LEADER 03483cam a2200277Ia 4500001 246728 005 20240621200258.0 008 151007s9999 xx 000 0 und d 020 9.7812677127e+012 035 246728 040 LHM |beng |erda |cLHM 100 Eder, Jacob Sebastian. 245 10 Holocaust angst: The Federal Republic of Germany and Holocaust memory in the United States, 1977--98. 264 1 [Place of publication not identified] : |b[publisher not identified], |c2012. 336 text |btxt |2rdacontent 337 unspecified |bz |2rdamedia 338 unspecified |bzu |2rdacarrier 520 This dissertation examines the perceptions and reactions of the leadership around Helmut Kohl, West German and then German chancellor from 1982 to 1998, to public manifestations of engagement with the history of the Holocaust and its legacies in the United States, e.g. in the mass media, museums, monuments, and educational programs. Drawing on primary sources from over a dozen governmental, party, and institutional archives in both countries, it is among the first projects investigating German-American relations and transnational German efforts to cope with the Nazi past during the 1980s and 1990s to be based on archival documents (made accessible after multiple declassification requests). I argue that a network of West German officials and their associates in private organizations, mostly in the conservative spectrum, perceived themselves as the "victims" of American Holocaust memorial culture. Here they interpreted a lack of attention to the transformation of West Germany after 1949 and feared that public manifestations of Holocaust memory could severely damage its reputation in the United States. I refer to the concerns catalyzed by these perceptions as "Holocaust Angst." This phenomenon propelled a number of developments, which I analyze in five case studies: the emergence of American Holocaust memorial culture as a political "problem" in the eyes of West German officials in the late 1970s; relations between the Kohl government and American Jewish organizations; West German efforts to influence the content of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's permanent exhibition; cooperation between West German government officials and scholars to channel discourse about Germany and German history in the United States; and sources of conflict and instances of cooperation in German-American Jewish relations after German reunification. In the end, efforts made by the aforementioned circle of political decisionmakers, diplomats, lobbyists, and scholars to change American Holocaust discourse failed. Yet they managed to establish a stable relationship with several American Jewish organizations and founded institutions that continue to shape German-American relations today. German engagement with American Holocaust memory also contributed to the transformation of Holocaust memory in the Federal Republic and eventually rendered it a "positive resource" for German self-representation abroad. 530 Electronic version(s) available online. 590 Dissertations and Theses 591 Record updated by Marcive processing 21 June 2024 856 |uhttp://search.proquest.com/docview/1153625943?accountid=47978 956 41 |uhttp://dc.ushmm.org/library/bib246728/3542800.pdf |zHosted by USHMM. 987 Dissertation ordered September 2015 852 |breceiving |kShelved at 79-2-2 852 |bebook