CALDWELL, Peter C., and Karrin HANSHEW – Germany Since 1945: Politics, Culture, and Society. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018. Pp. 366. Writing a survey of a nation’s history is an immense task. Writing a comparative historical survey of a divided nation is exponentially more difficult. In their history of Germany since 1945, Peter C. Caldwell and Karrin Hanshew succeed in their effort of bringing together the divergent histories of postwar Germany, weaving a narrative that is approachable and informed. In the introduction, Caldwell and Hanshew trace the events that led to Germany’s division, from the rise of German nationalism in the nineteenth century to the defeat of the Third Reich. The authors end the introduction by presenting German post-1945 historiographical perspectives, intended as a tool for the reader to use while engaging with the book’s contents. The book is divided into three parts: “Divided Germany, 1945-70,” “New beginnings, 1969-92,” and “The Berlin Republic, 1990-2017.” Along with the core text, the authors provide a number of primary sources and eyewitness accounts in separate text boxes throughout the book, which enhances the authors’ narrative. Each chapter is equipped with a short bibliography. These mostly include monographs, but also memoirs and works of fiction by authors such as Günter Grass and Christa Wolf, giving the more curious of readers a broad selection of further readings. The first part of the book comprises the first 25 years of the two newly formed German states, ending with the social changes that occurred in the second half of the 1960s. Caldwell and Hanshew’s focus here on the creation of two separate Germanies is justified. The early postwar years were marked by Allied pressure and top-down decision-making, such as the introduction of the Basic Law in the West and the creation of the Socialist Unity Party (SED) in the East. By the 1950s, the two Germanies⎯the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR)⎯were experiencing colossal and different changes. West Germany’s economic boom of the postwar years, which ushered in a period of stability and prosperity, is discussed in detail here. The authors give a nuanced account, juxtaposing the creation of a social market economy⎯sanctioned by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and shepherded by the finance minister Ludwig Erhard⎯with less than noble practices that also facilitated it. One example given was the exploitation of ethnic German expellees from eastern Europe, who provided a pool of cheap labour, thereby lowering wages and undermining the unions’ power. The authors argue that this is indicative of a number of other “‘hidden’ sources of West Germany’s economic miracle” (p. 64), also pointing out the importance of women in German reconstruction, beyond the mythical “rubble women” that helped clear the debris after the Second World War. The postwar changes in East Germany reached even further. The uprising on June 17, 1953 and the subsequent violent crackdown by Soviet forces exposed the SED’s lack of legitimacy, while reinforcing Moscow’s willingness to prop up the East German regime. The second Berlin Crisis (1958-1962) marked another watershed moment for East Germany. While the crisis certainly represented the absolute moral bankruptcy of the East German leadership, its end also marked the beginning of the GDR’s most stable period, comprising relatively strong economic growth and a flourishing culture. But the authors contextualize this period: neither was the East German economy superior to the West, nor did East German artists and writers enjoy the same freedoms as their counterparts in the West. Similarly, the economic miracle years in the West were not devoid of dissent. The student protests and the countercultural movement that culminated in 1967 with the murder of student Benno Ohnesorg are also discussed in detail. The main point of contention for the West German youth was the older generations’⎯and to a large extent the government’s⎯refusal to effectively deal with the country’s Nazi past. The second part of the book focuses on the transition from the era dominated by the governments of Willy Brandt and Erich Honecker of the early 1970s to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and subsequent...
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Aug 27, 2020
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