Revising the ‘myth’ of a ‘clean wehrmacht’: generals’ trials, public opinion, and the dynamics of Vergangenheitsbewältigung in West Germany, 1948–60

Searle, DA

Abstract

Among one of the most consistent claims made by the organizers and supporters of the ‘Wehrmacht exhibition’ has been that the ‘myth’ of a ‘clean Wehrmacht’ took root in the Federal Republic of Germany in the early 1950s, lasting well into the 1980s, only to have been finally
shattered by the exhibition itself in the mid-1990s. Although this thesis has very little to do with the actual content of the exhibition — which examined the role of the Wehrmacht, and the army in particular, in co-operating with SS units in the final solution in the Soviet Union, in executions of enemy personnel, and the extermination of
countless civilians through the device of declaring them to be partisans — it is has been repeated consistently by a number of historians.

Citation

Searle, D. (2003). Revising the ‘myth’ of a ‘clean wehrmacht’: generals’ trials, public opinion, and the dynamics of Vergangenheitsbewältigung in West Germany, 1948–60. German Historical Institute London Bulletin, 25(2), 17-48

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Nov 1, 2003
• Deposit Date: Jun 24, 2009
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 24, 2009
• Journal: German Historical Institute London Bulletin
• Print ISSN: 0269-8552
• Publisher: German Historical Institute
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 25
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 17-48
• Related Public URLs: http://www.ghil.ac.uk/publications/bulletin.html; http://www.ghil.ac.uk/