Book Die Deutschen und ihre verletzte Identität (pol. Germans and their injured identities. How to Free From the Trauma of Past Generations) Gabriele Baring addresses an highly delicate subject related to the national identity of the Germans.
The author examines the impact of historical trauma on contemporary generations, especially in the context of planet War II, collective guilt and the relation between national pride and historical burdens. Gabriele Baring asks why many Germans find it hard to find a healthy, affirmative relation with their national identity.
Problem root
The author analyses historical events that affected Germans, including the trauma of war, the division of Germany and the difficulties associated with the denazification process. The chapter focuses on mechanisms for the transfer of trauma between generations and their impact on individuals' lives and the shaping of society. Baring discusses in item the contemporary challenges facing German society, including the tension between guilt and national pride. The way to healing – in the last part of the book, the author proposes ways of freeing herself from the burden of the past and building a new, healthy relation with her identity.
Person injured
Gabriele Baring argues that the German identity remains "harmed", resulting from the deficiency of open discussion about the past and the inability to deal with hard emotions. In her opinion, only by accepting past and working on individual and social traumas Germany can accomplish interior peace and a full sense of national belonging. The book deals with German national identity, which, according to the author, was "hurt" by historical events of the 20th century.
Collective Guilt Heritage
Baring analyses how guilt related to Nazism and planet War II affected the psyche of subsequent generations of Germans. The author studies how war and post-war experiences are transmitted emotionally in families, creating hidden behaviour patterns. According to the author, Germany struggles with the deficiency of national pride and conflict between the desire to forget the past and the necessity to accept it.
Perspectives and method of analysis
Baring uses an interdisciplinary approach, combining psychology, past and sociology. This is besides transgenerational psychology, where the key tool of analysis is the mechanisms for the transfer of trauma in families. Baring shows how unexplained pain of war generations affected the emotions of their children and grandchildren. The author discusses social work for Nazi crimes, pointing to interior tensions between the request for forgiveness and the sense of punishment.
The book places analysis in the context of the post-war past of Germany, including the division of the country, denazification and changing identity in united Germany. Baring claims that Germany as a society suffers from a collective trauma resulting from the shame of Nazi crimes, traumatic war experiences, including bombings and expulsions, unaccounted for post-war emotions specified as failure of homes or social degradation. The author presents a mechanics in which unexplained emotions (fear, guilt, regret) are unconsciously passed on to subsequent generations. As a result, emotional and relational problems in families, difficulties in expressing national pride, avoiding historical themes in intergenerational conversations, deficiency of a healthy national identity.
Disease and prescription
According to Baring, Germany as a society did not build a healthy attitude towards its past, leading to the rejection of national symbols specified as flag or anthem; interior divisions in the debate on patriotism; the perception of German identity as a burden alternatively than a origin of force.
The way to healing should be to accept history, admit the past without suppressing or over-exaggerating its effects, open conversation – intergenerational dialog on trauma and historical experiences; building a fresh identity (finding the balance between national pride and work for history).
Deep intellectual Analysis
The author successfully combines investigation with therapeutic practice, offering a comprehensive image of the problem. The book confronts German society with uncomfortable questions that are frequently overlooked in public debate. Baring not only describes problems, but besides suggests concrete steps to solve them.
In the context of Gabriele Baring's book Die Deutschen und ihre verletzte Identität German national trauma is 1 of the most crucial threads that the author undergoes in-depth analysis. The key aspects of this subject are discussed below.
The roots of national trauma are Nazi crimes and planet War II. German national trauma begins with the burden of work for Nazi crimes, including the Holocaust and genocide on another nations. After the defeat in planet War II, Germany as a nation faced the necessity to face common collective guilt. Many, even if not personally active in crimes, felt liable for silence or passive consent. The nation had to face global stigma and failure of respect in the eyes of the world. After the war ended, the trauma was deepened by events related to the expulsion of the German population from east Europe (e.g. Poland, Czech Republic). Many Germans were forced to leave their homes, which active violent conditions and failure of property. Allied bombing of German cities destroyed infrastructure and left millions of people in poverty. The author emphasizes that these experiences have been marginalized for years in public debate, which prevented healthy work of these traumas.
