The Federal Republic of Germany and the History of the Last Decades: Outline and Observations

The article aims to present concisely and chronologically the most critical stages of the formation and evolution of the Germans’ historical consciousness and identity after the end of the World War II. This process was based on how German society dealt with the National Socialist dictatorship (the focus of this paper) and the communist dictatorship of the Socialist Unity Party (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, SED). Multiple factors have, over the years, contributed to how the Germans’ have dealt with their past and to the increasing awareness of this nation of its initially ineffaceable guilt and responsibility for the memory of World War II, as well as its homicidal role in this war. Among them were the post-war acceptance and integration of the “expellees” in both German states, the gradual confrontation of German society with the subject of the Holocaust itself and its mass-scale nature (for instance through touting the Nuremberg and following trials of war criminals and their assistants), and holding public debates on challenging issues related to the past (not imposed from above, but resulting from the needs of German society—for example some disputes between historians, the Walser-Bubis debate). Literary works often inspired the latter (for example, Günter Grass’s “Crabwalk,” Jörg Friedrich’s “The Fire”) and exhibitions presented in Germany (for example, on the crimes of the Wehrmacht). These considerations are a form of introduction to the second part of this article presenting the most important conclusions from an analysis, conducted by the author in 2014, of public speeches of prominent German (and Polish) politicians from the period 1989–2011 on subjects related to history. Its results confirmed that prominent German politicians are conscious of the guilt of Germans’ fathers and grandparents—not only for the outbreak of World War II, but above all for the Holocaust and crimes committed against a number of national, ethnic, and other groups—and they admit it. However, it is noticeable that the Germans’ knowledge about the criminal occupation of Central and Eastern Europe and the role of Poland in the overthrow of communism and the reunification of Germany is low and insufficient from the Polish perspective, among others.