Eric Langenbacher
Biographic Data
| ID | 1246785 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Eric Langenbacher |
| GIVEN NAMES | Eric |
| FAMILY NAME | Langenbacher |
| SIGNATURE | LANGENBACHER E |
| AFFILIATIONS | Georgetown University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 34 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Dynamics of Memory and Identity in Contemporary Europe
The collapse of the Iron Curtain, the renationalization of eastern Europe, and the simultaneous eastward expansion of the European Union have all impacted the way the past is remembered in today’s eastern Europe. At the same time, in recent years, the Europeanization of Holocaust memory and a growing sense of the need to stage a more “self-critical” memory has significantly changed the way in which western Europe commemorates and memorializes the…
The End of Memory? German-American Relations under Donald Trump
This article examines recent dynamics of collective memory in German–American relations. After an introduction which outlines the importance of history and memory for bilateral relations, the article traces the evolution of collective memories of the two countries and identifies the key filters through which they evaluate each other. It then identifies the key characteristics of German–American relations since the advent of Donald Trump to the Am…
Holocaust Icons: Symbolizing the Shoah in History and MemoryOren Baruch Stier
Oren Baruch Stier's recent work is a masterful contribution to scholarship on Holocaust memory, theoretically sophisticated yet accessible to non-experts. The volume features chapters on four Holocaust icons: railroad cars, the “Arbeit macht frei” phrase/sign, Anne Frank, and “the six million.” Each of these chapters is empirically rich and interpretatively innovative. Stier looks at the history of each icon and its past referents, as well as of …
Helmut Kohl’s Quest for Normality: His Representation of the German Nation and Himself
Journal Article Helmut Kohl’s Quest for Normality: His Representation of the German Nation and Himself Get access Helmut Kohl’s Quest for Normality: His Representation of the German Nation and Himself . By Christian Wicke. Oxford and New York : Berghahn Books . 2015 . xi + 249 pp. $110.00 (hardback). Eric Langenbacher Eric Langenbacher Department of Government, Georgetown University [email protected] Search for other works by this author on…
Merkel's Nachsommermärchen
Not once during the campaign-or actually over the whole course of theseventeenth Bundestag (2009-2013)-was it ever really in doubt that AngelaMerkel would continue as chancellor after the 22 September 2013 parliamentaryelection. Despite the vicissitudes of governing for eight years, mostin the midst of the financial and Euro crisis, she has achieved and sustainedsome of the highest approval ratings of any postwar German politician. Voterstrust Me…
Dynamics of Memory and Identity in Contemporary Europe
The collapse of the Iron Curtain, the renationalization of eastern Europe, and the simultaneous eastward expansion of the European Union have all impacted the way the past is remembered in today’s eastern Europe. At the same time, in recent years, the Europeanization of Holocaust memory and a growing sense of the need to stage a more “self-critical” memory has significantly changed the way in which western Europe commemorates and memorializes the…
Still the Unmasterable Past? The Impact of History and Memory in the Federal Republic of Germany
For decades, collective memories of the Nazi period and the Holocaust have influenced greatly the Federal Republic of Germany. Despite fears that such progressive memories would decline after unification, the last twenty years have witnessed the institutionalisation of this memory regime. More generally, coming to terms with this past has been a constant political and cultural dynamic since 1945, even if the intensity of this process increased af…
The Germans Must Have Done Something Right
Germany-watchers and many Germans have long been sour about the unified country. Often for well-founded reasons, there are few policy or cultural areas that have not been subjected to withering criticism: failed integration of immigrants, an antiquated political economy, insufficient coming-to-terms with the past, atrophied parties, or lackluster foreign policy. Nevertheless, the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Wall and unification is an…
The Mastered Past? Collective Memory Trends in Germany since Unification
The Federal Republic of Germany-both before and after 1989-has been influenced deeply by collective memories of the Nazi period and the Holocaust, a seemingly "unmasterable past." In a first phase after unification, memory trends, which had their origin in the mid 1980s, continued, but a second period, beginning around the 1999 move of the capital back to Berlin, however, witnessed the erosion of this older trend and the delayed rise of new memor…
The Third Reich in Power: How the Nazis Won Over the Hearts and Minds of a Nation
