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Germany’s Nazi Past Is Still Present Germany’s Nazi Past Is Still Present
(about 13 hours later)
Much of the world seemed surprised by the riots that erupted in Germany late last month, when thousands of neo-Nazis and Nazi sympathizers took to the streets of Chemnitz, chasing down immigrants, with police almost powerless to stop them. Meanwhile, support for Germany’s new far-right party, Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany, or AfD), has continued to grow; in a poll taken after the riots in Chemnitz, AfD overtook the German Social Democrats to become the second most popular party in the country. AfD fights against Germany’s “memory culture,” calling for an end to apologizing about the past.Much of the world seemed surprised by the riots that erupted in Germany late last month, when thousands of neo-Nazis and Nazi sympathizers took to the streets of Chemnitz, chasing down immigrants, with police almost powerless to stop them. Meanwhile, support for Germany’s new far-right party, Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany, or AfD), has continued to grow; in a poll taken after the riots in Chemnitz, AfD overtook the German Social Democrats to become the second most popular party in the country. AfD fights against Germany’s “memory culture,” calling for an end to apologizing about the past.
During the election campaign, in Sept. 2017, one of its party leaders, Alexander Gauland, gave a speech in which he said that “no other people have been so clearly presented with a false past as the Germans.” Gauland called for “the past to be returned to the people of Germany,” by which he meant a past in which Germans were free to be “proud of the accomplishments of our soldiers in both world wars.”During the election campaign, in Sept. 2017, one of its party leaders, Alexander Gauland, gave a speech in which he said that “no other people have been so clearly presented with a false past as the Germans.” Gauland called for “the past to be returned to the people of Germany,” by which he meant a past in which Germans were free to be “proud of the accomplishments of our soldiers in both world wars.”
On Saturday, an article in the German newspaper Die Zeit posed the question, “Is Germany threatening another 1933?” On Saturday, an article in the German newspaper Die Zeit posed the question, “Is Germany threatened by another 1933?”
All of this is hard for Americans to understand. Germany plays a special role in our political and intellectual life; it is often held up as an example of country that, unlike the United States, has boldly faced down its own horrendous past, then moved on to become a true liberal democracy. Even in concerned discussions of the far right movements gaining ground in Europe over the past year — in which countries like Hungary, France and Sweden have been often mentioned — Germany seemed to be politely left out of the conversation. Germany had atoned and “moved on.”All of this is hard for Americans to understand. Germany plays a special role in our political and intellectual life; it is often held up as an example of country that, unlike the United States, has boldly faced down its own horrendous past, then moved on to become a true liberal democracy. Even in concerned discussions of the far right movements gaining ground in Europe over the past year — in which countries like Hungary, France and Sweden have been often mentioned — Germany seemed to be politely left out of the conversation. Germany had atoned and “moved on.”
Despite the apparent usefulness of that narrative, it is deeply problematic in at least three ways. It is morally problematic — offensive to children of German Jews, like myself, who are painfully aware of its falsity. It is epistemologically problematic in its suggestion that honestly confronting and moving past a difficult national past is vastly easier than it is. And it is politically problematic because it feeds into the rhetoric of the German far right, that Germany has been unfairly burdened by historical guilt.Despite the apparent usefulness of that narrative, it is deeply problematic in at least three ways. It is morally problematic — offensive to children of German Jews, like myself, who are painfully aware of its falsity. It is epistemologically problematic in its suggestion that honestly confronting and moving past a difficult national past is vastly easier than it is. And it is politically problematic because it feeds into the rhetoric of the German far right, that Germany has been unfairly burdened by historical guilt.
This is not to say that Germany has not gone a long way toward national transformation. But the rise of the AfD and the outburst of racial hatred and violence in Chemnitz, explicitly linked to its Nazi past, shows how difficult that struggle to maintain a liberal democratic culture has been, and the power of the history against which this battle has been fought. If Germany is to be praised it is precisely because its history is ever-present, its struggle ongoing, and not because that history has been overcome.This is not to say that Germany has not gone a long way toward national transformation. But the rise of the AfD and the outburst of racial hatred and violence in Chemnitz, explicitly linked to its Nazi past, shows how difficult that struggle to maintain a liberal democratic culture has been, and the power of the history against which this battle has been fought. If Germany is to be praised it is precisely because its history is ever-present, its struggle ongoing, and not because that history has been overcome.
