Germany's Transient Pasts

Rudy J. Koshar

ISBN 10: 0807847011 / ISBN 13: 9780807847015

Published by The University of North Carolina Press, US, 1998

About this Item

Over the course of the twentieth century, Germans have venerated and maintained a variety of historical buildings--from medieval fortresses and cathedrals to urban districts and nineteenth-century working-class housing. But the practice of historic preservation has sometimes proven controversial, as different groups of Germans have sought to use historical architecture to represent competing versions of their nation's history. Transient Pasts is the first book to examine the role that the historic preservation movement has played in German cultural history and memory from the end of the nineteenth century to the early 1970s. Focusing on key public debates over historic preservation, Rudy Koshar charts a trajectory of cultural politics in which historical architecture both facilitated and limited Germans' efforts to identify as a nation. He demonstrates that historical buildings and monuments have served as enduring symbols of national history in a country scarred by the traumas of two world wars, Nazism, the Holocaust, and political division. His findings challenge both the widely accepted argument that Germans have constantly repressed their past and the contention that Germany's intense public engagement with history since reunification is unprecedented. The first book to examine the role of the historic preservation movement in German cultural history and memory. Reveals how historical buildings and monuments have represented competing versions of history from the late 1800s to the 1970s.

Seller Inventory # LU-9780807847015

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Germany's Transient Pasts
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, US
• Publication Date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0807847011
• ISBN 13: 9780807847015
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 655 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Over the course of the twentieth century, Germans have venerated and maintained a variety of historical buildings -- from medieval fortresses and cathedrals to urban districts and nineteenth-century working-class housing. But the practice of historic preservation has sometimes proven controversial, as different groups of Germans have sought to use historical architecture to represent competing versions of their nation's history.

Transient Pasts is the first book to examine the role that the historic preservation movement has played in German cultural history and memory from the end of the nineteenth century to the
early 1970s.

Focusing on key public debates over historic preservation, Rudy Koshar charts a trajectory of cultural politics in which historical architecture both facilitated and limited Germans' efforts to identify as a nation. He demonstrates that historical buildings and monuments have served as enduring symbols of national history in a country scarred by the traumas of two world wars, Nazism, the Holocaust, and political division. His findings challenge both the widely accepted argument that Germans have constantly repressed their past and the contention that Germany's intense public engagement with history since reunification is unprecedented.

About the Author

Rudy Koshar is professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of Social Life, Local Politics, and Nazism: Marburg, 1880-1935.