Richard Evans’ The Third Reich in Power, the second in a planned trilogy covering the rise of the Nazis until the takeover, the peacetime years, and the war, provides an excellent overview of the 1933–1939 period. Truly comprehensive in scope, there are virtually no areas of German life that are left out. One of the virtues of Evans's book is that he combines traditional, well-studied themes such as Nazi racial policy, party infighting and foreig…
Verbrechen der Wehrmacht: Bilanz einer Debatte
This is one of those very useful and very German volumes that summarizes an important public controversy. Actually, this volume does not deal specifically with the important public debates surrounding the two controversial exhibitions on the crimes of the Wehrmacht during World War Two (1995–1999 and 2001–2004), which were seen by millions and bitterly debated in the media and in political circles. Instead, the book focuses on the upsurge of scho…
Dynamics of Memory in Twenty-first Century Germany
As the inestimable Harold Wilson once put it, "a week is a longtime in politics." Certainly, the evolution of collective memory andscholarship devoted to it is much slower than the pace of day-to-daypolitics. Yet, there are periods of rapid change-of paradigm shiftseven-where the landscape shifts rapidly over a relatively shortperiod of time. This special issue, we think, captures one of theseperiods of rapid change. Compared to the last special …
Twenty-first Century Memory Regimes in Germany and Poland: An Analysis of Elite Discourses and Public Opinion
One of the most important developments in the incipient Berlin Republic's memory regime has been the return of the memory of German suffering from the end and aftermath of World War II. Elite discourses about the bombing of German cities, the mass rape of German women by members of the Red Army, and, above all, the expulsion of Germans from then-Eastern Germany and elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe have gained massive visibility in the last…
The Drama of 2005 and the Future of German Politics
I recall a conversation from a while back with a colleague. He wasdisdainful of German politics, stating that they are ponderous, lackluster,even boring. He prefers to follow Italian politics because ofthe intrigue, emotion, and, most of all, the drama. Although forcedto agree at the time that the contrast between the two countriescould not be greater, I was also immediately reminded of the old(apocryphal) Chinese curse, "may you live in interest…
Memory Boom or Memory Fatigue in 21st Century Germany
Is "memory fatigue" setting in? One often hears this question in regards to Germans whenever another Holocaust-centered or Nazi era memory event erupts. But, one also increasingly hears this question about intellectuals and scholars in the humanities. Political scientists, lamentably, never really got into the study of memory in the first place. As an overly qualitative phenomenon the study of collective memory was impervious to dominant quantita…
Moralpolitik versus Moralpolitik: Recent Struggles over the Construction of Cultural Memory in Germany
Before the series of 60th anniversary commemorations of the end of the Holocaust, Nazism and World War II in 2005, the big development regarding German collective memories and political culture was the resurgence of memories of German suffering. Contrary to the opinions of prominent observers like W.G. Sebald, this memory, linked to events from the end and immediate aftermath of World War II, is not a repressed or only recently discovered trauma.…
New Scholarship on the Holocaust
Over the six decades since the demise of the Nazi regime, thousands of pages have been written about the genocide of European Jews in almost every genre and intellectual forum. Eva Hoffman even concludes that "the Holocaust is the most documented event in history" (192). Nevertheless, the magnitude and complexity of the trauma and its aftereffects-on survivors, their descendents and the political cultures of many countries-left numerous lacunae a…
The Degeneration of American Political Culture and the Documentary Film in Fahrenheit 9/11
Comprehending Trauma and its Aftermath
Robert Gellately and Ben Kiernan, eds., The Specter of Genocide: Mass Murder in Historical Perspective (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003)Jan-Werner Müller, ed., Memory and Power in Post-War Europe: Studies in the Presence of the Past (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002
The Return of Memory: New Discussions about German Suffering in World War II
Jörg Friedrich, Der Brand: Deutschland im Bombenkreig 1940-1945 (Munich: Propyläen Verlag, 2002) Günther Grass, Crabwalk (Orlando: Harcourt, 2002) W. G. Sebald, On the Natural History of Destruction (New York: Random House, 2003
Changing Memory Regimes in Contemporary Germany
Are collective memories currently changing in the land where the"past won't go away?" Long dominated by memory of the Holocaustand other Nazi-era crimes, Germany recently witnessed the emergenceof another memory based on the same period of history, butemphasizing German suffering. Most commentators stress the noveltyand catharsis of these discussions of supposedly long-repressedand unworked-through collective traumas and offer predominantlypsycho…