I have visited Berlin regularly for more than 30 years. On my first day there each time I do the same thing — I go to Olivaer Platz in Charlottenburg and have a coffee in a cafe overlooking the square. Olivaer Platz was my father Manfred’s favorite park growing up as a child in Berlin in the 1930s. His grandparents Jakob and Rosa lived down the street on Kurfürstendamm. They lived several blocks from the Fasanenstrasse synagogue, where my great-grandfather Magnus Davidsohn was the chief cantor from 1912 until its destruction on Kristallnacht. The happiest memories my father retained from his Berlin childhood are from playing in Olivaer Platz. This is also where my father was beaten repeatedly, once so viciously that his nanny had to carry him bleeding and unconscious home to his mother.I have visited Berlin regularly for more than 30 years. On my first day there each time I do the same thing — I go to Olivaer Platz in Charlottenburg and have a coffee in a cafe overlooking the square. Olivaer Platz was my father Manfred’s favorite park growing up as a child in Berlin in the 1930s. His grandparents Jakob and Rosa lived down the street on Kurfürstendamm. They lived several blocks from the Fasanenstrasse synagogue, where my great-grandfather Magnus Davidsohn was the chief cantor from 1912 until its destruction on Kristallnacht. The happiest memories my father retained from his Berlin childhood are from playing in Olivaer Platz. This is also where my father was beaten repeatedly, once so viciously that his nanny had to carry him bleeding and unconscious home to his mother.
When I first came to Berlin, in 1985, I was a Congress-Bundestag exchange scholar, living for a year with a host family in the Ruhrgebiet. We scholarship recipients had as part of our schedule a trip to Berlin, where we were greeted by German Bundestag deputies and taken on a tour of the city. That year, the president of the Bundestag, Phillip Jenninger, addressed our group. In his speech, he lamented German suffering — but not the suffering of my German family. Instead, he spoke at length of the almost hundred or so Germans who had been killed in the previous quarter century trying to cross the Berlin Wall, as well as the families split asunder by the division of Germany.When I first came to Berlin, in 1985, I was a Congress-Bundestag exchange scholar, living for a year with a host family in the Ruhrgebiet. We scholarship recipients had as part of our schedule a trip to Berlin, where we were greeted by German Bundestag deputies and taken on a tour of the city. That year, the president of the Bundestag, Phillip Jenninger, addressed our group. In his speech, he lamented German suffering — but not the suffering of my German family. Instead, he spoke at length of the almost hundred or so Germans who had been killed in the previous quarter century trying to cross the Berlin Wall, as well as the families split asunder by the division of Germany.
My family, too, had been split apart by Germany’s divisions. My grandfather Alexander Intrator received his visa to London in 1938. My grandmother Ilse stayed along with my father through the horrors of Kristallnacht and until July 1939, when miraculously and at the last possible moment they received visas to the United States. My father was not reunited with his father for another decade, which rendered impossible the close ties that often form between parent and child. My German family was ripped violently from their roots. My grandmother Ilse writes in her 1957 memoir:My family, too, had been split apart by Germany’s divisions. My grandfather Alexander Intrator received his visa to London in 1938. My grandmother Ilse stayed along with my father through the horrors of Kristallnacht and until July 1939, when miraculously and at the last possible moment they received visas to the United States. My father was not reunited with his father for another decade, which rendered impossible the close ties that often form between parent and child. My German family was ripped violently from their roots. My grandmother Ilse writes in her 1957 memoir:
Though I was proud at being privileged to begin a second life, remote from the place where I was born, I was no exception to the feeling of anguish. My roots were struck deeply in their native German soil. Perhaps a part broke and remained there, for how am I to explain that my heart at times seems to be drawn by a force thousands of miles away? … Today the scars still hurt from tearing out the roots, as the stump of an amputated leg causes a man to say, “My foot hurts;” and yet he knows there is no foot to hurt.Though I was proud at being privileged to begin a second life, remote from the place where I was born, I was no exception to the feeling of anguish. My roots were struck deeply in their native German soil. Perhaps a part broke and remained there, for how am I to explain that my heart at times seems to be drawn by a force thousands of miles away? … Today the scars still hurt from tearing out the roots, as the stump of an amputated leg causes a man to say, “My foot hurts;” and yet he knows there is no foot to hurt.
