Title: A German generation : an experiential history of the twentieth century /
Authors: Kohut, Thomas August.
Publisher: Yale University Press,
Year: 2012
Subjects: Germans Ethnic identity.; World War, 1914-1918 Germany.; World War, 1939-1945 Germany.; National socialism.; Oral history Germany.; HISTORY / Europe / Germany.; HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century.; HISTORY / Social History.; Germany History; Germany Social conditions
Abstract: "Germans of the generation born just before the outbreak of World War I lived through a tumultuous and dramatic century. This book tells the story of their lives and, in so doing, offers a new history of twentieth-century Germany, as experienced and made by ordinary human beings. On the basis of sixty-two oral-history interviews, this book shows how this generation was shaped psychologically by a series of historically engendered losses over the course of the century. In response, this generation turned to the collective to repair the losses it had suffered, most fatefully to the community of the "Volk" during the Third Reich, a racial collective to which this generation was passionately committed and which was at the heart of National Socialism and its popular appeal"--Provided by publisher.
Contents: pt. 1. Germany during World War I and the Weimar Republic. Youth -- Finding the collective in the youth movement "group" -- T the experience of war, revolution, disorder, and inflation -- Gemeinschaft, Gesellschaft, and the collective -- Sexuality, identity, and equality in the youth movement -- The youth movement and national socialism -- pt. 2. Germany during the Third Reich and World War II. Young adulthood -- Extending the collective in the community of the Volk -- The popularity of national socialism and the Volksgemienschaft with younger Germans -- National socialism and women -- National socialism and modernization -- The experiential and racial reality of the the Volksgemeinschaft -- "Looking away" from Jews in Nazi Germany -- German knowledge of the "final solution" before 1945 -- German anti-Semitism during the Third Reich -- National socialist terror and the Germans -- Men and women during the war and in its aftermath -- pt. 3. Postwar Germany. Maturity -- Resurrecting the collective in the generational "circle" -- Men, women, and the reassertion of the family in postwar Germany -- The Mitscherlichs' "the inability to mourn" -- The national socialist past in West German families -- pt. 4. Conclusion : the authority of historical experience.