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Memory with No Clear Answers: Volkstrauertag, Opfer Des

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Memory with No Clear Answers: Volkstrauertag, Opfer Des View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Carolina Digital Repository MEMORY WITH “NO CLEAR ANSWERS:” VOLKSTRAUERTAG, OPFER DES FASCHISMUS, AND THE POLITICS OF PUBLICLY MOURNING THE WAR DEAD IN GERMANY, 1945-1972 James Franklin Williamson A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History in the College of Arts and Sciences. Chapel Hill 2013 Approved by Konrad H. Jarausch Christopher R. Browning Karen Hagemann Wayne E. Lee Terence V. McIntosh © 2013 James Franklin Williamson ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT James Franklin Williamson: Memory with “no clear answers:” Volkstrauertag, Opfer des Faschismus, and the Politics of Publicly Mourning the War Dead in Germany, 1945-1972 (Under the direction of Konrad H. Jarausch) Germans’ hesitance to completely remember the Nazi past after 1945 is well documented. Yet there also exists much evidence of German society’s wide-ranging political and cultural reform across these decades, with the peaceful reunification of the two German states in 1990 and the nation’s strong preference for diplomacy over military engagement representing two recent examples. When considered together, this history of Germans’ success in building democracy across the post-war decades appears to complicate the other history of Germans’ silence and forgetting of their fascist past. This dissertation presents a history of public holidays dedicated to mourning the war dead in West- and East Germany, in an attempt to reexamine the apparent tension between limited memories of the Nazi past and nearly complete recovery from that past. Official remembrance ceremonies on Volkstrauertag in Bonn and the Gedenktag für die Opfer des Faschismus in East Berlin suggested to audiences how they should understand and remember the lives and deaths of the victims of the war, yet these interpretations were neither static nor unconditionally accepted. Situating official commemorations of the dead within the context of Germans revising their attitudes toward warfare sheds new light on Germans’ collective memory of the Second World War and the Nazi regime. iii While the history of public mourning holidays in post-war Germany does not dispute the conclusion that Germans only slowly and haltingly confronted their Nazi history, it does suggest that Germans rather quickly adopted a skepticism toward warfare and military institutions. Despite some exceptions, German leaders presented the war and the experience of wartime death to their audiences as negative, undesirable events. To be sure, the shift away from remembering soldiers as models of patriotism and selfless sacrifices took place unevenly. Yet the overall history indicates that by the early 1970s, Germans generally agreed that peace was preferable to war. Germans had derived this conclusion partly from the pain of suffering so many dead casualties in the last war and partly from their certainty that another war would only bring the same fate. iv For Bethany and Rebecca v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work would not have been possible without the support and assistance of many people. The staffs and archivists in Berlin and Kassel were extremely helpful in locating materials and exceedingly professional and welcoming to an American asking unusual questions about how Germans think about their dead. The faculty of the History Department at UNC-CH shaped both the questions I asked and the ways I went about looking for answers. Beyond the direct instruction, the indirect suggestions, probing questions, illustrative examples and models of other ongoing scholarship constantly circulating in Hamilton Hall improved my individual efforts immeasurably. To my own cohort of “Germanists” from the History Department, I wish to say thanks. My dissertation advisor, Konrad Jarausch, may have been surprised to receive a student so obstinately committed to writing the dissertation he proposed as an applicant for admission but from the very earliest stages, his questions, suggestions, and advice allowed me to fashion a project that fulfilled my curiosity. For his feedback and patience throughout the research and writing process, I am exceedingly grateful. My own family has added new members during the last seven years while also losing other members who did not see this project through to completion. I consider myself very fortunate to have enjoyed their patience and support throughout. Finally, to my children who have patiently waited over weekends, evenings, and other longer stretches of my absence due to work, I am so thankful and so glad to be finished. Lastly, my wife began this journey with me as a loving and supportive spouse, vi despite having her own career and professional goals to meet as well. She has only grown more supportive of me the longer it took to complete. I cannot thank her enough. