Yearbook of European Studies - Annuaire d' Etudes Europeennes. Vol. 13. Germany and Eastern Europe: Cultural Identities and Cultural Differences

Abstract

Bullivant, Keith, Geoffrey Giles, and Walter Page, eds. Yearbook of European Studies - Annuaire d'Etudes Europeennes. Vol. 13. and Europe: Cultural Identities and Cultural Differences. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1999. 373pp. $30.50 paperback. The cover of this volume is adorned by a cartoon that depicts the European nations, embodied by their soldiers, engaged in vicious combat. A soldier, dressed in World War I garb, dominates the pictures, lashing out at his neighbors and poking his rifle into the face of Russia. The cartoon cleverly captures the focus of this edition which investigates Germany's conflicted relationships with Europe in its historical and political contexts. A topic of such complexity and scope is best addressed with an interdisciplinary approach, and the volume's contributors represent both a broad range of disciplines (history, German, Slavic, Judaic Studies) and nationalities. The concise introduction by Bullivant and Giles provides a brief overview of German-East European relations since and links it to the different issues addressed in the sixteen articles. While the politics of the Cold War severed the formerly tight connections between and Western Europe, the planned 2005 entry of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Estonia into the European Union can allow for a much-needed (re) integration. This integration, as the authors point out, will be a difficult process given the economic imbalance as well as the painful historical memories and cultural differences. The volume is divided into three subheadings, Historical Perspectives: Ethnic and Cultural Identity in the Borderlands, German Literature and Europe: Changing Mentalities, Germany and Europe: Before and After 1989 followed by a name index. Each article is preceded by a short abstract, a useful device in a collection of such diversity. Unfortunately, no (historical) maps are included. The essays are of uniformly high quality, and they follow, for the most part, a descriptive approach. To counter the few procedure usually required by editions, I will list the articles' topics before highlighting specific themes. The five articles in part one examine different aspects of German-Polish relationships (Volker R. Berghahn, Richard Blanke), the role of the so-called Volksdeutschen during World War II and the Holocaust (Doris L.Bergen), anticommunism and (West) Identity using articles in the F.A.Z. from 1949 to 1952 (Martin Andree and Daniel Fulda) and Eastern Europe and the Notion of `Frontier' in to 1945 (Alan E. Steinweis). A similar variety also characterizes part two. Jurgen Lieskounig analyzes the depiction of Poles in Gustav Freytag's enormously influential novel Soil and Haben, Alice Freifeld describes the De-Germanization of the Budapest Stage, Walter Pape delineates the perception of Moscow and Russia in select examples of literature, and Anna Campanile addresses the importance of (landscape) memories in Johannes Bobrowski's poetry and prose. …