War Stories: The Search for a Usable past in the Federal Republic of Germany
Competing Interpretations of the Past in Contemporary Germany
Micha Brumlik, Hajo Funke and Lars Rensmann, Umkämpftes Vergessen: Walser-Debatte, Holocaust-Mahnmal und neuere deutsche Geschichtspolitik (Berlin: Verlag Das Arabische Buch, 2000)Robert G. Moeller, War Stories: The Search for a Usable Past in the Federal Republic of Germany (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001)Klaus Naumann, Der Krieg als Text: Das Jahr 1945 im kulturellen Gedächtnis der Presse (Hamburg: Hamburger Edition, 1998) Klaus…
Still the Unmasterable Past? The Impact of History and Memory in the Federal Republic of Germany
For decades, collective memories of the Nazi period and the Holocaust have influenced greatly the Federal Republic of Germany. Despite fears that such progressive memories would decline after unification, the last twenty years have witnessed the institutionalisation of this memory regime. More generally, coming to terms with this past has been a constant political and cultural dynamic since 1945, even if the intensity of this process increased af…
Twenty-first Century Memory Regimes in Germany and Poland: An Analysis of Elite Discourses and Public Opinion
One of the most important developments in the incipient Berlin Republic's memory regime has been the return of the memory of German suffering from the end and aftermath of World War II. Elite discourses about the bombing of German cities, the mass rape of German women by members of the Red Army, and, above all, the expulsion of Germans from then-Eastern Germany and elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe have gained massive visibility in the last…
Changing Memory Regimes in Contemporary Germany
Are collective memories currently changing in the land where the"past won't go away?" Long dominated by memory of the Holocaustand other Nazi-era crimes, Germany recently witnessed the emergenceof another memory based on the same period of history, butemphasizing German suffering. Most commentators stress the noveltyand catharsis of these discussions of supposedly long-repressedand unworked-through collective traumas and offer predominantlypsycho…
The End of Memory? German-American Relations under Donald Trump
This article examines recent dynamics of collective memory in German–American relations. After an introduction which outlines the importance of history and memory for bilateral relations, the article traces the evolution of collective memories of the two countries and identifies the key filters through which they evaluate each other. It then identifies the key characteristics of German–American relations since the advent of Donald Trump to the Am…
Memory Boom or Memory Fatigue in 21st Century Germany
Is "memory fatigue" setting in? One often hears this question in regards to Germans whenever another Holocaust-centered or Nazi era memory event erupts. But, one also increasingly hears this question about intellectuals and scholars in the humanities. Political scientists, lamentably, never really got into the study of memory in the first place. As an overly qualitative phenomenon the study of collective memory was impervious to dominant quantita…
Moralpolitik versus Moralpolitik: Recent Struggles over the Construction of Cultural Memory in Germany
Before the series of 60th anniversary commemorations of the end of the Holocaust, Nazism and World War II in 2005, the big development regarding German collective memories and political culture was the resurgence of memories of German suffering. Contrary to the opinions of prominent observers like W.G. Sebald, this memory, linked to events from the end and immediate aftermath of World War II, is not a repressed or only recently discovered trauma.…
The Mastered Past? Collective Memory Trends in Germany since Unification
The Federal Republic of Germany-both before and after 1989-has been influenced deeply by collective memories of the Nazi period and the Holocaust, a seemingly "unmasterable past." In a first phase after unification, memory trends, which had their origin in the mid 1980s, continued, but a second period, beginning around the 1999 move of the capital back to Berlin, however, witnessed the erosion of this older trend and the delayed rise of new memor…
War Stories: The Search for a Usable past in the Federal Republic of Germany
Competing Interpretations of the Past in Contemporary Germany
Micha Brumlik, Hajo Funke and Lars Rensmann, Umkämpftes Vergessen: Walser-Debatte, Holocaust-Mahnmal und neuere deutsche Geschichtspolitik (Berlin: Verlag Das Arabische Buch, 2000)Robert G. Moeller, War Stories: The Search for a Usable Past in the Federal Republic of Germany (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001)Klaus Naumann, Der Krieg als Text: Das Jahr 1945 im kulturellen Gedächtnis der Presse (Hamburg: Hamburger Edition, 1998) Klaus…
The Return of Memory: New Discussions about German Suffering in World War II
