Vol. 21 · No. 3 · Issue 68 · Fall 2003

Mark A. Wolfgram

Download full article [subscribers only]

Abstract

Both of the publications under review, Bill Niven's Facing the Nazi Past and Siobhan Kattago's Ambiguous Memory, reflect on the decade since German unification and ponder the extent to which the events of 1989 changed the way Germans reflect upon the legacy of the Third Reich. Did 1989 fundamentally change the way Germans encounter the Nazi past or are the continuities with the postwar years more pronounced? Both authors agree that the unification of the country had a more profound effect upon East Germans, as they were forced to integrate into the West German traditions of commemorating the past. With a decade's worth of additional public debates about the legacies of the Third Reich, it is now possible to reflect upon 1989 and its outcomes.