Since World War II, perhaps nothing has shaped German identity more than a keen sense of remembrance.
German leaders’ determination to make their country face its atrocities and take responsibility for them has changed how Germans view their nation – and how the world views Germany. As much as any industry or initiative, this culture of remembrance, or Erinnerungskultur, has allowed Germany to rebuild trust, rejoin the family of nations, and thrive.
But as Europe commemorates the 80-year anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, polls show a growing desire among Germans to “draw a line” under the Nazi era and not feel so burdened by the past. Many are asking themselves the question: When is enough, enough?
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With Europe looking to Germany for economic and military leadership, the country’s approach to its Nazi history is an increasingly pressing concern. For many Germans, the question is how to move on, without forgetting the past.
The path Germany takes will have profound consequences, from how it leads in an urgently militarizing Europe, to whether right-wing extremism might rekindle the kind of resurgent nationalism that the country has scrupulously avoided since World War II.
The remembrance culture “was an ingredient in Germany’s success story – a degree of humility, a patience, a willingness to engage in dialogue,” says Jennifer Yoder, an expert in postwar Germany at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. “Now, Germany’s legacy is at an interesting inflection point.”
“It’s too much”
For his part, Olaf Erdmann wishes Germany could be more positive about itself.
He is visiting Berlin with his wife from the western German industrial city of Bielefeld, and they have paused at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe – a rippling landscape of somber gray stone monoliths intended to evoke a mass graveyard.
The monument has had its moments of controversy. In 2017, a leader of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party cited the monument as an example of the remembrance culture run amok.
The Germans were the “only people in the world who planted a memorial of shame in the heart of their capital,” said Björn Höcke. Another AfD leader famously called the Nazis “just a speck of bird poop in more than 1,000 years of successful German history.”
As Mr. Erdmann looks out over the memorial, he makes a different point.
“We must remember, yes,” he says. But the intensity of Germany’s remembrance culture? “It’s too much.”
Germany has much to be proud of. “We are a world leader in freedom,” Mr. Erdmann says. Yet abroad, Germans are still caricatured as Nazis, and the remembrance culture plays a part by overdoing it. “It was a terrible time, but we need to move forward. Not forget, but move forward.”
Polls show many Germans agree. The Foundation for Remembrance, Responsibility, and the Future has been charting German attitudes since 2018 through its MEMO Study. Until this year, over half of respondents disagreed with the idea of drawing a line under the Nazi era. In the newest study, released Tuesday, only 37% did – fewer than the 38% who generally agreed.
A March poll commissioned by Die Zeit newspaper showed similar results. It also found that 55% of Germans agreed that “the constant memory of National Socialism prevents Germans from developing a healthy national consciousness, like citizens of other countries have.”
Martin Sabrow does not see this as reason to panic. A leading German expert on history and remembrance, he says there has always been a degree of resistance to the remembrance culture.
What’s new is the widespread agreement with Mr. Erdmann. “There’s not a demand to forget, but to say, ‘This happened, but it should not be a burden for the future,’” says Dr. Sabrow, a senior fellow at the Center for Contemporary History in Potsdam.
In some ways, that is a sign of progress. “It is part of history now,” he adds. “No one would say anymore, ‘the German army never committed any atrocities.’ That was the thinking in the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s. Today, our past is well known.”
But it might suggest a need for evolution.
“The power of the culture of remembrance is not to redeem the collective German identity,” says Leon Walter, a contributor to the MEMO Study and a social psychologist at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence. “The point is to understand the atrocious things that have happened and to derive lessons for contemporary German society.”
Moral authority through empathy
Some of those lessons might require rethinking tenets of remembrance culture.
For example, the Nazi past has led Germany both to an ironclad support of Israel and a strong aversion to war in general. That makes it even harder for Germany to address the complexities of the Gaza war and the threat from Russia.
“We’re now one of the strongest economies in the world, but we’re not strong militarily,” says Dr. Sabrow. “But it is necessary with the threat of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. In this case, the legacy of the remembrance culture does not fit with the challenge of the present.”
There are also lessons that underline the enduring benefits of remembrance. Survey after survey shows that those who engage in remembrance are less likely to hold prejudiced views toward Jews and other groups, Mr. Walter says.
Dr. Sabrow recently felt that firsthand.
Last week, he was invited to talk in Bassano del Grappa, Italy, for the town’s remembrance of its liberation from the Nazis 80 years ago. Thirty-one photos stood in front of trees running down “Martyrs Avenue.” The photos honored the 31 resistance fighters the Nazis summarily hanged despite promises of pardon.
“Being there, you feel so shameful as a German,” says Dr. Sabrow. “You feel a little more than responsibility, you feel empathy.”
That spirit has shaped the strength of modern German leadership. “There is a moral authority Germany has enjoyed,” says Dr. Yoder of Colby College. “As part of Europe, for Germany to move away from that, its partners would miss that part of Germany’s identity.”
The fight for Germany’s soul
Yet there is evidence many Germans remain committed to that ideal.
Every February, Dresden seeks to commemorate the Allied bombing attack in 1945 that essentially erased the city. Leaders use the moment to caution against war and the horrors of the Nazi era. And all around swirls a fight for Germany’s soul.
Starting in 2005, right-wing groups began holding their own event to promote the idea that the bombing was a war crime and that Germany was the victim. Soon after that, others began coming to Dresden, too – pink-haired punk counterprotesters and Grandmas Against the Right. All arrived to hold the line for the Germany that remembrance has built, and they continue to come every year.
Says Dr. Yoder: “They show the hard work that Germans are willing to do to make sure this history is remembered.”
