Denazification in Germany: basic approaches to the study of the problem in British and American historiography

  • Iryna I. Kaviaka Belarusian State Pedagogical University named after Maxim Tank, 18 Savieckaja Street, Minsk 220050, Belarus

Abstract

The article is devoted to the examination of the main approaches to the study of denazification policy in Germany that emerged in British and American historiography. Based on the analysis of a wide range of sources, the author established the basic concepts that were used while analyzing the goals, methods and results of denazification. The evolution of scientific assessment during the second half of the 20th – early 21st centuries contributed to revealing of the three main approaches to the study of the issue: critical, revolutionary and rationalistic. The study results and the article conclusions can be used for further research of the historical science in the UK and US, as well as certain aspects of the German problem after World War II.

Author Biography

Iryna I. Kaviaka, Belarusian State Pedagogical University named after Maxim Tank, 18 Savieckaja Street, Minsk 220050, Belarus

PhD (history), docent; associate professor at the world history and methods of teaching history department, faculty of history

References

  1. Fulbrook M. Interpretations of the two Germanies, 1945–1990. London: Macmillan; 2000. 114 p.
  2. Gimbel J. The American occupation of Germany. Politics and the military, 1945–1949. Stanford: Stanford University Press; 1968. 335 p.
  3. Levy A. Promoting democracy and denazification: American policymaking and German public opinion. Diplomacy and Statecraft. 2015;26(4):614–635.
  4. Peterson E. The American occupation of Germany. Retreat to victory. Detroit: Wayne State University; 1977. 376 p.
  5. Taylor F. Exorcising Hitler: The occupation and denazification of Germany. London: Bloomsbury; 2011. 390 p.
  6. Turner I. Denazification in the British zone. In: Turner I, editor. Reconstruction in postwar Germany: British occupation policies and the Western zones, 1945–1955. Oxford: Berg; 1989. p. 239–267.
  7. Morgenthau H. Germany is our problem. New York: Harper&Brothers; 1945. 239 p.
  8. Havens R. Note on effect of denazification upon property rights in Germany. Southern Economic Journal [Internet]. 1946 [cited 2019 January 29];13(2):158–161. Available from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1052524.
  9. Dulles A. Alternatives for Germany. Foreign Affairs. 1947;25(3):421– 432.
  10. Weir C. Economic developments in Western Germany. International Affairs. 1949;25(3):249–256. DOI: 10.2307/3016664.
  11. Herz J. The fiasco of denazification in Germany. Political Science Quarterly [Internet]. 1948 [cited 2019 March 15];63(4):569–594. Available from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2144399.
  12. Warburg J. Germany: key to peace. Cambridge: Harvard University; 1953. 344 p.
  13. Tetens T. The new Germany and the old Nazis. New York: Random House; 1961. 286 p.
  14. Eisenberg C. Drawing the line. The American decision to divide Germany, 1944–1949. Cambridge: Cambridge University; 1996. 522 p.
  15. Johnson A. Denazification. Social Research [Internet]. 1947 [cited 2019 January 29];14(1):59–74. Available from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40969177.
  16. Griffith W. Denazification in the United States zone of Germany. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science [Internet]. 1950 [cited 2019 January 29];267:68–76. Available from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1026728.
  17. Montgomery J. Forced to be free: The artificial revolution in Germany and Japan. Chicago: Chicago University; 1957. 209 p.
  18. Edinger L. Post-totalitarian leadership: elites in the German Federal Republic. The American Political Science Review [Internet]. 1960 [cited 2019 January 29];54(1):58–82. Available from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1952408.
  19. Gimbel J. American denazification and German local politics, 1945–1949: a case study in Marburg. The American Political Science Review [Internet]. 1960 [cited 2019 January 29];54(1):83–105. Available from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1952409.
  20. Gimbel J. The artificial revolution in Germany: a case study. Political Science Quarterly [Internet]. 1961 [cited 2019 January 29];76(1):88–104. Available from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2145972.
  21. FitzGibbon C. Denazification. London: Michael Joseph; 1969. 222 p.
  22. Boehling R. U.S. military occupation, grass roots democracy and local German government. In: Diefendorf JF, Frohn A, Rupieper HJ, editors. American policy and the reconstruction of West Germany, 1945–1955. Washington: German Historical Institute; 1993. p. 281–306.
  23. Merritt R. Democracy imposed. U.S. occupation policy and the German public, 1945–1949. New Haven: Yale University; 1995. 452 p.
  24. Adams B. From crusade to hazard: the denazification of Bremen Germany. Lanham: Scarecrow; 2009. 193 p.
