TY - BOOK AU - Beattie,Andrew TI - Playing Politics with History: The Bundestag Inquiries into East Germany T2 - Contemporary European History SN - 9781845455330 U1 - 943/.1087 22 PY - 2008///] CY - New York, Oxford PB - Berghahn Books KW - Governmental investigations KW - Germany (East) KW - Germany KW - Political culture KW - History KW - 20th century KW - HISTORY / Europe / Germany KW - bisacsh KW - History: 20th Century to Present N1 - Frontmatter --; CONTENTS --; PREFACE --; LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS --; INTRODUCTION --; Chapter 1 ESTABLISHING THE COMMISSION OF INQUIRY --; Chapter 2 THE INQUIRIES AT WORK --; Chapter 3 THE SED’S DICTATORSHIP FROM THE BEGINNING --; Chapter 4 IMPLEMENTING AND RESISTING SOCIALISM IN THE GDR --; Chapter 5 VERGANGENHEITSBEWÄLTIGUNG GOOD AND BAD --; Chapter 6 THE DOUBLE TOTALITARIAN PAST --; CONCLUSION --; APPENDICES --; Appendix A THE TERMS OF REFERENCE OF THE COMMISSION OF INQUIRY, “WORKING THROUGH THE HISTORY AND CONSEQUENCES OF THE SED DICTATORSHIP IN GERMANY” --; Appendix B THE TERMS OF REFERENCE OF THE COMMISSION OF INQUIRY, “OVERCOMING THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE SED DICTATORSHIP IN THE PROCESS OF GERMANY UNITY” --; BIBLIOGRAPHY --; INDEX; restricted access N2 - After Germany's reunification in 1989-90, the country faced not only the history and consequences of the nation’s division during the Cold War but also the continuing burdensome legacy of the Nazi past and the Holocaust. This book explains why concerns that the Nazi past would be marginalized by the more recent Communist past proved to be misplaced. It examines the delicate East–West dynamics and the notion that the West sought to impose "victor's justice" (or history) on the East. More specifically, it examines, for the first time, the history and significance of two parliamentary commissions of inquiry created in the 1990s to investigate the divided past after 1945 and its effects on the reunified country. Not unlike "truth commissions" elsewhere, these inquiries provided an important forum for renegotiating contemporary Germany's relationship with multiple German pasts, including the Nazi period and the Holocaust. The ensuing debates and disagreements over the recent past, examined by the author, open up a window into the wider development of German memory, identity, and politics after the end of the Cold War UR - https://doi.org/10.1515/9780857450173 UR - https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9780857450173 UR - https://www.degruyter.com/document/cover/isbn/9780857450173/original ER -