To the extent I have ever been 'proud' of US history, it has been when reading about resistance groups such as the Black Panthers, AIM, ACT-UP, SNCC, and other groups which tried to make actually existing democracy. It's hard to know if such movements even exist in Germany in this book.

Something that will stick with me for a long time after this book are the first chapters on the end of WWII, even though I read this book for the other chapters. I had never read about the author's claim that there was a society-wide fear of "revenge," either by their enemies or by God, for the crimes the German people had perpetrated on Jews. I have never believed that Germans "didn't know" about the Holocaust, but the described widespread (and self-interested) fear of retribution for events like Kristallnacht really hammer the point home. It made me wonder how the implicit fear of "revenge" may, or may soon be, functioning in today's genocides.

Another thing that stuck out to me was a widely popular post-war campaign to exonerate a high-ranking member of the Wehrmacht. Once released, this person immediately turned to the press to espouse a variety of defensive and antisemitic talking points, embarassing Germany once again. It's a parable you can place in the hands of an idiot: these people will use you.

(p.s. sorry. This audiobook was 39 hours long. much 2 think about. I skipped reviewing the East Germany sections because I'm reading about that in other books.).

[Peter A. van Tilburg · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is admirable that Trentman tries to oversee 80 years of history of the Germans from the middle of WW2 to current times. This large time span however makes it hard to focus. My interest was mainly in how the Germans coped with the guilt coming from WW2.
The reckoning in Germany was mild. Germans felt a victim also and with all the fugitives from their own country but also from other countries and numerous death in a bombed country that is understandable. Moreover the survivors weee needed for the build up and the amensty in 1951 helped there. And the atrocities of the allied bombings and cruelties of the Soviet armies were of course also crimes. Weztern Germany found its identity in continuity life goes on. The allied forces did not advocate collective guilt bit emphasized personnel responsibility, they invested heavily in the individuals crimes and prosecution of the leaders in the Neurenberg trials. Soldiers were ashamed that they served such a cruel regime. They felt victims and thus did not take responsibility. The Vermans prove to be human like all of us. Can we live with a guilt like that, almost the only thing to do is denial and leave the issue to the generations to come.
Trentman is more descriptive than analytical. That is why he needs so many pages.

[Andy Wiesendanger · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was ok, got through 250/600+ pages. Always interesting to consider what it would be like if I lived in Germany during WWII, the many considerations. But as it progressed I just wasn't getting a big picture, seemed like it bounced around too much, just felt I wanted to move on.

[John Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Out of the Darkness, by Frank Trentmann; Alfred A. Knopf: New York; $50.00
An appreciation of ‘The Germans, 1942-2022’, requires an Homeric effort. Nevertheless, often awarded Professor Frank Trentmann, currently of Birkbeck in London and Helsinki Universities, has done so with brio. What such an appreciation requires is not only a nuanced understanding of the myriad great facts of this time frame, but also the social, popular, and religious influences as well. Trentmann has surely done this in a readable, memorable way.
We follow as he delves into, for example, the diaries of front-line soldiers of the latter part of the Second World War. We understand many of them to be passive, but clearly firm in their belief of the rightness of their cause. How such people dealt with total defeat, and total personal loss, to live under foreign occupations, is instructive. Some sought consolation in self-pity and parity of pain. Why should we alone be blamed, some asked, since our cities too were bombed to dust? Yet what Trentmann is a master of is finding whether such beliefs alone prevailed among various German groups. What often seems a commonly accepted historical synopsis, Trentmann reveals to be less so, highly differentiated by his remarkable research. Many Germans, less self-centered and overwhelmed by loss, concentrated on Germany’s invasion of other lands, and their often-bestial behavior, especially toward the Jews. They lamented the fall of a great enlightened nation. How these, and other sentiments evolved, and on behalf of whom, is a masterpiece of explanation. How Germans came to reconciliation with their past to become models of international cooperation, is instructive. So too do we discern how the great socialist experiment of East Germany, under Soviet guns, became a dictatorship akin to Stalinism.
We find Trentmann has uncovered not only myriad original sources, but has deployed his excellent skills to blend in the religious controversies of the era. Especially significant are his excellent explorations of the role of the Cold War Peace marches and the paradoxical teastube (church sponsored peace discussions.) The latter was denounced by some in the West as communist fronts, but indeed proved critical in bringing about the initial actions which undermined the Communist regime in East Germany.
Likewise, Trentmann introduces the role of theater, film, and literature to show how Germans tried to understand themselves. We learn that Draussen vor der Tur, (The Outside Man) spread throughout the nation via radio readings and thousands of theater presentations in the late 1940s. This appreciation of the recent war was not, as some claim, evidence of people not wanting to talk about their fate. Far from it. This exemplifies how artworks were critical to a nation coming to grips with its past to inform its future. So too are Germany’s post-Cold War challenges addressed, after the fall of the Berlin Wall. A nation once marching on behalf of racial superiority has today welcomed more immigrants, promoted global climate initiatives, and fostered a united Europe, to name but a few. We see them engaged in the defense of national liberty in support of Ukraine today.
Trentmann has scoured endless source materials to provide a very nuanced, but in fact wise book. We see in his study of the effects of various acts, laws, international actions, and other winds of change how its varied population has responded for well or ill. You’ll feel as if you’ve been there, listening to Germans.

