Whisnant on Lewis, 'Contemporary Germany: a Handbook'

H-German Whisnant on Lewis, 'Contemporary Germany: A Handbook'

Review published on Tuesday, April 1, 2003

Derek Lewis. Contemporary Germany: A Handbook. London: Edward Arnold Publishers, 2001. xvi + 312 pp. $39.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-340-74040-8; $85.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-340-74039-2.

Reviewed by Clayton Whisnant (Department of History, Wofford College) Published on H-German (April, 2003)

A Brief Glance at Germany since 1989

Derek Lewis has put together an extremely useful introduction to contemporary Germany. After outlining the history and geography of Germany since the Second World War, the book provides a series of essays focusing on such important aspects of modern Germany as education, the media, and even Berlin since unification. Many of these chapters would be helpful to a variety of audiences: teachers wishing to expose their students to important themes of contemporary German life; prospective visitors to Germany wanting to familiarize themselves with the country; and, finally, anyone desiring to find out something general about a country that has changed so much since reunification.

The chapters providing historical background comprise the weakest part of the book. Granted, any author who simply wants to provide an introduction to contemporary Germany is in a bit of a bind. Giving an adequate history of Germany in the first half of the twentieth century would take a book in itself, at least, and leave little room for anything else. Still, Derek Lewis's solution of relegating everything before 1945 to the timeline at the beginning of the book and simply picking up after the Second World War leaves out too much information that is crucial to understanding the contours of post-1945 history. At the very least, it would have been helpful to include a short reading list to guide someone wishing to learn about the country's experience during and between the two world wars.

Moreover, the historical outline of Germany after 1945 is problematic. The first chapter of the book purports to offer a history of "Germany at the Centre of Europe," but the reader quickly realizes that only the history of West Germany will be considered. A history of the other half of the country is left until the third chapter and is dealt with only as a prelude to the country's "Unification and Aftermath." The result is that the book mirrors one of the country's most divisive problems, namely the belittling of the experiences of everyone who lived in East Germany.

Interestingly, this very problem is addressed quite explicitly in Johannes Schwitalla's contribution on the language issues that have arisen since unification. This essay is an extremely interesting overview of the communication problems and conflicts over language that exist between "Ossis" and "Wessis" (or citizens of the former German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany before 1989, respectively). One of the many challenges that East Germans have faced is relearning German to accommodate West German terms and even learning the many Anglicisms that West Germans have grown accustomed to (for example, das Team or das Handy). In most cases, former East Germans

Citation: H-Net Reviews. Whisnant on Lewis, 'Contemporary Germany: A Handbook'. H-German. 09-30-2014. https://networks.h-net.org/node/35008/reviews/43669/whisnant-lewis-contemporary-germany-handbook Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1 H-German found themselves disadvantaged by being the ones who were expected to relearn the language. West Germans, on the other hand, increasingly adopted a superior position towards their eastern counterparts, providing instructions that ranged from specific topics such as language usage to much broader themes such as the principles of the market economy. This is just one of the many interactions that yielded the well-known opposing stereotypes: West Germans were seen by East Germans as arrogant, boastful, egoistic, and cold, while East Germans were seen by their western counterparts as subservient, uncreative, and uncritical.

Another interesting chapter is Ulrike Zitzlsperger's contribution on Berlin after the "Wende." This essay would be extremely interesting for people planning to spend some time in Berlin, whether they were tourists going for a couple of days or graduate students getting ready for a yearlong stay in the city. The chapter discusses briefly the decision to resettle the government in the city and its ramifications; it also outlines some of the important reconstruction that has taken place, for example the new shopping and business center that has appeared around Potsdamer Platz. Finally, the chapter quickly covers some of the artistic and cultural activity that makes Berlin such an exciting place to be.

Finally, there are a number of very good chapters that would be useful to any student of Germany. The chapter on social issues could play an important role in an undergraduate class, since it covers some of the best-known problems that face Germany today, such as right-wing extremism and the still-very-alive debate about how to deal with the Nazi past. The same could be said for the chapter on the German government, which does a very good job at summarizing the role played by different bodies and federal levels in the government structure. The chapter on education is one of the best summaries I have seen of an educational system that Americans find bewildering in its complexity. And the chapters on the media and the welfare state address two topics that are easily overlooked but that would interest anyone who was going to spend some time in Germany.

So, despite some weaknesses in the historical chapters, Derek Lewis's Contemporary Germany fulfills its promise of providing "an informative and readable general introduction" to undergraduate students and "anyone with a broad interest in German affairs" (p. vii). It is well-written and thorough, as well as being an excellent guide to anyone wishing to know more about a country that is becoming increasingly important in the politics of the European Union.

Printable Version: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=7432

Citation: Clayton Whisnant. Review of Lewis, Derek,Contemporary Germany: A Handbook. H- German, H-Net Reviews. April, 2003. URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=7432

Copyright © 2003 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits the redistribution and reprinting of this work for nonprofit, educational purposes, with full and accurate attribution to the author, web location, date of publication, originating list, and H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online. For any other proposed use, contact the Reviews editorial staff at [email protected].