The suffering of the perpetrators: Unleashing collective memory in German literature of the twenty-first century

Forum for Modern Language Studies

Volumn 41, Issue 2, 2005, Pages 123-135

  Gohen Pfister, Laurel ^a  

^a GETTYSBURG COLLEGE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 24344493090     PISSN: 00158518     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/fmls/cqi006     Document Type: Review

References (99)

1. C. Natzmer, "Remembering and Forgetting: Creative Expression and Reconciliation in Post-Pinochet Chile", Social Memory and History, ed. J. Climo & M. Cattell (Walnut Creek, 2002), p. 161.
2. The terms "collective memory"and "social memory"are used with varying degrees of synonymity and distinction in memory scholarship. (See J. Wertsch, Voices of Collective Remembering [Cambridge, 2002], pp. 5, 24.) The terms "collective"and "social"memory signify here the memories of the collectivity which have been passed down from one generation to the next. More specifically, "collective memory"as used here resembles James Wertsch's definition of "distributed collective memory", in which "the representation of the past is distributed across members of a group", but "no commitment is made to a collective mind"that "exists above and beyond the minds of the individuals in a collective"(Wertsch, pp. 21-3).
3. J. Fentress & C. Wickham, Social Memory (Oxford, 1992), pp. x-xi.
4. J. Bodnar, Remaking America: Public Memory, Commemoration, and Patriotism in the Twentieth Century (Princeton, 1992), p. 15.
5. Wertsch, p. 31.
6. C. K. Williams, "Das symbolische Volk der Täter", Die Zeit, 11 July 2002, p. 37.
7. See Wertsch, p. 35.
8. Dubiel, Niemand ist frei von der Geschichte. Die nationalsozialistische Herrschaft in den Debatten des Deutschen Bundestages (Munich, 1999), p. 15;
9. quoted in R. Moeller, "What has 'Coming to Terms with the Past' Meant in Post-World War II Germany? From History to Memory to the 'History of Memory'", Central European History 35 (2002), 223-56 (p. 254).
10. G. Bartels, "Die totale Erinnerung", Tageszeitung, 29 March 2003, pp. 15-16.
11. T. W. Adorno, "The Meaning of Working Through the Past"
12. trans. H. Pickford, in: Can One Live After Auschwitz?: A Philosophical Reader, ed. R. Tiedemann (Stanford, 2003), pp. 3-18.
13. An examination of how these texts differ over what, is remembered and how il influences questions of identity and understanding the past - differences which originate from dissimilar generational viewpoints, genders and family identities, among other factors extends beyond the space limitations of this article.
14. U. Hahn, Unscharfe Bilder (Munich, 2003), p. 145.
15. A. & M. Mitscherlich, Dit Unfähigkeit zu trauern. Grundlagen kollektiven Verhaltens (Munich, 1967).
16. J.-W. Müller, "Introduction: The Power of Memory, the Memory of Power and the Power over Memory", in: Memory & Power in Post-War Europe, ed. J.-W. Müller (Cambridge, 2002), pp. 1-35 (p. 18).
17. See A. Assmann, "Funke einer gesamtgesellschaftlichen Erregung", Frankfurter Rundschau, 3 February 2004, p. 19.
18. See K. Jarausch & M. Geyer, Shattered Past: Reconstructing German Histories (Princeton, 2003), p. 329;
19. see also E. von Thadden, Interview with H. Welzer, "Im Gedächtniswohnzimmer", Die Zeit: Literatur & Musik 14 (2004), 43-6 (p. 43).
20. See S. Moller, Vielfache Vergangenheit. Erinnerungskulturen und Familienerinnerungen an die NS-Zeit in Ostdeutschland (Tübingen, 2003). It is telling that the vast scholarship on memory and trauma in the Second World War is largely devoted to the Holocaust, which reflects how official memory culture and the "self-consciousness of intellectuals"intersect (see Jarausch & Geyer, p. 329). The study of memory in Germany invokes a victim perpetrator paradigm, whereby "victim"signifies the Holocaust victim, and "perpetrator"those responsible for the Holocaust. Little memory research is devoted to traumatic memory and the transference of traumatic memory among the German civilian population that experienced bombing, rape and forced expulsion in the Second World War. It will be interesting to see if and how the reassessment of German victimisation impacts on this lacuna in scholarship.
