City Research Online City, University of London Institutional Repository Citation: Henschen, K. (2002). The Monument: The Shoah and German Memory. (Unpublished Doctoral thesis, City University London) This is the accepted version of the paper. This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent repository link: https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/7648/ Link to published version: Copyright: City Research Online aims to make research outputs of City, University of London available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the author(s) and/or copyright holders. URLs from City Research Online may be freely distributed and linked to. Reuse: Copies of full items can be used for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge. Provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. City Research Online: http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/ [email protected] THE MONUMENT: The Shoah and German Memory Katharina Henschen Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy City University London Department of Arts Policy and Management May 2002 Wrong life cannot be lived rightly. Theodor Adorno, Minima Moralia What is it called, your country, Behind the mountain, behind the year? Paul Celan, Es ist alles anders In those areas that we are working in, cognition exists only flash-like. The text is the long rumbling thunder. Walter Benjamin, The Arcades-Project TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 Introduction 1 Conceptual and Theoretical Framework 6 PROLOGUE 11 1.THE ANGEL'S GAZE: MOMENT AND ETERNITY 14 1. Waiting for the Angel of History: the Benjaminian Concept of History 16 A. Catastrophe, Progress and Repetition 16 B. A Theological Dimension: The Messianic 28 B.a. A Detour on the Lutheran/Protestant 'Rechtfertigungslehre': Justification by Faith Alone 38 C. Hope for Redemption and Salvation 40 2. Eingedenken:the Memory of the Nameless 47 A. Deserted and Betrayed by Memory 47 B. Mourning and Guilt: Benjamin qua Benjamin 55 3. Representingthe Un-Known:the Monument 67 II. THE HAUNTING SENSE OF BEAUTY 93 1. The Architects of National Memory - The Problematicsof Intentionality 101 A. What is Implied by the Form of a Memorial? 107 B. Jürgen Habermas: the Problem of German Self-Conceptionand Dedication of the Memorial 108 C. Who is Erecting the Memorial for Whom? 115 D. Memory in `No-Man'sLand': The Site of the Memorial versus The Site of Remembrance 118 i 2. Aesthetic Transformation- Some Problematicsof Representation 122 3. Indication of the Symbolic - Lack of the Obvious: the Designs 154 A. Wei n miller's 'Metamorphosis of Immersion' 154 B. Serra/Eisenman's Cemetery-Like Monumentality 161 C. The Schröder Proposal 170 D. Naumann's 'House of Remembrance' 175 III. `WAS BEDEUTET: AUFARBEITUNG DER VERGANGENHEIT? '- QUESTIONS OF IDENTITY AND COMING-TO-TERMS IN POST-WAR GERMANY 180 1. West German Politics of `Coming-to-Terms' with the National Socialist Past 182 2. The Literary Aestheticisation of the German 'Trauma': Thomas Mann and his 'Doctor Faustus' 191 3. The Question of Guilt: Conscience, Morals and Judgement 201 4. Mourning and History - Memory and Melancholy: 'The Inability to Mourn' 210 5. Thematising more recent Problems of Coming-to-Terms:Martin Walser and the Quest for Identity and Normality 219 EPILOGUE 237 APPENDIX 245 Figures 245 Chronology 255 BIBLIOGRAPHY 265 11 Acknowledgements This thesis is the outcome of years of study as a student at the Department of Arts Policy and Management at the City University in London. I wish to thank the staff of the department for their help, support and encouragement. I am particularly grateful to Alison Meyric Hughes for her thorough reading, critical comments and valuable suggestions. I am most grateful to Dr. Boos (Fachabteilung des Bundesbeauftragten für Kultur und Medien) and Mrs Sieckmann of the 'Office for Press Information of the Federal Government' (Presseinformationsamt der Bundesregierung). I thank Dr. Ekkehard Klausa of the Senate's Administration in Berlin for his help in dealing with my inquiries. I am grateful to Mr Marcus Meckel (Member of Parliament) for granting me access to his archive. I wish to thank Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. Richard Schröder, Professor of Theology at the Humboldt-University in Berlin, for offering time and encouragement, for granting me access to his private correspondence,for providing helpful contacts and for sharing his ideas with me. During the last phase of writing I was sharing'a flat with two wonderful friends: Lucy Cantrill and Nick Whitehead. I would like to thank them for their friendship, company and constant encouragement.I am indebted to Nick