German historians and the bombing of German cities : the contested air war /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Benda-Beckmann, Bastiaan Robert von, author.
Imprint:	Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press, [2015] ©2015
Description:	291 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.
Language:	English
Series:	NIOD studies on war, holocaust, and genocide Studies of the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
Subject:	World War (1939-1945) Bombing, Aerial -- Germany -- History. World War, 1939-1945 -- Destruction and pillage -- Germany. Historians -- Germany. Bombing, Aerial. Destruction and pillage. Historians. Germany. History.
Format:	Print Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/10321689

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	9789089647818 9089647813 9789048525829
Notes:	Preface: 'This book is based on my PhD project, which I started in October 2005 at the University of Amsterdam.' Includes bibliographical references (pages 267-286) and index.
Summary:	"Today, strategic aerial bombardments of urban areas that harm civilians, at times intentionally, are becoming increasingly common in global conflicts. This book reveals the history of these tactics as employed by nations that initiated aerial bombardments of civilians after World War I and during World War II. As one of the major symbols of German suffering, the Allied bombing left a strong imprint on German society. Bas von Benda-Beckmann explores how German historical accounts reflected debates on postwar identity and looks at whether the history of the air war forms a counternarrative against the idea of German collective guilt. Provocative and unflinching, this study offers a valuable contribution to German historiography."--

Table of Contents:

Preface
Introduction: German historians and the Allied bombings
1. Putting the Alliens on trial
The early Federal Republic, 1945-1970
1.1. The Allied bombings in the early Federal Republic
1.2. West German historiography and the air war in the 1950s and 1960s
1.3. Nazi propagands and foreign texts
1.4. The Allied bombing and German guilt
2. Dresden and the Cold War
East-West Debates on the bombing of Dresben, 1945-1970
2.1. East-German historical accounts of the attack on Dresden
2.2. East-West debates on Dresden
2.3. A shared Dresden myth?
3. A past becomes history
The professionalizing of the air war historiography of the Federal Republic
3.1. Dresden im Luftkrieg: Götz Bergander
3.2. Horst Boog and the professionalizing of West German military history
4. The 'Imperialist Air War'
East German historiography and the work of Olaf Groehler, 1965-1995
4.1. Part of the system: Olaf Geoehler
4.2. Debates with the West
5. Breaking taboos
Jörg Friedrich and the 'rediscovery' of the Allied bombings
5.1. Jörg Frederich's Der Brand
5.2. Der Brand and the new public interest in the Allied bombings
5.3. Der Brand and recent German historiography
Conclusion: The contested Air War
Abbreviations
Bibliography
Index
Photos
Figure 1. Rolf Hochhuth and David Irving in Der Stern office, during their first meeting, 25 January 1965
Figure 2. Propaganda pamphlet, 1943
Figure 3. Joseph Goebbels inspects destroyed residential area, Cologne 1940
Figure 4. Pieta in the Hofkirche in Dresden made by Friedrich Press in 1973
Figure 5. Olaf Groehler, 1935-1995
Figure 6. Helmut Kohl laying a wreath at the Frauenkirche in Dresden, 19 December 1989

German historians and the bombing of German cities : the contested air war /

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