[Pegeen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Modern Germany , but too much focus on lots of trees and not enough forest , at least for me. I needed more of a discussion / explanation/ opinion of the importance of events.

[Jeffrey Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

An epic tome that relentlessly cites numerous diary entries and other miscellany to describe the German zeitenwende that gradually unfolded in the last hundred years. It helps to know German, as there are so many names and places and terms rattling one after another. This is perhaps a sample of modern historiography, in which primary sources must be primary, even when they are insignificant -- does a quote from a girl's diary entry validate the historian's conclusion about national attitudes? I trust myself to judge the author's authority; wading through endless minutiae made me skim through pages, perhaps missing some important summary points the author was trying to make. After a mind-numbing catalog of the violence perpetrated by Nazis -- and "ordinary" Germans during the war, we proceed through the postwar years, making occasional detours to the GDR for comparison, to learn that many Germans felt different ways, that not all were Nazis but many were and still are. Sorry, no blanket condemnations available. I learned that Germans are Very Judgmental about bankruptcy, and following rules, but otherwise are very much like other peoples. That's my summary.

[James Hendrickson · Rating 2 out of 5]

For such a long book it was really not as thorough as I was expecting. I felt like they spent more time prior to 1942 setting the stage and much less time in the intervening decades. There were surprisingly few details on East and West Germany, how both countries came to be, and only passing mention in how the countries reunited. I really wanted more details on how Germany remade itself with an awareness of its collective guilt for the holocaust.

I really wanted this book to be better than it was.

[Blair · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Out of the Darkness: The Germans 1942 - 2022” is a people’s history of Germany, from the mid-point of World War II to the recent war in Ukraine.

The book isn't a modern history of Germany, its politicians, or its great companies (BASF, Mercedes, Siemens). Nor is it about its relations with neighbours in the EU. Rather, it's a view of how everyday folks (Volk) dealt with the shame and guilt of the Holocaust and at the same time navigated enormous changes in prosperity through hard work and enduring individual hardship, strain mental and physical health, and dealing with the pressures of the Cold War and possible elimination from nuclear weapons.

It's extremely well researched and covers stories and quotations from every day people and how they reacted to the opportunities and constraints around them.

Few countries have reinvented themselves in the way Germany has over the past 80 years. To consider this, consider how the people of Germany could adapt to the following changes in short order:

1. The incredible, initial gains they made at the beginning of the Second World War. Who would have thought they would be so successful in conquering most of Europe?

2. Defeat at the hands of the Allies.

3. Division of their country into East and West.

4. Being at the centre of the Cold War. Literally.

5. Reconciling with the Holocaust and making amends to the Soviet Union (East) and Israel (West).

6. Absorbing 12 million displaced Germans who were expelled from other European countries after WW2. Were these "real Germans" or different peoples with odd dialects and strange cultures?

