Konrad H. Jarausch

The gripping stories of ordinary Germans who lived through World War II, the Holocaust, and Cold War partition—but also recovery, reunification, and rehabilitation Broken Lives is a gripping account of the twentieth century as seen through the eyes of ordinary Germans who came of age under Hitler and whose lives were scarred and sometimes destroyed by what they saw and did. Drawing on six dozen memoirs by the generation of Germans born in the 1920s, Konrad Jarausch chronicles the unforgettable stories of people who not only lived through the Third Reich, World War II, the Holocaust, and Cold War partition, but also participated in Germany's astonishing postwar recovery, reunification, and rehabilitation. Written decades after the events, these testimonies, many of them unpublished, look back on the mistakes of young people caught up in the Nazi movement. In many, early enthusiasm turns to deep disillusionment as the price of complicity with a brutal dictatorship--fighting at the front, aerial bombardment at home, murder in the concentration camps—becomes clear. Bringing together the voices of men and women, perpetrators and victims, Broken Lives reveals the intimate human details of historical events and offers new insights about persistent questions. Why did so many Germans support Hitler through years of wartime sacrifice and Nazi inhumanity? How did they finally distance themselves from this racist dictatorship and come to embrace human rights? Jarausch argues that this generation's focus on its own suffering, often maligned by historians, ultimately led to a more critical understanding of national identity—one that helped transform Germany from a military aggressor into a pillar of European democracy. The result is a powerful account of the everyday experiences and troubling memories of average Germans who journeyed into, through, and out of the abyss of a dark century.

How Ordinary Germans Experienced the 20th Century

Broken Lives

A sweeping history of twentieth-century Europe, Out of Ashes tells the story of an era of unparalleled violence and barbarity yet also of humanity, prosperity, and promise. Konrad Jarausch describes how the European nations emerged from the nineteenth century with high hopes for continued material progress and proud of their imperial command over the globe, only to become embroiled in the bloodshed of World War I, which brought an end to their optimism and gave rise to competing democratic, communist, and fascist ideologies. He shows how the 1920s witnessed renewed hope and a flourishing of modernist art and literature, but how the decade ended in economic collapse and gave rise to a second, more devastating world war and genocide on an unprecedented scale. Jarausch further explores how Western Europe surprisingly recovered due to American help and political integration. Finally, he examines how the Cold War pushed the divided continent to the brink of nuclear annihilation, and how the unforeseen triumph of liberal capitalism came to be threatened by Islamic fundamentalism, global economic crisis, and an uncertain future. A stunning achievement, Out of Ashes explores the paradox of the European encounter with modernity in the twentieth century, shedding new light on why it led to cataclysm, inhumanity, and self-destruction, but also social justice, democracy, and peace.

A New History of Europe in the Twentieth Century

Out of Ashes

Lurcy Professor of European Civilization Konrad H Jarausch

Recivilizing Germans, 1945-1995

After Hitler

Die Geschichte Europas im 20. Jahrhundert kennzeichnet ein Auf und Ab von fortschrittlicher Entwicklung und Katastrophen. Moderne Technologien und gesellschaftliche Reformen ließen die Zukunft zunächst rosig erscheinen, doch der Fortschritt brachte Konflikte, und der Erste Weltkrieg beendete diese frühe Modernisierungsphase Europas jäh. Nach einer kurzen Erholung in den 1920er Jahren erlebte der Kontinent mit dem Zweiten Weltkrieg und dem Holocaust dann eine beispiellose Katastrophe – um danach wie Phönix aus der Asche aufzusteigen und, zunächst in seiner westlichen Hälfte, doch noch den Weg zu Demokratie und Wohlstand zu finden. Konrad H. Jarausch erzählt die Geschichte Europas bis in die jüngste Vergangenheit hinein und erklärt die widersprüchlichen Entwicklungen, das Janusgesicht des 20. Jahrhunderts von Gewalt und Versöhnung, Ausbeutung und Solidarität.Eine großartige Gesamtgeschichte Europas und gleichzeitig eine grundsätzliche Auseinandersetzung mit der Ambivalenz von Fortschritt und Moderne.

