Europeanizing Germany's Twentieth Century

What, Where and Why is Europe? Some Answers from Recent Historiography

“…Berend's approach is in many instances close to what Ute Frevert has described as 'conceiving of Europeanness as a web of communication or interaction'. 39 According to Frevert, it is possible to get a sense of Europe by looking at the space people create(d) through their professional, personal and potentially even romantic relations. Constructing such a web evades lofty ideas about Europe or definitions of its cultural basis.…”

In search of the German nation: citizenship and the challenge of integration

“…From the beginning, the political and intellectual leadership of the FRG sought to overcome the racial and anti-Semitic undercurrents of the ethno-cultural ideal of the Volk, which had been the ascendant from the early part of the twentieth century. Finally, the Federal Republic saw the rapid demise of the notion, still very strong in the Weimar Republic (Frevert 2005), that German culture was unique and superior to that of other countries. This ideal of Germany as a 'central' nation geographically and culturally was still prevalent in the inter-war years, but after 1945 it gave way to an image of Germany as part of an occidental culture.…”

Introduction: A Peaceful Europe? Negotiating Peace in the Twentieth Century

“…Thus the states which succeeded the Ottoman Empire also came to lie outside the remit of Europe. 56 One definition of 'peace' now included 'civilisation'. On the other hand, due to US participation in the war, 'Europe' had been significantly broadened.…”