Recasting West German Elites : Higher Civil Servants, Business Leaders, and Physicians in Hesse between Nazism and Democracy, 1945-1955 /
Hayse, Michael R.
Recasting West German Elites : Higher Civil Servants, Business Leaders, and Physicians in Hesse between Nazism and Democracy, 1945-1955 / Michael R. Hayse. - 1 online resource (288 p.) - Monographs in German History ; 11 .
Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- List of Charts and Tables -- Abbreviations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Chapter 1: Complicity and Disenchantment by 1945 -- Chapter 2: Compositional Change and Continuity, 1945-1955 -- Chapter 3: Legal Restructuring and Professional Reorganization -- Chapter 4: Denazification and its Effects, 1945-1955 -- Chapter 5: Recasting Personal and Occupational World Views -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index
restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec
The rapid shift of German elite groups' political loyalties away from Nazism and toward support of the fledgling democracy of the Federal Republic, in spite of the continuity of personnel and professional structures, has surprised many scholars of postwar Germany. The key, Hayse argues, lies in the peculiar and paradoxical legacy of these groups' evasive selective memory, by which they cast themselves as victims of the Third Reich rather than its erstwhile supporters. The avoidance of responsibility for the crimes and excesses of the Third Reich created a need to demonstrate democratic behavior in the post-war public sphere. Ultimately, this self-imposed pressure, while based on a falsified, selective group memory of the recent past, was more important in the long term than the Allies' stringent social change policies.
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
In English.
9781789204162
10.1515/9781789204162 doi
Elite (Social sciences)--History.--Germany--Hesse
HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century.
HN458.H4 / H397 2003
305.5/2/094341
Recasting West German Elites : Higher Civil Servants, Business Leaders, and Physicians in Hesse between Nazism and Democracy, 1945-1955 / Michael R. Hayse. - 1 online resource (288 p.) - Monographs in German History ; 11 .
Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- List of Charts and Tables -- Abbreviations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Chapter 1: Complicity and Disenchantment by 1945 -- Chapter 2: Compositional Change and Continuity, 1945-1955 -- Chapter 3: Legal Restructuring and Professional Reorganization -- Chapter 4: Denazification and its Effects, 1945-1955 -- Chapter 5: Recasting Personal and Occupational World Views -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index
restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec
The rapid shift of German elite groups' political loyalties away from Nazism and toward support of the fledgling democracy of the Federal Republic, in spite of the continuity of personnel and professional structures, has surprised many scholars of postwar Germany. The key, Hayse argues, lies in the peculiar and paradoxical legacy of these groups' evasive selective memory, by which they cast themselves as victims of the Third Reich rather than its erstwhile supporters. The avoidance of responsibility for the crimes and excesses of the Third Reich created a need to demonstrate democratic behavior in the post-war public sphere. Ultimately, this self-imposed pressure, while based on a falsified, selective group memory of the recent past, was more important in the long term than the Allies' stringent social change policies.
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
In English.
9781789204162
10.1515/9781789204162 doi
Elite (Social sciences)--History.--Germany--Hesse
HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century.
HN458.H4 / H397 2003
305.5/2/094341