Aus der Asche. Eine neue Geschichte Europas im 20. Jahrhundert

Karen Hagemann

The migration experiences, career paths, and scholarship of historians born in Germany who started emigrating to North America in the 1950s have had a unique impact on the transatlantic practice of Central European History. German Migrant Historians in North America analyzes the experiences of this postwar group of scholars, and asks what informed their education and career choices, and what motivated them to emigrate to North America. The contributors reflect on how these migration experiences informed their own research and teaching, and particularly discuss the more general development of the transatlantic exchange between German and American historians in the scholarship on Modern Central European History.

Transatlantic Careers and Scholarship after 1945

German Migrant Historians in North America

Scott H. Krause

Stefanie Eisenhuth

Introducing Cold War Berlin -- From Heart of Darkness to Heap of Rubble: Berlin as Nazi Capital -- Division of the Spoils: Berlin as Symbol and as Prize -- Policing the Border Area in East Berlin: Rules, Conflicts and Negotiations, 1961-1989 -- Kennedy, Khrushchev, King, and Springsteen: Staging Visits in a Divided City -- From Old War to Cold War: Berlin as Urban Planning Laboratory in the First Postwar Years -- Entangled Entertainment: Cinema and Television in Cold War Berlin -- The Politics of Subculture in both Berlins -- Living in the Wall's Shadow: Berlin's Turkish Community, 1961-1989 -- Experimental Art and Cultural Exchange in Late Cold War Berlin -- Behind the Wall, across the Wall: Gay Activism in East-Berlin -- Exhibiting Berlin: Local History in its Museums -- Performing Berlin: The Rivaling 750th Anniversaries of 1987 -- Divided Memory in United Berlin -- Border Fragments, Border Fantasies: Cold War Berlin in Retrospect -- Index.

Confrontations, Cultures, and Identities

Cold War Berlin

A bracing corrective to predictions of the European Union’s decline, by a leading historian of modern Europe Is the European Union in decline? Recent history, from the debt and migration crises to Brexit, has led many observers to argue that the EU’s best days are behind it. Over the past decade, right-wing populists have come to power in Poland, Hungary, and beyond—many of them winning elections using strident anti-EU rhetoric. At the same time, Russia poses a continuing military threat, and the rise of Asia has challenged the EU's economic power. But in Embattled Europe, renowned European historian Konrad Jarausch counters the prevailing pessimistic narrative of European obsolescence with a rousing yet realistic defense of the continent—one grounded in a fresh account of its post–1989 history and an intimate understanding of its twentieth-century horrors. An engaging narrative and probing analysis, Embattled Europe tells the story of how the EU emerged as a model of democratic governance and balanced economic growth, adapting to changing times while retaining its value system. The book describes the EU’s admirable approach to the environment, social welfare, immigration, and global competitiveness. And it presents underappreciated European success stories—including Denmark’s transition to a green economy, Sweden’s restructuring of its welfare state, and Poland’s economic miracle. Embattled Europe makes a powerful case that Europe—with its peaceful foreign policy, social welfare solidarity, and environmental protection—offers the best progressive alternative to the military adventurism and rampant inequality of plutocratic capitalism and right-wing authoritarianism.

A Progressive Alternative

Embattled Europe

Thomas Lindenberger

Despite the growing interest in general European history, the European dimension is surprisingly absent from the writing of contemporary history. In most countries, the historiography on the 20th century continues to be dominated by national perspectives. Although there is cross-national work on specific topics such as occupation or resistance, transnational conceptions and narratives of contemporary European history have yet to be worked out. This volume focuses on the development of a shared conception of recent European history that will be required as an underpinning for further economic and political integration so as to make lasting cooperation on the old continent possible. It tries to overcome the traditional national framing that ironically persists just at a time when organized efforts to transform Europe from an object of debate to an actual subject have some chance of succeeding in making it into a polity in its own right.