Whitehead for his meticulous reading, undeterred patience and practical help with the immense editing task. I am grateful to Richard Appignanesi for many encouraging and enlightening discussions that have made this project rewarding and exciting. I am most grateful for his suggestion of the title. I am beholden to Dr. Juliet Steyn, my supervisor, whose knowledgeable supervision, patient guidance, interminablesupport and critical comments of the work in progress were invaluable and inspiring for the outcome of this work. Most importantly, I thank Juliet for convincing me that I had a story to tell. Above all, I thank my parents whose unshakeable belief in this work I have often admired. Without their support, assistance and encouragement this work would not have been possible. I am grateful to my parents and my brothers for listening to my ideas, for talking me through some of the issues at stake, for sharing their knowledge. I dedicate the thesis to my parents who taught us the necessity of memory. ui Declaration I grant powers of discretion to the City University Librarian to allow this thesis to be copied in whole or in part without further reference to me. This permission covers only single copies made for study purposes, subject to normal conditions of acknowledgement. iv Abstract The aim of this research project is to analyse forms of remembrance and memory of the Shoah in Germany in its and their political and cultural formations. The underlying question driving the research project is Adorno's famous essay 'What does it mean: coming-to-terms with the past? ''. The thesis deals with historical-philosophical reflections and the historical-literary perspective on the complex process of remembering the Shoah in Germany and its monumental manifestations in the form of the planned Holocaust Memorial in Berlin. The research project sets out to critique and analyse a body of artistic, literary and philosophical works that engage with the problematics of remembering and re-presenting the Shoah. It explores these critical questions against the backdrop of the changed social and historical conditions of the re- united Germany and makes reference to the debates of the 1990s, the planned Holocaust Memorial in Berlin and the wider context of post-Holocaust discourse. The first chapter delivers an exegetical reading of Walter Benjamin's texts in order to open up new interpretative perspectives for an understanding of the issues at stake. Benjamin's notions of 'history' and 'memory' serve as ideas for a comparative analysis of the problematics of memory in the country of the perpetratorsand for the possibilities of future memory. The second chapter discusses the decision-making process for a national, central 'Memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe' in Berlin; it explores the winning designs of the competition and their respective implications on what constitutes the memory of the Shoah in Germany. The decision for a central memorial and the implications of the chosen design are measured against the backdrop of the debates of the 1990s and the politics of a re-united Germany. The third chapter discusses the different attempts of literary and (historical-)philosophical reflection on the occurrence of the Shoah in the writings of Thomas Mann, Hannah Arendt, Karl Jaspers and Alexander and Margarete Mitscherlich. The chapter questions the political positioning and action of the author Martin Walser, as a representative of the generation of perpetrators,to the process of working-through and coming-to-terms. It critically examines Walser's speech of October 1998 and places the speech in the historical context of coming-to-termsin post-war Germany. The thesis demonstrates that the choice of design. for the planned Holocaust Memorial correlates with the status of politics in the united Germany. It is argued here that the focus on what it is that needs to be worked through and come to terms with, has shifted during the post-Holocaust discourse. The thesis demonstrates that the questions at stake in the most recent debates are the workings-through of a younger generation that confronts part of a horrifying family history. The thesis argues for the necessity of memory and remembrance in the future. 1 ADORNO, Theodor W., 1997. Was bedeutet: Aufarbeitung der Vergangenheit?'. »Ob nach Auschwitznoch sich leben lasse«: Ein philosophischesLesebuch (Leipzig: Suhrkamp) V Introduction Introduction The aim of my research project is to analyse forms of remembrance and memory of the Shoah in Germany in its political and cultural formations. The post-Holocaust discourse in Germany appears to be strongly focused on the historical-philosophical and political perspective