In 1985, in Berlin, I openly wondered why my family’s destruction was not marked in monuments on the streets of Berlin or in speeches to visiting exchange students. Much has changed in that regard, but this change has all been very recent. As a child of Berlin Jews who has been coming to the city for so many years, the change is very welcome. For the vast majority of my adult life, the history, legacy and fate of the Jews of Berlin was invisible. These recent monuments in Berlin — in particular the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, better known as the Holocaust Memorial, which opened in 2005 — are widely celebrated, and justly so. Monuments are a positive beginning — but when that beginning quickly gives way to the emergence of the AfD, one must question how genuinely they represent a country’s underlying sentiments.In 1985, in Berlin, I openly wondered why my family’s destruction was not marked in monuments on the streets of Berlin or in speeches to visiting exchange students. Much has changed in that regard, but this change has all been very recent. As a child of Berlin Jews who has been coming to the city for so many years, the change is very welcome. For the vast majority of my adult life, the history, legacy and fate of the Jews of Berlin was invisible. These recent monuments in Berlin — in particular the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, better known as the Holocaust Memorial, which opened in 2005 — are widely celebrated, and justly so. Monuments are a positive beginning — but when that beginning quickly gives way to the emergence of the AfD, one must question how genuinely they represent a country’s underlying sentiments.
When American tourists visit Berlin today they more often leave with something like the narrative I encountered in the 1980s. Checkpoint Charlie and the signs about the Berlin Wall physically dwarf those for the Topography of Terror history museum, as though its subject of remembrance is an afterthought to what its immediate surroundings suggest is Germany’s real tragedy. To so many Americans, Berlin is not Hitler’s capital; it is the location of the Berlin Wall, the emblem of German victimhood.When American tourists visit Berlin today they more often leave with something like the narrative I encountered in the 1980s. Checkpoint Charlie and the signs about the Berlin Wall physically dwarf those for the Topography of Terror history museum, as though its subject of remembrance is an afterthought to what its immediate surroundings suggest is Germany’s real tragedy. To so many Americans, Berlin is not Hitler’s capital; it is the location of the Berlin Wall, the emblem of German victimhood.
In the consciousness of intellectuals outside Germany, where I have spent most of my life, Germany is indeed connected to its past, but mainly positively. Germany is everywhere presented as the model country, as one of the few countries in history that has honestly faced its crimes. It is a cliché in the world that Germany had a “reckoning” with its past. Indeed, Germany is lifted up as a singular example of a moral nation, a nation that has faced its history honestly, the world champions of memory.In the consciousness of intellectuals outside Germany, where I have spent most of my life, Germany is indeed connected to its past, but mainly positively. Germany is everywhere presented as the model country, as one of the few countries in history that has honestly faced its crimes. It is a cliché in the world that Germany had a “reckoning” with its past. Indeed, Germany is lifted up as a singular example of a moral nation, a nation that has faced its history honestly, the world champions of memory.
But when was this moment of reckoning, this time at which Germany faced its past?But when was this moment of reckoning, this time at which Germany faced its past?
