Judging the Past in Unified Germany

This 2001 book examines how government of unified Germany has dealt with former government of Communist East Germany.

A. James McAdams (Author)

9780521802086, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 9 April 2001

274 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.57 kg

'Well-written with tight analysis, this book should benefit graduate students and scholars of contemporary German affairs.' Choice

In recent years, no modern democracy has taken more aggressive steps to come to terms with a legacy of dictatorship than has the Federal Republic of Germany with the crimes and injustices of Communist East Germany. In this 2001 book, A. James McAdams provides a comprehensive and engaging examination of the four most prominent instances of this policy: criminal trials for the killings at the Berlin Wall; the disqualification of administrative personnel for secret-police ties; parliamentary truth-telling commissions; and private property restitution. On the basis of extensive interviews in Bonn and Berlin over the 1990s, McAdams gives new insight into the difficulties German politicians, judges, bureaucrats, and public officials faced sitting in judgment on the affairs of another state. He argues provocatively that the success of their policies must be measured in terms of the way they used East German history to justify their actions.

Preface
Glossary
Note
Part I. Introduction on Judging the East German Past: 1. Interpreting East Germany's history
2. Four types of retrospective justice
Part II. Criminal Justice: Prosecuting GDR Officials: 3. Competing arguments for justice
4. Seeking justice within the law
5. A 'trial of the century'
6. Judicial architects of German unity
7. The risks of going too far
8. An ambiguous message about culpability
Part III. Disqualifying Justice: Searching for Stasi Collaborators: 9. Contending views on the Stasi's reach
10. Level one: distilling truth from the files
11. Level two: screening for Stasi activity
12. Level three: appealing dismissals before the courts
13. The competing messages of screening
Part IV. Moral Justice: Assessing the Complete Record of Dictatorship: 14. Finding fault with the churches
15. A different stand on the Deutschlandpolitik
16. Mixed emotions about the silent majority
17. Revisiting East Germany's difficult past
18. A better commission?
Part V. Corrective Justice: Returning Private Property: 19. The narrow choices behind the property settlement
20. The challenge of implementing the property statute
21. The legitimacy of Jewish claims …
22. … But the irreversibility of Soviet expropriations
23. Vying responses to GDR-era injustice
24. The ambiguities of drawing the line: an enduring burden of multiple pasts
Part VI. Conclusion: A Manageable Past?: 25. The FRG's constrained options
26. Judging the past in the right way
27. GDR wrongdoing in perspective
28. Contending venues of justice.

Subject Areas: War crimes [JWXK], Politics & government [JP], European history [HBJD]