7. Rebuilding after most of their cities and industry were destroyed.

8. Forging an alliance with a former enemy France to form the EU.

9. Becoming a dominant economic power in Europe, and a potential giant on the world stage.

10.Absorbing 1 million + Syrian refugees and becoming the “Moral voice” of the world, despite having difficulties dealing with immigration. (Immigrants tended to be seen as "Guest workers" than potential citizens.)

Germany’s transformation has been nothing short of extraordinary and it’s all due to the brilliance, hard work, and persistence of the German people.

I loved this book, despite it being densely packed and a tough go to get through all 672 pages.

The author really helped me understand what the German people experienced, and what it took for them to totally transform their country into the powerhouse that it is today.

I’m very interested in how Germany will evolve because the world is once again in turmoil with regional conflicts in Europe (Russia’s invasion of Ukraine), the terrible conflict in Israel and Gaza, and the rise of China and potential threat to Taiwan. Germany’s economic influence means she cannot remain on the sidelines for much longer, and I’m very curious to what role she will play in both Europe and beyond.

This book gives some clues about this.

I highly recommend it.

[Michael Samerdyke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a masterful and interesting look at the last 80 years of German history.

Trentmann comes at his topic in an interesting way. He starts at the point when it began to become clear that Germany would lose the Second World War. Then, after the collapse of the Nazi regime, he covers the 1945-90 topically: How did people (West and East) think of nationhood? About rearmament? About foreigners? etc. Then he looks at the process, impact, and aftermath of reunification.

(The last three chapters in this book, on German attitudes toward savings, environmentalism, and "welfare," were not as interesting as the other chapters, at least to me.)

"Out of the Darkness" is a fresh and interesting book. Trentmann is exceedingly fair. He points out failures as well as successes and seems aware that no policy/decision will solve or please everyone. If there is a hero, it is Konrad Adenauer, who made a lot of decisions that other Chancellors built on. (The subsequent Chancellors all seem lesser figures.)

A must-read for anyone interested in German history or 20th Century history.

[Tomasz · Rating 3 out of 5]

In his "moral history" of Germany Frank Trentmann presents a lot of facts (720+ pages of them, not counting the notes and the iffy index), but hey, he covers 80 years in the history of a major European nation, there's facts to spare. And, it seems to me, he did spare quite a few, when they distracted from the desired narrative... if, indeed, he himself knew where he wanted to go after seven years of compiling the tome. Anyway, he shows a lot, but explains quite a lot less, and he makes quite a few factual errors on the way, too (Markus Wolf never was the head of Stasi, he only headed its most prestigious directorate; Thomas Müntzer was no member of the military, in any sense; Hohenstein - Hindenburg's burial place - is now named Olsztynek, not Olsztyn (that was Allenstein, half an hour's ride away); and so on, and so forth). Occasionally the man contradicts himself, or randomly changes the subject from one paragraph to another. So, at least this reader was not quite led out of the darkness, not by this volume, sorry.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trentmann starts his history in the middle of World War II and continues for eighty years. Starting in the middle gives a nice round number and also shows the less than dramatic break between the war and what followed. Germany has wrestled with collective vs. individual guilt, prosperity and community.

Why I started this book: Fascinated by the sweep of decades from 1942-2022.

Why I finished it: This was a long audio, and Trentmann moved back and forth in time a little as he compared various large trends across the decades and the two Germanies. His main conclusion was Germany is not as good as it seems/proclaims, and is still trying. Apply that conclusion to economics, repairing/repenting the past, and working towards a green future. While depressing, on further reflection, I think that trying is something that we all should do.

[Eric Leeson · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enlightening book. There is a great deal of assumptions and prejudices against the German people and their responsibility for the Second World War. There is probably no other subject with more written about than WWII. The narrative has taken on a life of its own sometimes. It was Good vs. Evil, it was freedom versus tyranny; I have read dozens of books concerning the overall history and the personal stories of people that lived through these times, and I understand that as a English speaking, Allied Power resident, that the narrative has been one where "we" were the good guys and "they" were the bad guys. This book tries to address the actions, and conversations that took place within German society during the fall of Nazism and its constant presence afterwards. Very interesting and informative.