The Historikerstreit was a debate held in the mid to late 1980s in Germany about whether or not it was time for the country to move on from discussing its Nazi past. It is a presupposition of that debate that Germany’s “reckoning with its past” had been going on for some time before that. In fact, the reckoning must have happened very long before the Historikerstreit, since the central thesis being debated was that it was long past time for such a reckoning to be over. I went to high school and university in Germany in the mid 1980s, around the time of the Historikerstreit. Its presuppositions do not surprise me. At that time, to raise the matter of my family’s past was to risk defensiveness and ire. The reaction was always the same, even when I simply explained my parents’ history. “America hasn’t faced up to its history of slavery” or “What about the genocide of Native Americans?” and “What about Vietnam?” Germans at the time were telling me that they were being unfairly burdened with guilt.The Historikerstreit was a debate held in the mid to late 1980s in Germany about whether or not it was time for the country to move on from discussing its Nazi past. It is a presupposition of that debate that Germany’s “reckoning with its past” had been going on for some time before that. In fact, the reckoning must have happened very long before the Historikerstreit, since the central thesis being debated was that it was long past time for such a reckoning to be over. I went to high school and university in Germany in the mid 1980s, around the time of the Historikerstreit. Its presuppositions do not surprise me. At that time, to raise the matter of my family’s past was to risk defensiveness and ire. The reaction was always the same, even when I simply explained my parents’ history. “America hasn’t faced up to its history of slavery” or “What about the genocide of Native Americans?” and “What about Vietnam?” Germans at the time were telling me that they were being unfairly burdened with guilt.
In my high school we discussed the Holocaust. Specifically, we discussed Auschwitz. We learned that ordinary Germans back then did not know about Nazi concentration camps placed on Polish soil. We learned that the guards in these concentration camps were rarely West Germans — they were often Eastern Europeans, as if to suggest that attributing the Holocaust solely to Germany exaggerated the matter. This exclusive focus on concentration camps left me confused. My mother is from Eastern Poland and survived the war in a labor camp in Siberia. All of her many aunts and uncles, and all of their children, were shot by German soldiers within months of Hitler’s invasion of Eastern Poland. This “Holocaust by bullet” was not a subject in our classrooms. And yet most German families I have met in my years of living in Germany have at least one family member who served on the Eastern Front. Germans discussed the past, but it was a carefully curated one.In my high school we discussed the Holocaust. Specifically, we discussed Auschwitz. We learned that ordinary Germans back then did not know about Nazi concentration camps placed on Polish soil. We learned that the guards in these concentration camps were rarely West Germans — they were often Eastern Europeans, as if to suggest that attributing the Holocaust solely to Germany exaggerated the matter. This exclusive focus on concentration camps left me confused. My mother is from Eastern Poland and survived the war in a labor camp in Siberia. All of her many aunts and uncles, and all of their children, were shot by German soldiers within months of Hitler’s invasion of Eastern Poland. This “Holocaust by bullet” was not a subject in our classrooms. And yet most German families I have met in my years of living in Germany have at least one family member who served on the Eastern Front. Germans discussed the past, but it was a carefully curated one.
As the Czech-born historian Saul Friedländer emphasized in his work, German dialogues about its past seem to have taken place without much interest in the perspectives of one group whom they also concern, the German Jews, and their descendants. German reconciliation was in the main a discussion between non-Jewish Germans among themselves. And yet, a dialogue about facing the past that occurs internally between the descendants of those complicit in terrible evil, without any significant interest in the perspectives of the descendants of those terribly affected by this evil, falls short of a full reckoning, just as a discussion of patriarchy only among men would be deficient. Similarly, a German discussion of the past without the voices of German Jews or Eastern Europeans is no reckoning at all.As the Czech-born historian Saul Friedländer emphasized in his work, German dialogues about its past seem to have taken place without much interest in the perspectives of one group whom they also concern, the German Jews, and their descendants. German reconciliation was in the main a discussion between non-Jewish Germans among themselves. And yet, a dialogue about facing the past that occurs internally between the descendants of those complicit in terrible evil, without any significant interest in the perspectives of the descendants of those terribly affected by this evil, falls short of a full reckoning, just as a discussion of patriarchy only among men would be deficient. Similarly, a German discussion of the past without the voices of German Jews or Eastern Europeans is no reckoning at all.
