Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1982. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 381-394).

The thesis examines the reconfiguration of concepts of national identity in postunification Germany in three broad sections. Section one examines the discourse of identity of neoconservatives and critical thinkers between the 1960s and 1980s. Neoconservatives advocated a return to conventional national identity based upon the patriotic identification with indigenous national traditions. Critical thinkers argued for a post-national Constitutional Patriotism based upon the critical reflection of national traditions. Both these approaches are located within the context of conflictual attitudes towards the concepts of "compensation" and "emancipation" in past and present and towards the experience of the National Socialist past. Section two examines the reception of unification within the liberal conservative and neue Rechte milieu. Liberal conservatives sought to synthesise the technocratic Westernisation of the post-war FRG with a traditional national concept. Neue Rechte conservatives rejected "Western" values and perceived in the collapse of Communism the discrediting of both the "utopia" of radical social alternative and also of the Kleinutopie of civil society. The post-Cold War constellation signified for these thinkers the opportunity for a return to pre-1945 traditions of German nationalism and offered an opportunity to relativise the national socialist past. Finally, section three offers an analysis of the reconfiguration of national identity which synthesises the concern for "national" identity with the left-liberal concept of "postnational" identity. The "Westernisation" of the concept of the German nation perceived positive antecedents in the bourgeois emancipation movements of the pre-national nineteenth century. The final chapter elaborates the thesis of a "culture of contrition" for the national socialist past which formulates a radical, "post-national" identity with emancipatory aspirations. The thesis perceives in this latter discourse of "broken" identity an attempt to reconfigure a sense of national "normality" in the present which is predicated upon the acknowledgement of "abnormality" in the past.

No description available.

This thesis is an analysis of National Socialist violence and anti-Semitism as propaganda from 1928-1934. It states that the primary role of NSDAP violence and anti-Semitic propaganda was to mute public opinion in Germany, and to manipulate the German population into a state of apathy regarding National Socialist policy. To this end, the effects of National Socialist violence end anti-Semitism on Germans, Jews, and the British foreign press are analyzed.

The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate whether there was any validity to the argument that select nineteenth century German cultural figures--Johann Fichte, Richard Wagner and Friedrich Nietzsche-were intellectual or spiritual forerunners of National Socialism. Numerous Western writers since the Nazi era have contended that, specifically, these three figures preached, eloquently or vociforously, irrationalism, elitism and nationalism--known Nazi characteristics and thus helped prepare the way for Hitlerism in Germany.Therefore in order to deduce the accuracy of these contentions, this historiographical study examined Vie many works of scholarship and reflection since 1933 that either attacked or defended the role of the three figures within a proto-Nazi contest. A selective bibliography of secondary sources by legitimate writers was gathered and examined and it was deduced that there was no firm intellectual link with the three subjects and Nazism. Those scholars who assailed Fichte, Wagner and Nietzsche usually based their arguments over a Nazi association on a surface level. On other occasions critics simply tore out of context select passages from the works of the three in order to establish a fascist connection. In addition built-in intellectual, ideological or national prejudices by certain scholars helped determine the assignment of the three as Nazi precursors.The totality of their messages was in fact often complex, varied or subtle and their ever-shifting speculative persuasions demonstrated a lack of intellectual continuity. Nonetheless scholars, especially after World War II, have shown the true and often noble meanings of their teachings and have revealed that the differences between the three and Hitler were far greater than the resemblances. Fichte, Wagner and Nietzsche, however, are open to criticism in producing bodies of work that demonstrated inconsistency and emotion-ridden language which mane them vulnerable to exploitation by opportunists like the Nazis.Many scholars have shown then that at best an. indirect association exists between the three cultural figures and National Socialism. Yet this study also has revealed that Fichte, Wagner and Nietzsche continue to be viewed as direct intellectual links with Nazism by various intellectuals to this day.

Thesis--Freie Universität, Berlin. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 170-179).

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Köln.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Rostock, 1938. / Bibliography: p. iii-iv.

Revised Thesis (doctoral)--Freie Universität, Berlin, 1984. / Slightly rev. new ed. Originally published 1985 by Fischer Taschenbuch. Includes bibliographical references (p. 372-378) and index.

Revised Thesis (doctoral)--Freie Universität, Berlin, 1984. / Slightly rev. new ed. Originally published 1985 by Fischer Taschenbuch. Includes bibliographical references (p. 372-378) and index.