Europeanizing Contemporary Histories

Conflicted Memories

Cristina Allemann-Ghionda

Due to the demand for flexible working hours and employees who are available around the clock, the time patterns of childcare and schooling have increasingly become a political issue. Comparing the development of different “time policies” of half-day and all-day provisions in a variety of Eastern and Western European countries since the end of World War II, this innovative volume brings together internationally known experts from the fields of comparative education, history, and the social and political sciences, and makes a significant contribution to this new interdisciplinary field of comparative study.

Time Policies of Childcare, Preschool, and Primary Education in Europe

Children, Families, and States

Andreas Etges

Christian Ostermann

The traces of the Cold War are still visible in many places all around the world. It is the topic of exhibits and new museums, of memorial days and historic sites, of documentaries and movies, of arts and culture. There are historical and political controversies, both nationally and internationally, about how the history of the Cold War should be told and taught, how it should be represented and remembered. While much has been written about the political history of the Cold War, the analysis of its memory and representation is just beginning. Bringing together a wide range of scholars, this volume describes and analyzes the cultural history and representation of the Cold War from an international perspective. That innovative approach focuses on master narratives of the Cold War, places of memory, public and private memorialization, popular culture, and schoolbooks. Due to its unique status as a center of Cold War confrontation and competition, Cold War memory in Berlin receives a special emphasis. With the friendly support of the Wilson Center.

Historiography, Memory, Representation

The Cold War

In the spring of 1945, as the German army fell in defeat and the world first learned of the unspeakable crimes of the Holocaust, few would have expected that, only half a century later, the Germans would emerge as a prosperous people at the forefront of peaceful European integration. How did the Germans manage to recover from the shattering experience of defeat in World War II and rehabilitate themselves from the shame and horror of the Holocaust? In After Hitler, Konrad H. Jarausch shows how Germany's determination to emphasize civility and civil society, destroyed by the Nazi regime, helped restore the demoralized nation during the post-war period. Unlike other intellectual inquiries into German efforts to deal with the Nazi past, After Hitler primarily focuses on the practical lessons a disoriented people drew from their past misdeeds, and their struggle to create a new society with a sincere and deep commitment to human rights. After Hitler offers a comprehensive view of the breathtaking transformation of the Germans from the defeated Nazi accomplices and Holocaust perpetrators of 1945 to the civilized, democratic people of today's Germany.

No other European city can claim to have experienced such division and togetherness as Berlin. This volume of essays attempts to address the question of the peculiar character of divided Berlin during the years of the Cold War - and connects the history of this embattled city with the over-all East-West conflict. A wide range of transatlantic contributors addresses Berlin as a global focal point of the Cold War, and also assess the geopolitical peculiarity of the city and how citizens dealt with it in everyday life - exploring not just the implications of division, but also the continuing entanglements and mutual perceptions which resulted from Berlin's unique status. Finally, the book then asks how these experiences were and are told: What identities did the division create, what narratives did it produce and how do they shape today's debates? Has the city managed to forge a common memory culture out of a divided past? An essential contribution to the study of Berlin in the 20th century, and the effects - global and local - of the Cold War on a city.

The bringing down of the Berlin Wall is one of the most vivid images and historic events of the late twentieth century. The reunification of Germany has transformed the face of Europe. In one stunning year, two separate states with clashing ideologies, hostile armies, competing economies, and incompatible social systems merged into one. The speed and extent of the reunification was so great that many people are still trying to understand the events. Initial elation has given way to the realities and problems posed in reuniting two such different systems. The Rush to German Unity presents a clear historical reconstruction of the confusing events. It focuses on the dramatic experiences of the East German people but also explores the decisions of the West German elite. Konrad H. Jarausch draws on the rich sources produced by the collapse of the GDR and on the public debate in the FRG. Beginning with vivid media images, the text probes the background of a problem, traces its treatment and resolution and then reflects on its implications. Combining an insider's insights with an outsider's detachment, the interpretation balances the celebratory and the catastrophic views. The unification process was democratic, peaceful and negotiated. But the merger was also bureaucratic, capitalistic and one-sided. Popular pressures and political manipulation combined to create a rush to unity that threatened to escape control. The revolution moved from a civic rising to a national movement and ended up as reconstruction from the outside. An ideal source for general readers and students, The Rush to German Unity explores whether solving the old German problem has merely created new difficulties.

