The Merkel Government's Politics of the Past

Wittlinger, Ruth

doi:10.3167/gps.2008.260402

The Merkel Government's Politics of the Past

Wittlinger, Ruth

Authors

Ruth Wittlinger

Abstract

Angela Merkel came to power at a crucial time in regards to Germany's relationship with its past. Where would she position herself in light of Gerhard Schröder's approach that had offered a new way of accepting responsibility for the past and integrating it into the twenty-first century present by explicitly making it a key element of German national identity, but also in view of her East German biography? Would she continue and maybe even reinforce the institutionalization of Holocaust-centered memory and-given the forceful return of the topic of German victimhood-complement it with the institutionalization of the memory of German suffering, or would she emphasize the latter at the expense of the former? This paper attempts to answer these questions by examining Merkel's politics of the past during her first three years in office.

Citation

Wittlinger, R. (2008). The Merkel Government's Politics of the Past. German Politics and Society, 26(4), 9-27. https://doi.org/10.3167/gps.2008.260402

Journal Article Type	Article
Publication Date	Dec 1, 2008
Deposit Date	Aug 18, 2009
Publicly Available Date	Oct 30, 2009
Journal	German Politics and Society
Print ISSN	1045-0300
Electronic ISSN	1558-5441
Publisher	Berghahn Journals
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	26
Issue	4
Pages	9-27
DOI	https://doi.org/10.3167/gps.2008.260402
Keywords	Angela Merkel, Grand coalition, Nazism, Holocaust, Collective memory, Politics of the past, CDU/CSU.