Jörg Friedrich, Der Brand: Deutschland im Bombenkreig 1940-1945 (Munich: Propyläen Verlag, 2002) Günther Grass, Crabwalk (Orlando: Harcourt, 2002) W. G. Sebald, On the Natural History of Destruction (New York: Random House, 2003
Changing Memory Regimes in Contemporary Germany
Are collective memories currently changing in the land where the"past won't go away?" Long dominated by memory of the Holocaustand other Nazi-era crimes, Germany recently witnessed the emergenceof another memory based on the same period of history, butemphasizing German suffering. Most commentators stress the noveltyand catharsis of these discussions of supposedly long-repressedand unworked-through collective traumas and offer predominantlypsycho…
The Degeneration of American Political Culture and the Documentary Film in Fahrenheit 9/11
Comprehending Trauma and its Aftermath
Robert Gellately and Ben Kiernan, eds., The Specter of Genocide: Mass Murder in Historical Perspective (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003)Jan-Werner Müller, ed., Memory and Power in Post-War Europe: Studies in the Presence of the Past (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002
Memory Boom or Memory Fatigue in 21st Century Germany
Is "memory fatigue" setting in? One often hears this question in regards to Germans whenever another Holocaust-centered or Nazi era memory event erupts. But, one also increasingly hears this question about intellectuals and scholars in the humanities. Political scientists, lamentably, never really got into the study of memory in the first place. As an overly qualitative phenomenon the study of collective memory was impervious to dominant quantita…
Moralpolitik versus Moralpolitik: Recent Struggles over the Construction of Cultural Memory in Germany
Before the series of 60th anniversary commemorations of the end of the Holocaust, Nazism and World War II in 2005, the big development regarding German collective memories and political culture was the resurgence of memories of German suffering. Contrary to the opinions of prominent observers like W.G. Sebald, this memory, linked to events from the end and immediate aftermath of World War II, is not a repressed or only recently discovered trauma.…
New Scholarship on the Holocaust
Over the six decades since the demise of the Nazi regime, thousands of pages have been written about the genocide of European Jews in almost every genre and intellectual forum. Eva Hoffman even concludes that "the Holocaust is the most documented event in history" (192). Nevertheless, the magnitude and complexity of the trauma and its aftereffects-on survivors, their descendents and the political cultures of many countries-left numerous lacunae a…
The Drama of 2005 and the Future of German Politics
I recall a conversation from a while back with a colleague. He wasdisdainful of German politics, stating that they are ponderous, lackluster,even boring. He prefers to follow Italian politics because ofthe intrigue, emotion, and, most of all, the drama. Although forcedto agree at the time that the contrast between the two countriescould not be greater, I was also immediately reminded of the old(apocryphal) Chinese curse, "may you live in interest…
Verbrechen der Wehrmacht: Bilanz einer Debatte
This is one of those very useful and very German volumes that summarizes an important public controversy. Actually, this volume does not deal specifically with the important public debates surrounding the two controversial exhibitions on the crimes of the Wehrmacht during World War Two (1995–1999 and 2001–2004), which were seen by millions and bitterly debated in the media and in political circles. Instead, the book focuses on the upsurge of scho…
Dynamics of Memory in Twenty-first Century Germany
As the inestimable Harold Wilson once put it, "a week is a longtime in politics." Certainly, the evolution of collective memory andscholarship devoted to it is much slower than the pace of day-to-daypolitics. Yet, there are periods of rapid change-of paradigm shiftseven-where the landscape shifts rapidly over a relatively shortperiod of time. This special issue, we think, captures one of theseperiods of rapid change. Compared to the last special …
Twenty-first Century Memory Regimes in Germany and Poland: An Analysis of Elite Discourses and Public Opinion
One of the most important developments in the incipient Berlin Republic's memory regime has been the return of the memory of German suffering from the end and aftermath of World War II. Elite discourses about the bombing of German cities, the mass rape of German women by members of the Red Army, and, above all, the expulsion of Germans from then-Eastern Germany and elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe have gained massive visibility in the last…
The Third Reich in Power: How the Nazis Won Over the Hearts and Minds of a Nation
Richard Evans’ The Third Reich in Power, the second in a planned trilogy covering the rise of the Nazis until the takeover, the peacetime years, and the war, provides an excellent overview of the 1933–1939 period. Truly comprehensive in scope, there are virtually no areas of German life that are left out. One of the virtues of Evans's book is that he combines traditional, well-studied themes such as Nazi racial policy, party infighting and foreig…