The Rush to German Unity

Kinrad H. Jarausch is the Lurcy Professor of European Civilization at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. --Book Jacket.

A Wehrmacht Soldier's Letters from the Eastern Front

Reluctant Accomplice

"Over the past decade, Euroskepticism has been on the rise, with many predicting the end of the European Union and the failure of progressive European values. With Brexit on the horizon, the far-right in power in Poland, authoritarianism on the rise in Hungary, riots in Paris, and austerity policies in place across the continent, it often seems that there is little reason to be optimistic about Europe's future or proud of its recent past. Konrad Jarausch begs to differ. In this book, which he will write as a Tony Judt-style extended essay, he traces the history of Europe since 1989 and finds much cause for hope. Despite the Greek debt crisis, the weak reaction to the Russian invasion of Eastern Ukraine, and other failures that Euroskeptics cite frequently, the European model is strong. Jarausch ends his narrative by pointing to successes, such as Danish efforts to combat global warming, Sweden's restructuring of its welfare system, and Spain's transition to democracy and its ability to cope with a large influx of immigrants, among many other issues. Though Europe has many challenges to overcome in the next few decades, it still presents a powerful alternative to American-style unbridled capitalism and right-wing populism. Jarausch will color his narrative with his own impressions of living in both Europe and the United States at various points during this period"--

Michael Geyer

Broken glass, twisted beams, piles of debris--these are the early memories of the children who grew up amidst the ruins of the Third Reich. More than five decades later, German youth inhabit manicured suburbs and stroll along prosperous pedestrian malls. Shattered Past is a bold reconsideration of the perplexing pattern of Germany's twentieth-century history. Konrad Jarausch and Michael Geyer explore the staggering gap between the country's role in the terrors of war and its subsequent success as a democracy. They argue that the collapse of Communism, national reunification, and the postmodern shift call for a new reading of the country's turbulent development, one that no longer suggests continuity but rupture and conflict. Comprising original essays, the book begins by reexamining the nationalist, socialist, and liberal master narratives that have dominated the presentation of German history but are now losing their hold. Treated next are major issues of recent debate that suggest how new kinds of German history might be written: annihilationist warfare, complicity with dictatorship, the taming of power, the impact of migration, the struggle over national identity, redefinitions of womanhood, and the development of consumption as well as popular culture. The concluding chapters reflect on the country's gradual transition from chaos to civility. This penetrating study will spark a fresh debate about the meaning of the German past during the last century. There is no single master narrative, no Weltgeist, to be discovered. But there is a fascinating story to be told in many different ways.

Reconstructing German Histories

Shattered Past

Martin Sabrow

Als Meistererzählung bezeichnet die Geschichtswissenschaft historische Großdeutungen, die für eine bestimmte Zeit oder eine bestimmte historische Erzählperspektive leitend werden. Mit den Konjunkturen und Krisen solcher Großerzählungen in der deutschen Geschichtsschreibung nach 1945 beschäftigen sich die hier zusammengestellten Beiträge.Im Mittelpunkt stehen die drei zentralen Leittexte der deutschen Nationalgeschichte der Nachkriegszeit: die Rückbesinnung auf einen moralisch gezähmten Historismus und seine Ablösung durch das Konzept des deutschen »Sonderwegs« in der Bundesrepublik auf der einen Seite, die verschiedenen Entwicklungsstadien des ostdeutschen Gegenentwurfs in Gestalt einer sozialistischen Nationalgeschichte auf der anderen Seite. Vor diesem Hintergrund reflektieren weitere Beiträge das analytische Potenzial des Begriffs der historischen Meistererzählung und fragen angesichts der Krise nationalgeschichtlicher Erzählperspektiven nach ihren möglichen Alternativen.

Konrad H. Jarausch

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