Division of Germany
The post-war division into the GDR and the West Germany further complicated the process of accounting with the past. In East Germany, communicative was focused on "anti-fascist inheritance", which frequently marginalized reflection on individual responsibility. In Germany, the denazification process was profoundly ambiguous and frequently superficial.
Gabriele Baring explains in item how unexplained war trauma affects subsequent generations of Germans. After the war, many parents and grandparents avoided talking about their war experiences. Emotions connected with war (e.g. shame, regret, fear) remained unspoken, but were intuitively felt by their children and grandchildren.
Unawarely shifting emotional patterns
The children of war, who grew up in a quiet atmosphere, themselves began to avoid talking about the past, which perpetuated intergenerational emotional tensions.
Guilt without guilt – young generations of Germans, born after the war, frequently feel inexplicable guilt for the actions of their ancestors. Fear of national pride – raising in the atmosphere of negation of patriotism caused many Germans to avoid national symbols and talk about national identity, seeing them as a possible threat.
Mechanisms of national trauma
Baring points to respective mechanisms that deepen German national trauma. After the war, many Germans avoided talking about Nazi crimes and war experiences, treating them as prohibited subjects. The deficiency of space for open discussion has preserved a sense of shame and guilt.
In public debate it was hard to separate the function of Germans as perpetrators (e.g. war crimes) from their function as victims (e.g. bombings, expulsions). This ambivalence further hampered the processing of trauma. The force of another states to settle Germany from their past strengthened the tension between the request to accept guilt and the effort to rebuild national pride.
Effects of National Trauma
Germany may feel chronic stress, fear of assessment or problems with expressing emotions. People have difficulty identifying themselves with a nation they see as guilty or injured. Germany is divided on the explanation of its past – part of society believes that it is crucial to focus on war victims, while others emphasize work for crimes. This is due to fear of returning to nationalistic patterns from the past.
Impact on global policy – Germany frequently tries to avoid confrontational politics, especially in the military area, which can be the consequence of collective war trauma.
Proposals for healing
Baring suggests that the key to overcoming German national trauma is openness in talks, enabling Germans to express their feelings about past without judging them. It is simply a balance between guilt and pride: designation of both dark sides of past and affirmative aspects of German cultural heritage.
The intergenerational dialog is encouraging young people to ask questions about the past and discover their roots. German national trauma, as Gabriele Baring describes, is simply a complex and multifaceted problem whose roots lie in the historical events of the 20th century. The book highlights how the deficiency of open discussion, intergenerational silence and social pressures deepen the problem. The author's proposals, specified as the acceptance of past and the building of a healthy national identity, offer a possible way to healing at both the individual and the general public level.
Transfer of intergenerational trauma
Baring describes in item the mechanisms for transferring national trauma to subsequent generations. This phenomenon, although profoundly rooted in German history, is universal in nature and besides affects another societies that have experienced traumatic events. The analysis of this mechanics in the context of Germany reveals its psychological, social and emotional aspects. The first generation to experience straight the events of planet War II was exposed to utmost suffering, bombing, escape, death of loved ones and demolition of homes.
After the end of the war, many Germans struggled with the question of their own function in the Nazi strategy – active, passive or completely passive. To defend themselves and their children, the war generation has frequently avoided talking about hard experiences, utilizing a strategy of “forgetfulness” or suppressing emotions. Despite silence, fears, shame or guilt were intuitively felt by children – frequently through nonverbal signals, specified as a tense atmosphere at home or avoiding circumstantial topics.
Projection mechanism
Baring notes that many unresolved emotions were “projects” of parents on children. Children could presume the roles of “recipients” (i.e. those who will correct past mistakes) or “remember guards” (those who must avoid making the same mistakes). specified roles led to identity conflicts in subsequent generations. The generation of children of war (born 1940–1950.) was characterized by silence and emotional tension. increasing up in homes where the past was a taboo subject led to frustration and a sense of misunderstanding. The burden of the past was present, but not understood, which led to interior tension.
