FORMER WEST GERMANS AND THEIR PAST
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and then you extrapolate the problems and conditions as causes - which
all makes total sense. But I would want to see more feedback between
that and society, in other words, the Alexis de Tocqueville model which
reflects how the individual shapes society and social values and mores, and
how these, in turn, feed back into the individual. I really question this
tremendous narcissism and failure to grow up on the part of Germans.
Undoubtedly, there were Germans who had this problem, but there
were many others who did not. I am questioning this all-or-nothing at–
titude. Either the Germans are completely unable to feel shame, or they
feel excess shame. But there is in fact a middle ground. What Germans
are we talking about? To what extent do you, socially and politically,
assess this inner damage? I see the consequences as creating an iconic past
with which to batter one's enemies over the head. I don't think this is
terribly useful psychologically or politically.
My second point: Dr. Mitscherlich concluded by mentioning a very
interesting discussion about the
Wehrmacht,
and how people, including
veterans like Helmut Schmidt, had difficulty accepting that the
Wehrma–
cht
was a criminal enterprise. Well, was it? That is a serious question with
no predetermined answer. Not every German soldier was either decent
or cooperated with the SS. Some were, and some were not. There's a
lot of data and evidence to show the breakdown of attitudes, social
origins, beliefs and behavior patterns of German soldiers.
It
is quite obvi–
ous that there was a fairly large (but not a majority) hard core of Na–
tional Socialists in the Army. But many were not. And many joined the
Resistance because they saw the SS shooting people, and others did not.
Briefly, to Dr. Koch: I do agree that there is potential ground for
optimism, but I would just add that the question has been posed here,
"United Germany, threat or asset?" I agree with Burkhardt's predictions,
that the German problem of the future, if there is one, will not be Ger–
man activism but passivity. We should be worrying about Germans failing
to pull their weight, not about whether they will be too aggressive,
which is a fantasy . Thank you.
Burkhard
Koch: Dr. Mitscherlich asks, was there really a revolution? I
think if Gorbachev hadn't become the General Secretary of the Com–
munist Party of the Soviet Union, it would have taken another fifty or
hundred years to come about.
It
was unimaginable, a couple of years
ago, that the Soviet Union would be dissolved peacefully, but I think it
was a real revolution. I was raised with Lenin, and I agree with Richard
Pipes. They both defined revolution as change of ownership in property,
replacement of elites and of the old state structures. That is exactly what