Traveling as a Culture of Remembrance: <em>Traces of National Socialism in West Germany, 1945–1960</em>

Abstract

For a long time, too long perhaps, the central question in Vergangenheitsbewältigung studies--that is, studies exploring the ways in which Germans have attempted since 1945 to master their Nazi past--has been whether Germans came to terms with the past or not. This is an important question, underlined by its moral urgency. But, as a historical question, it has severe limitations. Recently, it has slowly been replaced by more comprehensive questions: what did Germans remember of the Nazi past, how was it remembered and who remembered what? Building on these new research questions, this essay is conceived as a critical reflection on Vergangenheitsbewältigung studies. My focus is on postwar West German society between 1945 and 1960. It is an attempt to explore how the topic of mastering the past can further an understanding of postwar German society and culture. The first part of the essay discusses critically problems of method in old and new interpretations. In the second part, I use the social and symbolic practice of tourism as a methodological vehicle to illuminate postwar values and beliefs concerning National Socialism. My aim is to be suggestive, not comprehensive. I do not state this to preempt criticism. Rather, I view this essay, as well as the test case of tourism, as an attempt to think through a useful way in which to conceive of mastering Germany's past. For there is no one "correct" way of conceiving of this topic. Some trips, to use [End Page 92] a metaphor from the world of traveling, actually have a final stop. Historical understanding, a trip of unexpected consequences if ever I knew one, is not one of them.