Some myths are politically useful. A primary force in National Socialism, for instance, was a deep-seated belief in German superiority, the specifically German equivalent of what is sometimes called “white supremacy.” This belief in German superiority has never in fact been vigorously challenged in that country. The 1919 “Guidelines” of the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (DAP) — the German Workers’ Party, the original name of the Nazi Party — asks “Who is the DAP fighting against?” The answer is “Against all those who create no value, who make high profits without any mental or physical work. We fight against the drones in the state; these are mostly Jews; they live a good life, they reap where they have not sown.”Some myths are politically useful. A primary force in National Socialism, for instance, was a deep-seated belief in German superiority, the specifically German equivalent of what is sometimes called “white supremacy.” This belief in German superiority has never in fact been vigorously challenged in that country. The 1919 “Guidelines” of the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (DAP) — the German Workers’ Party, the original name of the Nazi Party — asks “Who is the DAP fighting against?” The answer is “Against all those who create no value, who make high profits without any mental or physical work. We fight against the drones in the state; these are mostly Jews; they live a good life, they reap where they have not sown.”
Nazi ideology used the supposed unique work ethic of Germans to draw a distinction between Aryans and Jews. This national myth has inexplicably been allowed to continue: from the Wirtschaftswunder of the 1950s to the financial crisis of the last decade. And yet Germany is the country that brought the world the slogan, “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work sets you free). It is a singular failing of German Holocaust education that Germans still draw national distinctions with the use of this ideology, for example between Germans and Greeks.Nazi ideology used the supposed unique work ethic of Germans to draw a distinction between Aryans and Jews. This national myth has inexplicably been allowed to continue: from the Wirtschaftswunder of the 1950s to the financial crisis of the last decade. And yet Germany is the country that brought the world the slogan, “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work sets you free). It is a singular failing of German Holocaust education that Germans still draw national distinctions with the use of this ideology, for example between Germans and Greeks.
In the United States, it has seemed useful to hold Germany up as a positive example: If Germany can face its past this quickly and effectively then we should surely swallow hard and face our own, and America will soon be rid of white supremacy. But the ease of overcoming a difficult past is itself a pernicious myth. The struggle to maintain a liberal democratic culture while living with fearsome ghosts is, in fact, never-ending. And even if the myth of a successful moment of German reckoning had been expedient, it would still be politically problematic to exploit it. Doing so, as we now see, has fed the German fascist flame. The leaders of AfD heavily exploit the narrative, as part of their mournful cry that Germans have been unfairly victimized by guilt. But who can really decide when a reckoning is complete?In the United States, it has seemed useful to hold Germany up as a positive example: If Germany can face its past this quickly and effectively then we should surely swallow hard and face our own, and America will soon be rid of white supremacy. But the ease of overcoming a difficult past is itself a pernicious myth. The struggle to maintain a liberal democratic culture while living with fearsome ghosts is, in fact, never-ending. And even if the myth of a successful moment of German reckoning had been expedient, it would still be politically problematic to exploit it. Doing so, as we now see, has fed the German fascist flame. The leaders of AfD heavily exploit the narrative, as part of their mournful cry that Germans have been unfairly victimized by guilt. But who can really decide when a reckoning is complete?
My father received small monthly Wiedergutmachung payments from the German government to compensate him for the beatings he had received on the streets of Berlin, beatings that left him with lifelong injuries. When he died in September, 2004, our family received a letter from the German government announcing the end of these payments. The letter stated that the case of Manfred Stanley was now settled.My father received small monthly Wiedergutmachung payments from the German government to compensate him for the beatings he had received on the streets of Berlin, beatings that left him with lifelong injuries. When he died in September, 2004, our family received a letter from the German government announcing the end of these payments. The letter stated that the case of Manfred Stanley was now settled.
Jason Stanley is a professor of philosophy of Yale University. His new book is “How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them.”Jason Stanley is a professor of philosophy of Yale University. His new book is “How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them.”
Now in print: “Modern Ethics in 77 Arguments,” and “The Stone Reader: Modern Philosophy in 133 Arguments,” with essays from the series, edited by Peter Catapano and Simon Critchley, published by Liveright Books.Now in print: “Modern Ethics in 77 Arguments,” and “The Stone Reader: Modern Philosophy in 133 Arguments,” with essays from the series, edited by Peter Catapano and Simon Critchley, published by Liveright Books.
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