West German economic reconstruction and moral reconstitution: An examination of economic instability and its impact on ‘Holocaust moments’

Abstract

After WWII, Germany found itself in physical ruin as well as in a moral shambles. The rebuilding process in West Germany included both economic reconstruction and moral reconstitution. In my paper I argue that these two processes were more closely related than generally believed. While economic instability, measured by unemployment rates, certainly has not caused a greater willingness to come to terms with the National Socialist past, such times seem to have coincided with some of the great historiographical controversies about that past, namely the Fischer controversy, the Historikerstreit , the Goldhagen affair, and the highly controversial, so-called Wehrmachtsausstellung . This paper proposes a model for the relationship and explores possible explanations.