  25. Dobbins J, Poole M, Long A, Runkle B. Post-World War II nation-building: Germany and Japan. In: Dobbins J. After the War: nation-building from FDR to George W. Bush [Internet]. Santa Monica: RAND Corporation; 2008 [cited 2019 January 17]. p. 11–35. Available from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7249/mg716cc.10.
  26. Dobbins J, McGinn J, Crane K, Jones S, Lal R, Rathmell A, Swanger R, Timilsina A. Germany. In: Dobbins J, McGinn J, Crane K, Jones S, Lal R, Rathmell A, Swanger R, Timilsina A. America’s role in nation-building: from Germany to Iraq [Internet]. Santa-Monica: RAND Corporation; 2003 [cited 2019 January 17]. p. 3–23. Available from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7249/mr1753rc.9.
  27. Nawyn K. Neutralizing the “hard centre of German militarism”: U.S. Military Government and the Wehrmacht’s elite officers, 1945–1948. Army History [Internet]. 2010 [cited 2019 January 29];77:20–30. Available from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26296805.
  28. Payne J. Did the United States create democracy in Germany? The Independent Review [Internet]. 2006 [cited 2019 January 29];11(2):209–221. Available from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24562224.
  29. Birley R. British policy in retrospect. In: Hearnden A, editor. The British in Germany. Educational reconstruction after 1945. London: Hamish Hamilton; 1978. p. 46–63.
  30. Bower T. The pledge betrayed. America and Britain and the denazification of postwar Germany. New York: Doubleday&Co.; 1982. 462 p.
  31. Marshall B. German attitudes to British Military Government 1945–47. Journal of Contemporary History [Internet]. 1980 [cited 2019 January 29];15(4):655–684. Available from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/260503.
  32. Marshall B. British democratization policy in Germany. In: Turner I, editor. Reconstruction in postwar Germany: British occupation policies and the Western zones, 1945–1955. Oxford: Berg; 1989. p. 189–215.
  33. Balfour M. Re-education in Germany after 1945: some further considerations. German History. 1987;5:25–34.
  34. Gimbel J. German scientists, United States denazification policy, and the “paperclip conspiracy”. The International History Review [Internet]. 1990 [cited 2019 January 29];12(3):441–465. Available from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40106226.
  35. Murray G. The British contribution. In: Hearnden G, editor. The British in Germany. Educational reconstruction after 1945. London: Hamish Hamilton; 1978. p. 64–94.
  36. Murray G. The training of teachers. In: Hearnden G, editor. The British in Germany. Educational reconstruction after 1945. London: Hamish Hamilton; 1978. p. 131–145.
  37. Tent J. Mission on the Rhine: American educational policy in postwar Germany, 1945–1949. History of Education Quarterly [Internet]. 1982 [cited 2019 January 29];22(3):255–276. Available from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/367768.
  38. Crawley A. The rise of Western Germany, 1945–1972. London: Collins; 1973. 315 p.
  39. Blessing B. The antifascist classroom: Denazification in Soviet-occupied Germany, 1945–1949 [Internet]. London: Palgrave Macmillan; 2006 [cited 2019 January 17]. 304 р. Available from: http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/rsl-ebooks/detail.action.
  40. Botting D. From the ruins of the Reich. Germany 1945–1949. New York: Crown Publishers; 1985. 341 p.
  41. Evans R. From Nazism to never again. How Germany came to terms with its past. Foreign Affairs. 2018;97(1):8–15.
  42. Naimark N. The Russians in Germany. A history of the Soviet zone of occupation, 1945–1949. Cambridge: Harvard University; 1996. 586 p.
  43. Peterson E. Russian commands and German resistance. The Soviet occupation, 1945–1949. New York: Peter Lang; 1999. 510 p.
  44. Turner H. Germany from partition to unification. New Haven: Yale University Press; 1992. 269 p.
  45. Prowe D. German democratization as conservative restabilization: the impact of American policy. In: Defendorf JF, Frohn A, Rupieper HJ, editor. American policy and the reconstruction of West Germany, 1945–1955. Washington: German Historical Institute; 1993. p. 307–330.
  46. Rearden S. The dilemmas of dual containment. Germany as a security problem, 1945–1950. In: Junker D, editor. The United States and Germany in the era of the cold war, 1945–1990. Volume 1: 1945–1968. Washington: German Historical Institute; 2004. p. 204–208.
  47. Remy S. The Heidelberg myth. The nazification and denazification of a German University. Cambridge: Harvard University; 2002. 329 p.
Published
2019-07-01
Keywords: British historiography, American historiography, the German question, denazification, renazification, artificial revolution, conservative restoration, re-education
How to Cite
Kaviaka, I. I. (2019). Denazification in Germany: basic approaches to the study of the problem in British and American historiography. Journal of the Belarusian State University. International Relations, 1, 28-34. Retrieved from https://journals.bsu.by/index.php/internationalRelations/article/view/1289
Section
History of International Relations and Foreign Policy