The problem of national trauma in the collective memory of Germans in the united Germany

The article attempts to characterize the state of historical consciousness of the Germans at the end of the 20th - beginning of the 21^st century. The article examines what factors influenced the formation of the “sacrificial narrative” in the collective memory of the Germans of the united Germany. The research is based on the publications in the German, Polish and Russian press, autobiographical works, interviews, diaries and memoirs of Gunther Grass, Gerhard Schroeder, etc., analyzes the works of art and filmography released at that time. Memories of the suffering of the German civilian population during the Second World War usually belonged to the individual memory or remained part of the German family history. True, the traumatic past was often used for political purposes, especially in the FRG in the matters related to the theme of exile. In the first decade of the new millennium, thanks to the changes in the cultural agenda - the release of a number of books and feature films, the plot of which was based on the suffering of the Germans, the traumatic past is at the center of public debate. However, the rethinking of the theme of the suffering of the German civilian population was met with a rather wary response in the global context, primarily from Poland and the victor countries.

1. Assman, A. (2018), Dlinnaya ten’ proshlogo: memorial’naya kul’tura i istoricheskaya politika [The Long Shadow of the Past: Memorial Culture and Historical Politics], Moscow, Russia.

2. Gebhardt, M. (2018), Kogdaprishli soldaty. Iznasilovanie nemetskikh zhenshchin v kontse Vtoroi mirovoi voiny [Als die Soldaten kamen Die Vergewaltigung deutscher Frauen am Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs], Politicheskaya entsiklopediya, Moscow, Russia.

3. Novikova, M. (2020), “The problem of historical memory in Germany during the reign of Gerhard Schroeder”, Novaya i noveishaya istoriya, no. 4, pp. 127-137.

4. Pavlov, N. and Novikov, А. (2005), Vneshnyaya politika FRG ot Adenauera do Shredera, [FRG foreign policy from Adenauer to Schroeder], Moskovskie uchebniki - SiDi-Press, Moscow, Russia.

5. Sebald, G. (2019), Estestvennaya istoriya razrusheniya [Naturgeschichte der Zerstorung], Novoe izdatel’stvo, Moscow, Russia.

6. Shreder, G. (2007), Resheniya. Moya zhizn’ v politike [Solutions. My life in politics], Evropa, Moscow, Russia.