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Nach Der Verfolgung: Wiedergutmachung Nationalsozialistischen Unrechts in Deutschland?' H-German Schroeder on Hockerts and Kuller, 'Nach der Verfolgung: Wiedergutmachung nationalsozialistischen Unrechts in Deutschland?' Review published on Thursday, December 1, 2005 Hans Günter Hockerts, Christiane Kuller. Nach der Verfolgung: Wiedergutmachung nationalsozialistischen Unrechts in Deutschland? Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2003. 288 S. EUR 20.00 (broschiert), ISBN 978-3-89244-625-5. Reviewed by Gregory Schroeder (Department of History, St. John's University/Collegeville) Published on H-German (December, 2005) Making Things Right Again: A Very Broad Subject Indeed This remarkable collection of essays, emerging from the third Dachauer Symposium zur Zeitgeschichte sponsored by the city of Dachau in October 2002, addresses one of the most important yet controversial concepts in post-National Socialist Germany: reparations (Wiedergutmachung) for victims of the Third Reich. One of the pioneers of Wiedergutmachung, Franz Böhm, suggested that a person's views of the Third Reich were reflected in his stance onWiedergutmachung (p. 205); we might say in similar fashion that one's views onWiedergutmachung reflected the sort of postwar Germany he wanted to create. "Making things right again," or the reluctance to do so, has been in many respects at the heart of postwar German identity. Most readers will likely associate Wiedergutmachung with German-Israeli relations in the 1950s, and this should be no surprise. In his introduction, Hans Günter Hockerts argues that, with the exception of the 1952 agreement with Israel, the history of Germany'sWiedergutmachung has been largely neglected and unwritten, a "straggler" among postwar investigations (p. 9). This collection does much to correct that imbalance. Hockerts's title refers toWiedergutmachung as "ein weites Feld," thus bringing to mind Theodor Fontane's masterpiece, Effi Briest. In that novel, Effi's father habitually halts uncomfortable discussions with the assertion, "Das ist ein weites Feld." Unlike Effi's father, the authors of this collection have explored many different aspects of Wiedergutmachung rather than cite the vastness of the subject as an excuse to avoid unpleasant topics. They have demonstrated that Wiedergutmachung is a broad subject indeed, worthy of much study. The collection covers the period 1945-2003, and its organization is generally chronological. Most essays pertain to the Federal Republic, although two address the German Democratic Republic and two examine the post-unification period. Several essays examine aspects ofWiedergutmachung as official, state-administered programs, whereas others investigate non-state initiatives or offer the perspectives of the victims/applicants. The source bases for the essays include, among others, records from federal agencies, state finance offices, church archives, letters from victims/applicants, and professional legal journals pertaining to Wiedergutmachung. In two introductory essays, editors Hans Günter Hockerts and Christiane Kuller provide the framework and foundation, respectively, for the collection. In "Wiedergutmachung: Ein umstrittener Citation: H-Net Reviews. Schroeder on Hockerts and Kuller, 'Nach der Verfolgung: Wiedergutmachung nationalsozialistischen Unrechts in Deutschland?'. H-German. 09-30-2014. https://networks.h-net.org/node/35008/reviews/44444/schroeder-hockerts-and-kuller-nach-der-verfolgung-wiedergutmachung Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1 H-German Begriff und ein weites Feld," Hockerts addresses the problematic termWiedergutmachung , which draws criticism because of the impossibility of undoing the crimes of the Third Reich. He argues that the term is better understood in a "semantic context" of associated ideas: to replace (ersetzen), to pay (bezahlen), and to atone for (sühnen) (p. 10), each of which is part of the concept "to make good again" (wiedergutmachen). Hockerts differentiates the various forms Wiedergutmachung has taken in the period 1945-2003: restitution (Rückerstattung) for the loss of material property; compensation (Entschädigung) for personal damages such as the loss of or damage to one's health, freedom, or professional existence; privileges and special regulations in areas such as social insurance; judicial rehabilitation, such as the restoration of citizenship; international treaties; efforts to promote remembrance; and initiatives emerging from non-state entities. In addition, Hockerts identifies recognized and "forgotten" victim groups. This introductory essay provides the necessary framework for understanding the significance of all the other articles (excepting the other introductory piece by Kuller). Hockerts's assertion that