Still the Unmasterable Past? The Impact of History and Memory in the Federal Republic of Germany
For decades, collective memories of the Nazi period and the Holocaust have influenced greatly the Federal Republic of Germany. Despite fears that such progressive memories would decline after unification, the last twenty years have witnessed the institutionalisation of this memory regime. More generally, coming to terms with this past has been a constant political and cultural dynamic since 1945, even if the intensity of this process increased af…
The Germans Must Have Done Something Right
Germany-watchers and many Germans have long been sour about the unified country. Often for well-founded reasons, there are few policy or cultural areas that have not been subjected to withering criticism: failed integration of immigrants, an antiquated political economy, insufficient coming-to-terms with the past, atrophied parties, or lackluster foreign policy. Nevertheless, the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Wall and unification is an…
The Mastered Past? Collective Memory Trends in Germany since Unification
The Federal Republic of Germany-both before and after 1989-has been influenced deeply by collective memories of the Nazi period and the Holocaust, a seemingly "unmasterable past." In a first phase after unification, memory trends, which had their origin in the mid 1980s, continued, but a second period, beginning around the 1999 move of the capital back to Berlin, however, witnessed the erosion of this older trend and the delayed rise of new memor…
Dynamics of Memory and Identity in Contemporary Europe
The collapse of the Iron Curtain, the renationalization of eastern Europe, and the simultaneous eastward expansion of the European Union have all impacted the way the past is remembered in today’s eastern Europe. At the same time, in recent years, the Europeanization of Holocaust memory and a growing sense of the need to stage a more “self-critical” memory has significantly changed the way in which western Europe commemorates and memorializes the…
Merkel's Nachsommermärchen
Not once during the campaign-or actually over the whole course of theseventeenth Bundestag (2009-2013)-was it ever really in doubt that AngelaMerkel would continue as chancellor after the 22 September 2013 parliamentaryelection. Despite the vicissitudes of governing for eight years, mostin the midst of the financial and Euro crisis, she has achieved and sustainedsome of the highest approval ratings of any postwar German politician. Voterstrust Me…
Helmut Kohl’s Quest for Normality: His Representation of the German Nation and Himself
Journal Article Helmut Kohl’s Quest for Normality: His Representation of the German Nation and Himself Get access Helmut Kohl’s Quest for Normality: His Representation of the German Nation and Himself . By Christian Wicke. Oxford and New York : Berghahn Books . 2015 . xi + 249 pp. $110.00 (hardback). Eric Langenbacher Eric Langenbacher Department of Government, Georgetown University [email protected] Search for other works by this author on…
Holocaust Icons: Symbolizing the Shoah in History and MemoryOren Baruch Stier
Oren Baruch Stier's recent work is a masterful contribution to scholarship on Holocaust memory, theoretically sophisticated yet accessible to non-experts. The volume features chapters on four Holocaust icons: railroad cars, the “Arbeit macht frei” phrase/sign, Anne Frank, and “the six million.” Each of these chapters is empirically rich and interpretatively innovative. Stier looks at the history of each icon and its past referents, as well as of …
The End of Memory? German-American Relations under Donald Trump
This article examines recent dynamics of collective memory in German–American relations. After an introduction which outlines the importance of history and memory for bilateral relations, the article traces the evolution of collective memories of the two countries and identifies the key filters through which they evaluate each other. It then identifies the key characteristics of German–American relations since the advent of Donald Trump to the Am…
Dynamics of Memory and Identity in Contemporary Europe
The collapse of the Iron Curtain, the renationalization of eastern Europe, and the simultaneous eastward expansion of the European Union have all impacted the way the past is remembered in today’s eastern Europe. At the same time, in recent years, the Europeanization of Holocaust memory and a growing sense of the need to stage a more “self-critical” memory has significantly changed the way in which western Europe commemorates and memorializes the…
Law (20 works) · Political science (20 works) · Sociology (20 works) · History (19 works) · Politics (18 works) · German (15 works) · German History and Society (14 works) · Art (10 works) · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration (9 works) · The Holocaust (9 works)