21. H. Welzer, in von Thadden, p. 43. My translation.
22. The list of titles referred to is extensive but, due to space limitations, not exhaustive. I have attempted to list notable contributions to the renewed focus on German suffering and offer insight into the extent of representation.
23. The Zurich lectures were published in a revised form as W. G. Sebald, Luftkrieg und Literatur (Munich & Vienna, 1999).
24. S. Dagerman, Deutscher Herbst (Frankfurt/M., 1987).
25. th edn (Munich, 2003), pp. 193-211 (p. 194).
26. W. Kempowski, Das Echolot. Ein kollektives Tagebuch. Januar und Februar 1943, 4 vols (Munich, 1993).
27. D. Forte, Der Junge mit den blutigen Schuhen (Frankfurt/M., 1995).
28. Sebald, Luftkrieg und Literatur, pp. 11-12. My translation.
29. Ibid., pp. 17-19.
30. See V. Hage, "Erzähltabu? Die Sebald-Debatte: Ein Resümee", in: Zeugen der Zerstörung. Die Literaten und der Luftkrieg (Frankfurt/M., 2003), pp. 113-31.
31. V. Hage, Zeugen der Zerstörung, and Hamburg 1943. Literarische Zeugnisse zum Feuersturm (Frankfurt/M., 2003). Hage admits, however, that extensive research was required to find any significant number of literary accounts of the Allied bombings to contradict Sebald's thesis (Hage, "Erzähltabu?", p. 119).
32. J. Friedrich, Der Brand. Deutschland im Bombenkrieg 1940-1945 (Munich, 2002).
33. W. Winkler, "Nun singen sie wieder. Unsere liebste Rolle: Wir sind die Opfer - Zur Kontroverse um den alliierten Bombenkrieg gegen deutsche Städte im Zweiten Weltkrieg", Süddeutsche Zeitung, 27 November 2002, p. 14.
34. Günter Grass, Im Krebsgang. Eine Novelle (Göttingen, 2002).
35. W. Kempowski, Das Echolot. Fuga furiosa. Ein kollektives Tagebuch. Winter 1945 (Munich, 1999);
36. Das Echolot. Barbarossa'41. Ein kollektives Tagebuch (Munich, 2002).
37. H.-U. Treichel, Der Verlorene (Frankfurt/M., 1998);
38. D. Forte, In der Erinnerung (Frankfurt/M., 1998).
39. U. Lachauer, Ostpreußische Lebensläufe (Hamburg, 1998).
40. D. Forte, Schweigen oder sprechen (Frankfurt/M., 2002).
41. G. Ledig, Vergeltung (Frankfurt/M., 1956), reprinted in 1999, 2001 and 2003;
42. H. E. Nossack, Der Untergang (Frankfurt/M., 1948), reprinted in 1996, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003.
43. A. Kluge, Chronik der Gefühle, 2 vols (Frankfurt/M., 2000).
44. Anon., Eine Frau in Berlin. Tagebuchaufzeichnungen vom 20. April bis 22. Juni 1945 (Frankfurt/M., 2003); first publ. Geneva, 1959.
45. R. Jirgl, Die Unvollendeten (Munich, 2003);
46. O. Müller, Schlesisches Wetter (Berlin, 2003);
47. M. Zeller, Die Reise nach Samosch (Cadolzburg, 2003);
48. T. Dückers, Himmelskörper (Berlin, 2003);
49. S. Wackwitz, Ein unsichtbares Land (Frankfurt/M., 2003);
50. B. Bauer, Im Federhaus der Zeit (Munich, 2003);
51. U. Hahn, Unscharfe Bilder (Munich, 2003);
52. U. Timin, Am Beispiel meines Bruders (Cologne, 2003).
53. G. Thum, Die fremde Stadt - Breslau 1945 (Berlin, 2003);
54. P. Glotz, Die Vertreibung. Böhmen als Lehrstück (Munich, 2003);
55. J. Friedrich, Brandstätten, Der Anblick des Bombenkriegs (Berlin, 2003);
56. W. Schlauch, In amerikanischer Kriegsgefangenschaft, Berichte deutscher Soldaten aus dem Zweiten Weltkrieg (Crailsheim, 2003);
57. C. Amend, Morgen tanzt die ganze Welt."Die Jungen, die Alten, der Krieg (Munich, 2003);
58. P. Härtung, Leben lernen. Erinnerungen (Cologne, 2003).
59. U. Raulff, "1945; Ein Jahr kehrt, zurück: Tausche Geschichte gegen Gefühl", Süddeutsche Zeitung, 30 October 2003, p. 11.
