How does Germany view World War II nowadays?

As an Junior in High School taking US History, I am perfectly aware that there is probably some bias to the teachings. However, it really does seem as though Germany was the villian throughout all of this, no questions asked. I know they took a hard hitting to World War I and that many really had nothing else to go for, but they still are responsible for millions of civillian deaths.

When World War II is taught in the classroom in Germany, I'm really curious to hear how they spin the tale. I'm going to assume they focus more on the economic troubles Germany had at the time and that many had nothing else to do. It's still very hard to justify an event like that, though.

And there are obviously the people that deny the Holocaust's existance (which seems to upset MANY people), but I'm guessing there's not too many of those people... I hope.

Anyway, I was just interested in finding this out. Thank you very much in advance!

 

I've heard mixed things, I don't think Germany really spins anything since they don't have to, there is more than enough documentation available in Germany alone to help draw valid conclusions about how life was at the time. From what I've gathered,

1. Everything is taught but the subject is avoided by Germans
2. Everything is taught, the Nazi's are hated but the soldiers are mostly sympathized with
3. Everything is taught but the war generation is largely looked down upon
4. Everything is taught but the war generation is polarizing in appeal

I don't know which is true, perhaps much like the rise of Nazism it depends on where in Germany you go, who you talk to, etc.

Germany has a very rich military history, I don't know if it is taught with enthusiasm but I'm sure it is taught at some level. Innovations such as strategic planning, the jet engine, etc are nothing to scoff at but again, probably not conveyed with very much enthusiasm. By enthusiasm I mean in a way that would make people proud of what happened in such a way that they would want to return to the glory days. Germany doesn't have much of a military now, Prussia is gone, and the last of the Prussian officers are dying out, most likely taking their code with them. It also doesn't help much considering people think Germans by genetics are automatically war like people (looking at the history of Germans, it's not that far fetched that some would actually think this way) just waiting for an opportunity to strike again.

For World War 2, Hitler and the Nazi's were the villains (they may have had some good policies but the bad far outweighed the good, by a lot!), the people however were not (mostly).

There doesn't have to be a bias when teaching the wars by any means. You will find some teachers have one while others do not. I remember most of my elementary school teachers had one, I didn't buy the "you'd be living on boats and waking up at 4 each morning to salute the officer before working in the mines for 12 hours!" pr the "everyone was fighting for the same goal" story teachers pitched by someone asked what would have happened if the Germans won. I only remember having more "fair" teachers in parts of high school and university, especially in university (so far).

 

One thing you will learn is that if you are interested in a topic, do everything you can to read from as diverse a selection of authors as you can. Everyone has their own bias, and rarely is a topic presented without a "slant".

There seemed to be at one time a definite bias in Germany to the WWII generation. It was almost a "self loathing" that went on. I had a cousin in Germany about the same age as myself and I speak based on my conversations with him when he was a student.

A lot of the WWII history was taught with almost an apologetic tone. Understandable. While we in US Schools could learn of the attributes of Eisenhower, Patton, MacArthur, etc., no one in Germany was teaching the finer points of Rommel, Von Manstein, Guderian, Dietrich, etc.

To the victor goes the spoils,......... and the good press.

 

First of all the education in Germany is decentralized which means every German state decides on its own which aspects of WW2 are taught more intensive and which are not. So although I know people from elsewhere in Germany I can only talk in detail about Berlin.
WW2 is one of the biggest thematic complexes in school and taught in various classes (history, political science, German, social science). The focus is on the Holocaust and how it was prepared and executed. A point of similar importance is the nationalsocialistic way to power and how they managed to consolidate it economically, politically and socially. Furthermore the German war crimes are taught extensively (the war of aggression, the massacres in Eastern Europe and elsewhere, the forced laborers). The last point of importance are the consequences the war had for the Germans (again politically, socially and to a lesser degree economically). The refugees and the maltreatment of German civilians on the eastern front are points of special interest in this context.
The military aspects of the war are almost completely ignored and only taught very superficially (especially the Pacific). The big exception are the allied bombing campaigns as they also had a big social impact on the German society.

Grüße
Philipp

 

My best mate lives in Bremen.

The RAF & The Mighty 8th Bombed the hell out of it.

His Grandfather died at Stalingrad.

For What.......................??

I've never figured out an answer.......................

...........what do the Americans say?

Go Figure.

 

They are pretty concious about it, and seem to me very guarded about displaying much nationalism at all (as Ive stated before, I found no German Flags hanging in each classroom).

One interesting observation even though it is trivial: When I went into music stores, I found that the Kiss band albums did not have the traditional design like this:



The s's were normal and not the lightningbolt. I'm sure we can probably figure out why.

 

KISS has been spelt KIZZ in Germany to avoid the use of the S rune.

 

The flag thing isn't that unusual (for me at least), very few classrooms I've seen in Canada across various provinces have flags either. They always have them on flag poles, sometimes in gymnasiums and usually near the head offices.

 

The article called "let's get over it" German Blog: Language and Culture of the German Speaking World is on this precise subject, from the German point of view. I might be interesting.

 

I have spoken with some students from Germany and asked this exact question. They gave almost the verbatim answer as Philipp.
One student I knew in high school (foriegn exchange program) said her grandfather was a veteran of WWII and served from Barbarosa to Berlin in the infantry. He was never wounded, he would never talk of the war and only learned of his service from her father. Her father told her that her grandad was a brave man and a good soldgier and that everyone from his training company except him was wounded or killed. I found it sad that this man was not honored by his country more. According to her he was not an advocate of the NAZI ideology.