Wiedergutmachung has always been "very closely interwoven with the structures, ideas, and interests" prevalent in society at any given time (p. 8) is supported admirably throughout the collection. Kuller sketches the historical background in "Dimensionen nationalsozialistischer Verfolgung." Its contents will be familiar to most readers who have a solid understanding of the Third Reich, but Kuller's emphasis on the vastness of National Socialist persecution directs attention to aspects that would shape and complicate Wiedergutmachung after 1945. She identifies various "arenas" of persecution (pp. 37-39): in places such as concentration camps, prisons, and medical facilities, and in interactions with officials, within one's profession, and in public life. The victims were persecuted by party, state, and "mixed" agencies, with varying degrees of public support. Kuller emphasizes the great importance of the Second World War, which radicalized persecution within the Reich and transformed Nazi persecution into a European phenomenon. In occupied territories, the ideologically determined character of the war blurred the boundaries between persecution of civilian populations and legitimate acts of war. Persecution took many forms, ranging from personal humiliation to murder. Most important are Kuller's observations about the difficulties in defining persecution in the postwar era, especially with respect to the legal concept of "victim of National Socialist persecution" (Opfer nationalsozialistischer Verfolgung). For example, it was often difficult to determine eligibility for compensation and, beyond that, the nature and extent of damage and suffering. Furthermore, Wiedergutmachung was designed to address the needs of German citizens, so it excluded the large majority of non-German victims of the Third Reich. The subsequent articles elaborate the difficulties Kuller sketches in her essay. Jürgen Lillteicher's essay "Die Rückerstattung in Westdeutschland: Ein Kapitel deutscher Vergangenheitspolitik?" deals with the restitution component ofWiedergutmachung , the one-time payments for the loss of property. Lillteicher has found a great deal of resistance and a lack of understanding of Nazi crimes on the part of Germans, arguing that British and U.S. influence was essential to keep the program on track (p. 68). Occupation-era restitution laws, reaffirmed in a treaty in 1952 between the Allies and the Federal Republic, formed the basis for the Bundesrückerstattungsgesetz (BRüG) of 1957. Lillteicher documents the resistance of German officials, in particular those in the finance offices and the Bundesfinanzhof, who attempted in the early 1950s to collect back taxes on restored property; the Allied High Commission intervened to reverse this policy. Lillteicher finds further resistance in connection with the Rückerstattungsgeschädigte or "restitution-damaged": Germans who had acquired the property of Citation: H-Net Reviews. Schroeder on Hockerts and Kuller, 'Nach der Verfolgung: Wiedergutmachung nationalsozialistischen Unrechts in Deutschland?'. H-German. 09-30-2014. https://networks.h-net.org/node/35008/reviews/44444/schroeder-hockerts-and-kuller-nach-der-verfolgung-wiedergutmachung Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 2 H-German victims and were compelled to return or sell back the property to the rightful owners. He interprets the organization of these people and the political response to their demands (inclusion in the Lastenausgleich) to be an important sign that Germans rejected the program of Rückerstattung and even came to view it as more of an injustice than the crime that justice was designed to address (p. 73). In "Der Beitrag der Rechtsprechung zur Entschädigung von NS-Unrecht und der Begriff der politischen Verfolgung," Cornelius Pawlita demonstrates that, in the absence of clear guidelines, implementation of compensation Entschädigung( ) laws depended greatly on the courts' interpretations. The concept of political persecution as stipulated in the Bundesergänzungsgesetz (BErG) of 1953 posed many problems, and it fell to the courts to determine who had been persecuted and who had not. The courts established that to be considered a political persecutee, one had to have acted specifically against the Third Reich because of a genuine, inner conviction (Überzeugung), and this conviction had to have been the cause of the persecution (p. 84). The Bundesentschädigungsgesetz (BEG) of 1956 addressed the subjective character of political "conviction" and changed the criterion to political "opposition" (Gegnerschaft). Now it was important whether the regime considered a person to be a political enemy: real, imagined, or entirely "innocent" (pp. 86-87). Important groups fell through the cracks for various reasons.
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