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………….……………..1 Histories of memory, success and failure…………………………………………………3 Construction and deconstruction of memory…………………………………………….11 Sources of memory ……………………………………………………………………...16 Organizing the answers…………………………………………………………………..20 CHAPTER ONE: TRADITIONS OF WAR AND MEMORY…..……………………………...22 A civilian society with a military: 1806-1918…………………………………………...23 Civilians with a militarized society: 1918-1932…………………………………………30 A society of violence: 1933-1945………………………………………………………..62 Conclusion: a tradition broken beyond repair?..................................................................74 CHAPTER TWO: “THE TURNING AWAY FROM SOLDIERS:” RETHINKING PUBLIC MOURNING IN GERMANY, 1945-1952…………………………...77 Parallel memories………………………………………………………………………...79 Mourning as a relationship to the Nazi past……………………………………………...95 Evolving conceptions of mourning……………………………………………………..115 Conclusion: The end of a tradition?.................................................................................120 CHAPTER THREE: “PRIORITIZING THE HUMAN AND PERSONAL ASPECTS:” RETHINKING WAR AND DEATH IN GERMANY, 1952-1961..122 Contemplating war in the Federal Republic, 1952-1956……………………………….124 Reframing war in the West, 1955-1959………………………………………………...135 viii Mourning in East Germany: Remembrance and Resistance, 1953-1960………………146 Re-militarizing West German public mourning, 1960-1961…………………………...164 Conclusion: Remembrance of the past as reaction to the present………………………180 CHAPTER FOUR: “QUITE FAR REMOVED FROM WORSHIPPING HEROES?” PUBLIC MOURNING IN EAST GERMANY, 1959-1972……………………...183 A past to explain the present: official public mourning in the GDR…………………...185 Compelling a new military enthusiasm…………………………………………………193 Dissent, non-compliance, or resistance? Alternative public mourning………………..209 Publicly-visible challenges to the regime?......................................................................220 Conclusion: Between Submission and Subversion……………………………………..223 CHAPTER FIVE: “NO LONGER FINDING AGREEMENT EVERYWHERE?” PUBLIC MOURNING IN WEST GERMANY, 1961-1969…………………………………..226 Governing collective memory………………………………………………………….228 A “completely different” memory……………………………………………………...237 Divergent memories, shared goal………………………………………………………254 An elastic model of remembrance?..................................................................................268 Conclusion: A peaceful discord?.....................................................................................281 CHAPTER SIX: “THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF OUR PEOPLE HAS CHANGED”..………..287 Mourning with a “considerably altered character?”……………………………………289 Misguided mourning or teachable moment?...................................................................294 Mourning “in the spirit of peace and international understanding?”…………………...300 Sorrow from the past or plans for the future?..................................................................303 An incomplete resolution?...............................................................................................306 ix CONCLUSION: MEMORY WITH “NO CLEAR ANSWERS:” GERMAN HISTORY, COLLECTIVE MEMORY, AND MOURNING THE DEAD………………………………...312 BIBLIORAPHY………………………………………………………………………………339 x LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CDU Christlich-Demokratische Union [Christian Democratic Party (of West Germany)] EKD Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland [Protestant Church in Germany] FRG Federal Republic of Germany [West Germany] GDR German Democratic Republic [East Germany] NDPD National Demokratische Partei Deutschlands [National Democratic Party of (East) Germany] NVA Nationale Volksarmee [National People’s Army (of East Germany)] OdF Opfer des Faschismus [Victims of Fascism] SED Sozialistische Einheitspartei [Socialist Unity Party; East German Communist Party] SPD Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands [Social Democratic Party (of West Germany)] VDK Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge [German War Graves Commission] xi INTRODUCTION On November 15, 2009, barricades lined the famous Berlin promenade, Unter den Linden, frustrating the efforts by pedestrians out for a stroll to easily take in the sights if the city. Middle-aged Germans wondered aloud what could cause such a disruption, answered only by more elderly Germans’ imperatives to be silent and respectful: it was Volkstrauertag, the holiday to remember “those who fell in war.” Earlier incarnations of this holiday following the First World War had featured parades, mass crowds, and aggressive calls for Germany’s return
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