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PARTISAN REVIEW
visit to Germany in 1950, Hannah Arendt already spoke of a "German
refusal to mourn."
What do we mean by mourning? Mourning is a reaction to painful
losses that frequently appear to transcend the limits of what is bearable.
Due to the complete disintegration of national self-idealization, a process
of mourning encompassing the whole of the German people did not oc–
cur, although the incredible losses oflife and humanity, oflong-cherished
ideals, of territory and culture would certainly have warranted it. While
there was much public discussion of the Nazi era in the form of films,
debates, and lectures, there was a notable absence of dialogue on the
subject at a more private level, in families, schools, and everyday personal
interaction. As a consequence, memories of the twelve barbaric years of
Nazi rule were largely suppressed, particularly by those who had lived
through those years as responsible, thinking adults endorsing or at least
condoning Nazi ideology.
Mourning in the face of irremediable guilt cannot be prescribed, nei–
ther as to the form it should take nor to its appropriate duration. The
refusal to mourn is most frequent when the losses in question are irre–
trievable and are the source of excruciating pain on the one hand and
shame and anxiety on the other, most notably in the aftermath of self–
aggrandizement. What do notions like mourning and acknowledgment
of guilt mean to generations not directly affected by the losses? Coping
with the loss of national grandeur still appears to be a problem. The
more immature a person is, the more precarious his self-respect will be.
This, in turn, makes it doubly essential for him to idealize himself and to
-join with other like-minded persons in evincing their contempt for all
things "foreign." For those whose mode of experience centers around a
narcissistic wound inflicted on their self-love, there can be no empathy
with persons not perceived as part of their own self and no mourning
for the victims of their prejudices and projections. Yet in the long run it
is impossible to deny what actually has taken place.
In
fact, persons - and
this applies equally to subsequent generations - cannot free themselves
from their historical responsibility, which defenses against mourning and
guilt can only perpetuate.
The constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) of
1949, however, is proof that after 1945 there was an influential group of
Germans not intent on forgetting their guilt, who had learned from the
past, who mourned their losses and were pledged to do what they could
to prevent a repetition of the history of violence. They were aware of
their responsibility both for past and future generations and clear in their
minds that if the misdeeds of the past were not to recur, then there
could be no division of responsibility. Such Germans existed and exist
