Talk:Vergangenheitsbewältigung

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[edit] Cleanup

This article is a bit messy. Although I don't see anything objectable about the content, the formatting is very lacking.

It's a lot of info but lacks some order. Either the paragraphs should be shortened or more sections (or any sections in the first place) should be added. Preferably by someone who knows something about the subject -- I only know what I've read in the article, otherwise I'd have attempted a partial rewrite myself.

Any questions? -- Ashmodai 20:28, 23 July 2005 (UTC)

How about now? Kelisi 03:03, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

I took the liberty of changing the label from cleanup to wikify. The article is quite good as it stands. What it needs is primarily typographical changes, and perhaps a relevant picture of a German Holocaust memorial site. --Thorsen 07:58, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

The article presents a sound overview of the concept, however it tends to generalize and make arguments without supporting fact, I might suggest just a few changes: 1. "As a technical term in English, this relates specifically to the atrocities committed during the Third Reich, when Adolf Hitler was in power in Germany, and to both ongoing and historical concerns about the extensive compromise and co-optation of many German cultural, religious, and political institutions by National Socialism." Though it is now commonly accepted that Vergangenheitsbewältigung is primarily concerned with mastering the past, the term "coming to terms with or mastering a past" in the German sense, is in itself quite ambiguous. This statement suggests that any working through or bewältigung of traumatic pasts is 'specific' to Germany. (Could it be said that, for example Australian attempts to come to terms with the 'stolen generation' and murder of indigenous peoples is specifically related to National Socialism?) 2."Historically, Vergangenheitsbewältigung may be seen as the logical "next step," after [a?] denazification driven at first under Allied Occupation and then by the Christian Democratic Union government of Konrad Adenauer." There is no evidence supporting this argument. Why a logical step? was it to atone the crimes committed, or maybe aid the process of reconstructing a functioning civil society? (see H, Lübbe cited in R. Moeller, "Germans as Victims: Thoughts on a Post-Cold War History of World War II's Legacies," In: History & Memory, Vol. 17, No, 1-2, 2005. p. 164.) 3. "This includes honestly admitting that such a past did indeed exist, attempting to remedy as far as possible the wrongs committed, and attempting to move on from that past." Though Vergangenheitsbewaeltigung might seek to reconfigure the past, it by no means implies "to move on." Though, the post-1989 era certainly displays a shift from the traditional (as in pre-Unification West & East German) focus on 'exclusively dealing with the crimes committed under National Socialism," any suggestion that coming to terms with the National Socialist past equates to 'mov[ing] on from the past' may invoke suspicion due to the fact as Ignatz Bubis argued: those who are not willing to continuously confront the past may be guilty of: "Intellectual Arson" (see 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," In: Central European History, Vol. 35, No. 2, 2002.), thus in my opinion though Vergangenheitsbewaeltigung might call for a reconfiguration or in the Freudian sense a critical "Durcharbeiten," forgetting or suppressing the National Socialist past is not one of its primary aims. 4. Finally as to the comment by Kelisi which calls for " a relevant picture of a German Holocaust memorial site," firstly what do you consider to be the Holocaust? is it exclusive destruction of the European Jewry or the combined victims of, firstly National Socialism and collective violence/? wouldn't making a memorial dedicated to one particular group negate the experiences of such other groups as the Roma, Sinti, disabled, homosexuals etc?

[edit] POV

in the after denazification part: "Having replaced the institutions and power structures of National Socialism, the aim of liberal Germans was to deal with the guilt of recent history." That is very euphemistic. The institutions were replaced, but not at all the people controlling the instituions. Look for example at Kurt Georg Kiesinger.

in the Poland part: "...that of the Communist regimes which possessed them for more than four decades." Sounds like they were grabbing the memorials in Auschwitz & Theresienstadt from someone, not creating them in the first place. -- ExpImp^talkcon 21:32, 30 November 2006 (UTC)