Overview

Contemporary historians have transformed our understanding of the German military in World War II, debunking the clean Wehrmacht myth that held most soldiers innocent of wartime atrocities. Considerably less attention has been paid to those soldiers at the end of hostilities. In Postwar Soldiers, Joerg Echternkamp analyzes three themes in the early history of West Germany: interpretations of the war during its conclusion and the occupation period; military veteran communities' self-perceptions; and the public rehabilitation of the image of the German soldier. As Echternkamp shows, public controversies around these topics helped to drive the social processes that legitimized the democratic postwar order.

Full Product Details

Author:   Joerg Echternkamp ,  Noah Harley
Publisher:   Berghahn Books
Imprint:   Berghahn Books
Volume:   39
ISBN:  

9781789205572

ISBN 10:   1789205573
Pages:   570
Publication Date:   20 March 2020
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Language:   English

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction: The Problem: Paths Out of the War Part I: Forms of Consciousness and Prospects for Experience before 1945 Chapter 1. Heroic Images of War in the Age of Wars Chapter 2. Shared Prospects of Experience in Total War Chapter 3. The End of the War on the Horizon of Expectation, 1944-1945 Part II: A Criminal War? Chapter 4. The Postwar Period as a Backdrop for Experience Chapter 5. Demilitarization as an Allied Political Program Chapter 6. Representation as a Legal Issue: The Military Leadership on Trial, 1945-1946 Chapter 7. Conflicting Ideas: The Wehrmacht between Elucidation and Myth Chapter 8. Provisional Assessment Part III: Veterans - an Experiential Community of Victims ? Chapter 9. Self-Organization among Former Soldiers Chapter 10. Internal and External Perceptions of Veterans: Victims and Achievers Chapter 11. The Presence of the Absent: The Symbolic Representation and the Political Instrumentalization of Prisoners of War Chapter 12. Experience versus. Expectation: Consumption Critique and War Captivity Chapter 13. Remembering the Fallen: Historical Signification between Commemorative Ceremony and Grave Care Part IV: Competing Interpretations and Conferring Meaning: War Stories of Others Chapter 14. The Military Resistance: Fostering Tradition as a Political Act and Biographical Challenge Chapter 15. Defectors, Deserters, War Criminals: Mirroring Self-Images Chapter 16. The Fuhrer Abroad: Defense by Demarcation Chapter 17. Traitors, Spies, and Other Loners : The War's Trivialization in the Media Chapter 18. Provisional Assessment Part V: Historically Armed: Images of War and Soldiers in Military Leadership Philosophy and Political Public Relations Work Chapter 19. Military Self-Understanding between the Old and New Wehrmacht Chapter 20. The Adenauer Government's Efforts at Integration in the Pre-political Realm Chapter 21. Moral Rearmament: The Party Soldiers of the Free Democratic Party Chapter 22. The Political Functionality of Wartime Experience in the Cold War Chapter 23. Remilitarization as a Field of Tension in Collective Representations Chapter 24. Provisional Assessment Conclusion: A Prospective View and Summary Bibliography Index

Reviews

Echternkamp successfully applies the concept of collective representation to the three fields of conflict he has selected. His research clarifies the extent to which the collective representations of war and military have enabled and contributed to political and cultural change. Sehepunkte Joerg Echternkamp's convincing study fulfills its promise of methodologically complex differentiation... This differentiated view of the historical gaps and ambiguities offers ways to understand the German victims of the war as well as the (German) perpetrators...To this end, Echternkamp's interpretation of the history of war and the military produces an important contribution. H-Soz-Kult

Reviews for the German Edition: Echternkamp successfully applies the concept of collective representation to the three fields of conflict he has selected. His research clarifies the extent to which the collective representations of war and military have enabled and contributed to political and cultural change. * Sehepunkte Joerg Echternkamp's convincing study fulfills its promise of methodologically complex differentiation... This differentiated view of the historical gaps and ambiguities offers ways to understand the German victims of the war as well as the (German) perpetrators...To this end, Echternkamp's interpretation of the history of war and the military produces an important contribution. * H-Soz-Kult

Author Information

Joerg Echternkamp is Research Director at the Center for Military History and Social Sciences (ZMSBw) and Associate Professor of Modern History at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. He is co-editor of the journal Militargeschichtliche Zeitschrift. Echternkamp was awarded the Geisteswissenschaften International translation grant in 2017.

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