60. S. Gilbert-Saettele, "Aufstand, Widerstand, Weltkrieg: Neue Sachbücher lenken Blick zurück", Deutsche Presse-Agentur, 2 February 2004.
61. W. Bruns, Meines Vaters Land. Geschichte einer deutschen Familie (Munich, 2004);
62. T. Medicus, In den Augen meines Grossvaters (Munich, 2004);
63. S. Bode, Die vergessene Generation. Die Kriegskinder brechen ihr Schweigen (Stuttgart, 2004);
64. C. Hein, Landnahme (Frankfurt/M., 2004).
65. M. Halbwachs, On Collective Memory, trans. L. Coser (Chicago, 1992), p. 40.
66. Ibid., p. 38.
67. See M. Cattell & J. Climo, "Introduction: Meaning in Social Memory and History: Anthropological Perspectives", in: Social Memory and History, ed. J. Climo & M. Cattell (Walnut Creek, 2002), pp. 1-36 (p. 23).
68. See Wertsch, p. 8.
69. See Assmann, p. 19, and M. Hirsch, "Projected Memory: Holocaust Photographs in Personal and Public Fantasy", in: Acts of Memory: Cultural Recall in the Present, ed. M. Bal et al. (Hanover, NH, 1999), pp. 2-23 (p. 8).
70. Hirsch, p. 8.
71. J. Climo, "Memories of the American Jewish Aliyah: Connecting Individual and Collective Experience", in: Social Memory and History, ed. J. Climo & M. Cauell, pp. 111-27 (p. 118).
72. Grass, p. 95.
73. Climo, pp. 118-19.
74. See Assmann, p. 19. On the bond between the first and third generation, see also Moller, and H. Welzer et al., Opa war kein Nazi. Nationalsozialismus und Holocaust im Familiengedächtnis (Frankfurt/M., 2002).
75. The term is borrowed loosely from Climo (p. 122).
76. Dückers, p. 219.
77. The contention has been raised in numerous newspaper articles, e.g., R. Stephan, "Blinde Eulen; Die literarische Vertriebenendebatte findet kein Echo in der Politik', Süddeutsche Zeitung, 15 February 2002
78. and I. Mangold, "Jedes Leid hat ein Recht auf Erlösung", Süddeutsche Zeitung, 13 February 2002.
79. Hage, "Erzähltabu?", pp. 119-20.
80. See, for example, D. Levy & J. Dierkes, "Institutionalising the Past: Shifting Memories of Nationhood in German Education and Immigration Legislation", in: Memory & Power in Post-War Europe, ed. J.-W. Müller (Cambridge, 2002), pp. 244-64.
81. Grass, p. 7.
82. M. Maron, Pawels Briefe (Frankfurt/M., 1999), p. 7.
83. A. Kluge, "Die Chronik meiner Berliner Gefühle", Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 6 October 2000.
84. O. Müller, p. 136. My translation.
85. Grass, p. 116.
86. Ibid., p. 7.
87. O. Müller, p. 163.
88. Grass, p. 50. Robert Moeller delineates how certain memories were denied integration into the politically admissible canon of public memory because they did not fit the political narratives woven in East and West after the war. He notes how the memory of suffering soon fell victim in the West to the myth of a prosperous democracy through reconstruction, while in the East, which identified itself as the antifascist state, it was suppressed when it, implicated the Red Army as perpetrators or identified its citizens with National Socialism. On both sides of the border, victims were left alone with individual memories that were not consistent with national narratives (Moeller [2002], pp. 223-56).
89. See Hage, "Erzähltabu?", p. 116.
90. See C. Kramatschek, "Spurensuche in Breslau", Neuf Zürcher Zeitung, 29 July 2003, p. 39.
91. See R. Moeller, "War Stories: The Search for a Usable Past in the Federal Republic of Germany", The American Historical Review 101 (1996), 1008-48.
92. J.-W. Müller, p. 18.
93. I b i d.
94. Grass, p. 99.
95. Assmann, p. 19.
96. Jarausch & Geyer, p. viii.
97. D. Forte, quoted in V. Hage, "Unter Generalverdacht", Der Spiegel, 8 April 2002, p. 178.
98. P. Nora, "General Introduction: Between Memory and History", in: Realms of Memory: Rethinking the French Past, ed. P. Nora, trans. A. Goldhammer, 3 vols (New York, 1996), Vol. 1, p. 3.
99. P. Novick, The Holocaust in American Life (Boston, MA, 1999), pp. 3-4.