Revival of the "Clean Wehrmacht Myth" - Legende von der sauberen Wehrmacht

One of the more insidious aspects of the rise of the right-wing Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party is the success the party leaders have achieved in their attempt to rewrite history - or, as they would claim: reclaim history ("unsere Vergangenheit zurückholen"). The most glaring example was the provocative Kyffhäusertreffen speech by AfD candidate Alexander Gauland delivered just a couple of weeks before the national election this fall (video of the speech here).  Here is the key section of Gauland's speech:

“Und deshalb, liebe Freunde, haben wir auch das Recht, uns nicht nur unser Land, sondern auch unsere Vergangenheit zurückzuholen. … Wir haben das Recht, stolz zu sein auf die Leistungen deutscher Soldaten in zwei Weltkriegen.“

("And therefore, dear friends, we also have the right not only to take back our country, but also take back our history... We have the right to be proud of the achievement of German soldiers in two world wars.")

And with that, Gauland revives the myth of the "Clean Wehrmacht" - the myth that German soldier on the front was simply fulfilling his patriotic duty with glory and honor, and had nothing to do with the Holocaust, which was carried out by a small group of SS officers.  This myth is a cultural zombie in Germany that won't die.  We thought it was dead after the hugely successful Wehrmacht Exposition of 1995-1999, which documented the Wehrmacht's participation in the extermination of Jews as well as non-combatant Poles and Russians.  The Expo traveled to 33 cities in Germany and Austria and had over 1.2 million visitors.  But now, with Pegida and the right-wing populism of the AfD, the Clean Wehrmach myth is making a comeback, and historical revisionism is once again infecting millions of Germans.

Rainer Werner, a teacher and author, writes on the blog Starke Meinungen about his father, who was a Wehrmacht soldier.  As a young boy, Rainer tagged along with his Dad at „Kameradschaftstreffen“, - reunions of WWII veterans - where the men could reminisce about the "good old days".  At these events the memories were scrubbed clean of any atrocities:

Der Krieg im Osten wurde in erster Linie als herausragende sportliche Leistung gewürdigt. Von Entgleisungen einzelner Einheiten und von der Verstrickung in Kriegsverbrechen war nirgendwo die Rede. Es gab auch keine selbstkritische Einsicht, dass es sich beim Krieg gegen die Sowjetunion um einen Angriffs- und Vernichtungskrieg gehandelt hat.

{"The war in the East was heralded first and foremost as a sporting achievement.  There was never any mention of any mistakes made by individual units or any involvement in war crimes. There was also never any recognition that the war against the Soviet Union was one of aggression and annihiliation.") 

With respect to the historical revisionism of Gauland the AfD Werner writes:

Alexander Gauland fällt mit seiner Forderung, wieder stolz auf die Leistungen der Wehrmacht sein zu dürfen, hinter den gesicherten Erkenntnisstand  der Militärforschung zurück. Er sabotiert damit den bislang einvernehmlichen Konsens in unserer Gesellschaft, die Verbrechen des Nationalsozialismus in all ihren Facetten aufzuklären und  zu ächten. Er beschädigt damit  die Erinnerungskultur und beleidigt die Opfer.  Wenn jemand die Verstrickungen der Wehrmacht in die Verbrechen der NSDAP leugnet oder verharmlost, kann er nur im Schilde führen, diese Verbrechen in einem weniger schlimmen Lichte erscheinen zu lassen. Gaulands Einlassungen zur Wehrmacht sind Teil des Geschichtsrevisionismus, den die AfD mit Eifer betreibt. Von ihrem Vorbild Wladimir Putin haben sie gelernt, dass es bei der Geschichtsbetrachtung nicht darauf ankommt, der  Wahrheit zum Durchbruch zu verhelfen, sondern die Geschichte so zu deuten, dass sie heutigen politischen Zielsetzungen oder Interessen dient. Wie der Kreml  heute die Verbrechen Stalins als patriotische Taten rechtfertigt, verharmlost  Gauland die Verbrechen Hitlers als „falsche Vergangenheit“.

The mention of Putin and revival of the Cult of Stalin in Russia reminds us that Germany is not the only nation grappling with historical revisionism.  Historical revisionism is a powerful component of totalitarian ideologies which, as Anne Applebaum writes in the Washington Post, are once again gaining traction around the globe. 

"Nothing is ever over. No historic trauma is ever resolved. No historic villain is ever buried, and no historic lessons are permanently learned. Everything and everyone can be revived, and anything can be unlearned — even in the most settled civilizations.Evidence of this is all around us. After two generations of atonement, an elected German politician — Björn Höcke, speaker of the parliamentary group of the new far-right party Alternative for Germany — wants Germans to stop apologizing for Nazi crimes; he describes the Holocaust memorial in Berlin as a “monument of shame.” In China, a government once embarrassed by Maoism is peddling a sanitized version. Last year, 17 million Chinese made pilgrimages to the chairman’s home to pay homage to the man whose madness starved far more of his countrymen than that. [...] Totalitarian ideologies never die, and neither do their appeal, and so their consequences must be carefully re-explained for each generation. Supremacist and imperialist ideas make people feel better; mass movements offer confidence and safety. History is always available for rewriting, and wars can always be refought. France’s border wars with Germany lasted for centuries; Serbia’s modern struggle with Kosovo dates to a battle that took place in 1389. We will be refighting our Civil War 700 years from now, too, so we might as well prepare for it. "

See also my review of Wolfram Wette's The Wehrmacht

Comments

[Zyme]

I believe you are missing the point here:

When a country keeps nearly the combined rest of the developed world busy for several years and stands on the brink of success, there must have been tremedous military achievements in both occassions. Completely regardless of what was enabled by these successes.

That is the point they are making here: Recognition of military achievements, separated by all additional events. So you could calm down about it :-)

[David]

What if all that technical know-how and energy had been used to advance humanity instead of slaughtering tens of millions of people? the only "achievement" was the ruin of Germany's great cities and total destruction across the continent - in the name of some sort of perverse racial ideolögy. THAT is spposed to be a source of pride?

[Zyme]

It is about separating military from politics.

Also you will have a tough time separating German approach from the same on its opposing side in the first world war.

So AfD are attacking the dogma that nothing in first half of 20th century is worth admiring due to political actions within one dozen years.

You will not like it, however I see this as a completely valid position. We have seen the alternate approach for a few decades now and nothing helpful comes out of it.

[Dylan]

Heil Hitler