[Marcin Tokarz · Rating 3 out of 5]

An attempt to explain how the German people has been transformed over the past 80 years. However, I was left with the impression that the Germans mostly wanted to just live their lives while all the changes were driven by either the government or by small grass root initiatives (volunteers working at Nazi death camps, green movement). In order to provide the perspective of ordinary German, author quotes from personal diaries and letters (especially when writing about time during and immediately after the war) and public surveys. Ultimately, I was left with an image of somewhat complacent people, building their identity on denazification that didn't really happen.

[Zj Soh · Rating 4 out of 5]

The imperfect redemption of Germany. Total war also meant total defeat, and the moral bankruptcy of the German people meant that a comprehensive rebuild was required - both outwardly in society at large and inwardly within the perceptions and self-perceptions of people - former Nazis, bystanders or resistors alike.

This "German question" then was an answer in two parts, with the development of a "militant democracy" in the West, anchored in a spirit of self help and the Basic Law placed in contrast against the socialist spirit in the East, which sought a clean break with the past with a supreme focus on an utopian future.

Endlessly fascinating, but challengingly long.

[Judith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an incredible achievement, hence the 5 stars - how Trentmann managed to hold all the facts included to get them down on paper is beyond me! One word of warning - it relies on a lot of statistics, which I understand, but doesn’t make for an easy read. The other, very slight, quibble, is that it is organised by subject rather than chronologically - which means until you get to 1989 & reunification, it regularly goes back to the end of World War 2. Both of those aside, I now know a LOT more about how Germany dealt with fallout from the Second World War, and then reunification.

[Ann B White · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a fast read, but interesting. The writer clearly holds Germany to an incredibly high standard, one that any nation would fall short of. That said, I really enjoyed reading about Germany’s transition from a country led by Nazis to the peace loving country it is today. I don’t know of the United States will have the self discipline to learn lessons from our current move towards populism and one party rule, but I hope so

[Polly von Schmieder · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel so much better informed having read this. Literally so comprehensive although the focus on guilt and shame was slightly lost at points I think. I don’t know whether the anecdotes were used in the best way but they certainly made it more engaging. Maybe a bit long winded on the bits about pets and benefits, but overall extremely good and bonus points for the sentence ‘you can take the German out of the sausage but not the sausage out of the German’

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trentmann takes a very deep dive into modern Germany, starting from the ashes of WWII to the present day. Filled with statistics, survey results and keen insights, Trentmann exposes the dreams and inconsistencies of the German nation. This is a very long book but Trentmann keeps it interesting. The narrator of this audio book, Patty Nieman, does a great job.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took me all library renewals to finish. I found the organizational scheme - thematic while somewhat chronological - to be disorienting. One sentence it's 1953, the next 1987, then 2003 and back to 1962. The first half of the book is significantly better than the second half, but I was invested by then, so finish it I must.

[Stuart Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

A moral and material history of Germany since the end of WW II. The summary says it all except that this is written for the intelligent reader who can grapple with its academic bent and extensive use of statistics to illustrate the author's points.

[Geoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was excellent. A detailed account of Germany post Ww2. The author weaves together political, economic and social history in a well written academic text. Any student of modern Europe would enjoy reading this!

[Kyle Youngblood · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is one of the most in-depth books I have ever read on Germany. Readers should come in with some knowledge on the content, as it tends to skip around thematically routinely. It is an unflinching view into Germany's soul and the struggle to proceed forward with the heavy burden of the past.

[John Kalnberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

good read

I really enjoyed this book. It is well written and gives good background about Germany. As a bonus, it explained several things that I never really thought about growing up in the US

[Kirsten]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/20/bo...

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very thorough look at recent German history.

[Fiona R · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF

[Ted Daniels · Rating 3 out of 5]

At about 1000 Kindle pages, this book quickly extinguished my need to know about Germans and Germany. I had to skim through most of it.