Wo liegt die Bundesrepublik? Vergleichende Perspektiven auf die westdeutsche Geschichte

Abstract

The history of the Federal Republic is in flux. Like some other recent edited collections, this volume proposes a re-conceptualization of the history of West Germany. It seeks to answer its leading question—‘What is the location of the Federal Republic?’—not just in spatial but, more importantly, in conceptual and chronological terms. The primary methodological instrument is to compare the Federal Republic’s postwar development to other national histories, mostly in Western Europe. It is this cross-national comparison, the editors argue, which enables a revision of the established master narratives of ‘Westernization’, ‘Modernization’ or ‘Americanization’. Cross-national comparisons, by contrast, allow for a historicization of contemporary self-descriptions and make it possible to write empirically grounded histories of convergence and divergence between the Federal Republic and other (mostly Western European) states. This approach, they argue, allows for a more precise identification of how precisely the attempt to distance oneself from National Socialism affected postwar developments in the Federal Republic and elsewhere. Cross-national comparisons, the editors argue, can relativize the importance of alleged turning points (‘1968’ for example) and can bring into view the possible agency of national, regional or local actors vis-à-vis larger transnational developments.