Synopses & Reviews
How do democratic and pluralistic societies cope with traumatic events in their past? What strategies and taboos are employed to reconstruct wars, revolutions, torturing, mass killings and genocide in a way to make their contradiction to basic human rights and values invisible? This interdisciplinary volume analyzes in detail for the first time, in multiple genres, the history and image of the "German Wehrmacht" and the debates in Austria and Germany surrounding two highly contested exhibitions about the war crimes of the German Wehrmacht during WWII.
Review
"Highly recommended." —CHOICE
Synopsis
How do democratic and pluralistic societies cope with traumatic events in their past? This interdisciplinary volume analyzes in detail for the first time the history and image of the German 'Wehrmacht' and the debates in Austria and Germany surrounding two highly contested exhibitions about the war crimes of the 'Wehrmacht' during World War II.
Synopsis
This interdisciplinary volume analyzes in detail for the first time, throughout multiple genres, the history and image of the "German Wehrmacht" and the debates in Austria and Germany surrounding two highly contested exhibitions about the war crimes of the Wehrmacht during WWII.
About the Author
HANNES HEER works in Hamburg, Germany as a writer and exhibition organizer. From 1993 to 2000 he worked at the Hamburg Institute for Social Research, directing the first '
Wehrmacht exhibition'. He has written numerous publications on National Socialism, the
Wehrmacht and post-war recollection.
SABINE LOITFELLNER is historian and fellow at the Austrian Research Centre for Post-War Trials, Austria, and is active in the area of art restitution in conjunction with the Holocaust Victims' Information and Support Centre of the Jewish Community in Vienna.
WALTER MANOSCHEK is professor for political science and chairs the Department for Government at the University of Vienna, Austria. His researches and publications focus on Politics of the Past, the Political System of Nationalsocialism and Holocaust Studies.
ALEXANDER POLLAK is research manager at the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia and independent scholar at the University of Vienna (Department of Government), Austria.
GUENTHER SANDNER is director of the research project "Democratising of Knowledge. Otto Neurath's Project in the Context of Different Scientific Cultures: Austria - Germany - England" at the University of Vienna, Austria.
HEIDIMARIE UHL is at the Commission for Culture Studies and History of Theatre, Austrian Academy for Sciences, Vienna, Austria
RUTH WODAK is Chair in Discourse Studies, Lancaster University, UK. She holds multiple visiting professorships (Stanford, Georgetown, Minneapolis, Uppsala, UEA); Karen Hesselgren Chair of the Swedish Parliament 2008/9. She is co-editor of Journal of Language and Politics and Critical Discourse Studies and her recent book publications include New Agenda in (Critical) Discourse Analysis (with Paul Chilton); Discourse and Discrimination, (with Martin Reisigl); Re/Reading the Past, (with Jim Martin).
Table of Contents
Notes on Contributors * Acknowledgements * Preface to English edition * Preface: 'How History Is Made' - The Origins and Aims of the Project--R.Wodak * Introduction: Collective Memory, The Politics of the Past and National Narratives--H.Heer & R.Wodak * PART 1: THE WEHRMACHT AND THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN THE RECOLLECTIONS OF THE WARTIME GENERATION * The Crimes of the Wehrmacht in the Second World War--W.Manoschek * The Holocaust in Wehrmacht Soldiers Letters from the Front--W.Manoschek * Quantitative and Qualitative Assessment of the Questionnaire Survey 'Austrians in the Second World War'--W.Manoschek * 'That is What is so Terrible - That Millions of Soldiers Were There, and Today They all Claim That They Never Saw a Thing'--H. Heer * PART 2: THE WEHRMACHT IN COLLECTIVE MEMORY AFTER 1945 * Aggressors as Victims--G.Sandner & W.Manoschek * The Historical Image of the 'Untainted Wehrmacht'--A.Pollak * 'The Appalling Toll in Austrian Lives...'--S.Loitfellner * What Remained of the Second World War--A.Pollak * PART 3: REACTIONS TO THE WEHRMACHT EXHIBITIONS * Crime Scene 'Wehrmacht Exhibition'--A.Pollak & R.Wodak * The Head of Medusa--H.Heer * Interpretations of the 'War of Annihilation'--H.Uhl * Glossary * Media Titles * References * Index