Dealing With Defeat : War Legacy Still Haunts W. Germans

There is no dispute about the facts: Nazi Germany collapsed on May 8, 1945, ending the war in Europe and the darkest chapter in German history.

But as the 40th anniversary draws near, West Germans are caught up in an increasingly emotional debate about how they should observe it.

Should May 8 be celebrated as a day the German people were liberated from the Nazi dictatorship and launched on the path of democracy? Or should it be a day of mourning, recalling the moment when Germany was brought to its knees by foreign armies?

There seems to be no clear-cut answer, and this is unsettling for West Germans, many of whom have long been troubled by problems of national identity.

‘Saved and Destroyed’

Theodor Heuss, West Germany’s first president, once called Germany’s defeat in 1945 the “most tragic and questionable paradox of history.” And he added, “We were saved and destroyed at the same time.”

Thirty-six years have passed since Heuss made that observation, and the debate continues. It is an annual reminder that behind West Germany’s dazzling material success, there are people struggling to come to grips with their past.

The situation is complicated by years of classroom neglect of the 12-year Nazi period and two generations of reticence on the part of many parents.

In the course of a recent hour-and-a-half discussion program on television, a teen-age girl from Mainz spoke for many in her age group when she said: “It was a subject never discussed at home.”

Soviet Propaganda Drive

To some degree, the present debate was forced on West Germany by people elsewhere in Europe making plans for commemorative activities. The most ambitious of these are scheduled to take place in the Soviet Union, which, much to Bonn’s consternation, has combined its World War II victory celebration with a vitriolic propaganda campaign against West German “revanchism”--a reference to West Germany’s desire to recover territory lost after the war.

Britain and France plan to observe the occasion but in a lower-key and in a less provocative manner.

The debate here has divided sharply along party lines, with the more conservative Christian Democrats arguing that there can be little joy in celebrating a day that symbolizes Germany’s defeat and partition, and the expulsion of 14 million Germans from the lost territories.

“Catastrophe can’t be celebrated,” a party statement on the subject concludes.

Opposition Social Democrats argue that the anniversary should be used to celebrate the rebirth of democracy and the end of fascism--as a time for “the new Germany” to speak out for peace.

Peter Glotz, the Social Democrats’ national general manager, said, “Whatever others do, our problem must be to resolve our contradictory thoughts and feelings and show our people and the people of the world that the Germans have learned something from the Nazi defeat.”

Peace Seminar

Accordingly, the party plans a two-day peace seminar in Nuremberg on May 7 and 8. It has invited representatives from cities in East Europe and West Europe that were severely damaged in the war.

Chancellor Helmut Kohl has tried to depoliticize the debate by suggesting a nondenominational commemorative service in the famed Cologne Cathedral, but this has generated even more controversy. Church officials protested angrily that they were being dragged into a political affair.

Kohl also plans to address a Jewish group at the old Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, in late April, and this too has stirred criticism.

There are still no firm official plans for May 8, although some form of service at the Cologne Cathedral is still being considered, along with a suggestion that President Richard von Weizsaecker deliver a commemorative address to Parliament.

The radical Greens, who have 27 seats in Parliament, have said they would boycott any such occasion. Instead, they say, they will conduct a series of international peace seminars and send a group of their members of Parliament on a symbolic trip to the old Nazi death camp at Auschwitz in Poland.

A Day of Reconciliation

Kohl has worked hard to present May 8 as a day of reconciliation with Germany’s World War II enemies. According to West German officials, he wants to prevent any repetition of last year’s public resentment over celebrations marking the 40th anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy. On that occasion, Kohl reportedly asked to join the Allied leaders on the Normandy beaches, as a gesture of reconciliation, but he was rebuffed.

Diplomatic sources here suggest that the timing of an economic summit conference, to be held in Bonn May 2 through 4, was advanced in order to have West German leaders on an international platform with their former enemies just a few days before May 8. Kohl and other senior German officials will not admit that this is so, but several senior diplomats say they believe it is.

The reconciliation theme is further emphasized by the chancellor’s success in persuading President Reagan to stay on after the conference for a state visit that will last through May 8.

Except for the Soviet Union, Germany’s former enemies seem anxious to avoid taking any action that might stimulate the West German debate. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, after consultations with Kohl last month in Bonn, told reporters that her government will oppose any ostentatious international celebrations and plans to mark the day as the beginning of four decades of peace in Europe. French President Francois Mitterrand said that France will do nothing that would “wound the souls of our German friends.”

In West Germany, the debate has involved a broad cross-section of opinion that includes scholars, political commentators and schoolchildren.

An End and a Beginning

Michael Stuermer, a historian at Erlangen University and an adviser to Chancellor Kohl, said in an article in the respected Hamburg weekly Die Zeit that May 8 represents both an end and a beginning, and that it should be observed with that in mind.

Johann Reissmueller, a senior editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, suggested in a front-page commentary that the day be set aside to commemorate all the victims of war and violence and need, without respect to nationality.

“Such a commemoration in Germany would include the acknowledgment of guilt by those Germans who were guilty and are still alive,” he argued. “It would also prevent efforts to push guilt onto those who had none, or who were either not born or not adult at the time, which would only be another kind of moral perversion.”

The debate has evoked from young West Germans expressions of bewilderment and hurt, particularly in connection with abuse at the hands of other young people abroad. One teen-ager, appearing on a television program, told of being insulted while on vacation in Greece, and added:

“How can they think I had something to do with it, at my age?”

No Conflict in East Germany

In Communist East Germany, there is none of this conflict and torment over May 8. East Germany has conveniently sidestepped the issue by declaring that its Communists had nothing to do with Nazi Germany, except that they were victims of it. Apparently to coincide with festivities in Moscow, East German authorities have announced that May 8 will be a national holiday. They are preparing to express what one party organ called “our deepest thanks to the heroes of the Soviet people and their glorious army for their struggle against the fascists.”

But for most West Germans, history is not so simple. Journalist Gunter Hofmann, contributing to a series of newspaper articles on the meaning of May 8, observed:

“The debate over the 40th anniversary only shows that in politics as in thought, Germans still live unhappily close together with the confident ‘We’re regaining face’ and the uncertain ‘Who are we?’ ”