The generation of war grandchildren (born 1960–1980.) has a sense of guilt “inherited”. The younger generations felt a hard to explain moral burden associated with German history, even though they were not personally part of it. Fearful of returning to nationalism, many people avoided the pride of German identity. deficiency of consistency in the past has led to difficulties in building a affirmative national identity.
Trauma carrying tools
Baring describes how silence in families has become 1 of the key mechanisms of trauma transfer. Children, intuitively sensing the unexplained pain of their parents, tried to fill this gap with their own emotions, which led to fears of unclear origin, taking over unreasonable work for the past.
Children have frequently reproduced their parents’ behavior, specified as avoiding hard subjects or suppressing emotions. Parents, even unconsciously, expressed their emotions through speech of voice, gestures, or way of responding to circumstantial topics, which affected children. The silence on wartime trauma was not confined to families, but to society as a whole. The public debate in Germany for decades avoided talks about the suffering of German war victims, which perpetuated the atmosphere of unresolved conflicts.
Ambivalent Relation to History
Germany, as a society, accepts work for Nazi crimes on the 1 hand, but on the other, feels frustration as a consequence of constantly reminding them of this past. As a result, part of society rejects national pride, viewing it as dangerous or incompatible with their history.
Baring offers respective steps that can aid to break the trauma cycle. This includes expressing emotions and sharing experiences in a safe space, e.g. during household or group therapy, balanced education about history, which takes into account both German work for crimes and the suffering of German citizens during and after the war. Building a affirmative national identity allows you to accept the past without suppressing its meaning.
It besides suggests encouraging individuals to self-reflect and work on individual emotions related to history, promoting healthy relationships in families that are based on openness and common support. Moving intergenerational trauma is simply a complex process that requires both individual emotional work and social dialogue. Gabriele Baring rightly notes that the key to breaking this cycle is openness to past and acceptance of emotions related to the past. Her book is simply a valuable contribution to knowing how past affects modern generations and how to build a healthy national identity despite a hard heritage.
Expulsion as a Collective Trauma
After planet War II, about 12–14 million Germans were driven out of erstwhile east areas specified as Silesia, East Prussia, Pomerania, Sudeta and another areas of Central and east Europe. Baring describes these events as a origin of deep, multigenerational trauma, which consisted of the failure of homes and regional identity. Forced resettlement led to a break in ties with a place that for many Germans has been a "homeland" for generations. They were driven out by witnesses and victims of force specified as rape, hunger, slave labor, and mass murder. For decades after the war, the subject of expulsions was marginalized in West Germany so as not to interfere with the policy of accountability for the crimes of Nazism. Even the victims of the exiles felt burdened with collective guilt for Nazi crimes, preventing an open discussion of their suffering.
The author indicates that the trauma of expulsions affected subsequent generations. The silence or fragmentary memories of grandparents and parents about exile created a “invisible” emotional heritage. The younger generations feel a deficiency of rooting in the past of the family, even though they have not experienced expulsions personally.
A sense of collective guilt
The author analyses how German identity was marked by a sense of work for the Holocaust, war crimes and genocide. After the war, the German historical communicative focused on work for Nazi crimes, which influenced the way subsequent generations defined their national identity.
Vergangenheitsbewältigung means working the past. Baring emphasizes that this process was necessary, but not always sufficiently taken into account the suffering of German victims (e.g. driven out). According to the author, German historical communicative sometimes leads to excessive recognition with guilt, which prevents healing and building a healthy national identity. Many families did not talk openly about their ancestral engagement in Nazism or their passive acceptance of the system, leading to tension and guilt in subsequent generations. Germans frequently find the contradiction between the desire to be arrogant of their country's achievements and the burden of historical shame.
Two sides of 1 identity
Baring argues that German identity is shaped by 2 seemingly contradictory experiences. Being a victim – Germany, especially driven out, sees themselves as victims of post-war repression and war crimes committed on civilians. Being the perpetrator - at the same time the German historical communicative imposes on them work for Nazi crimes.
In the public space in Germany there was frequently tension between commemorating the victims of Nazism and commemorating the suffering of the exiled Germans. According to the author, the approach to past frequently assumed that the suffering of the driven out was little “important” than the suffering of the victims of Nazism. Baring postulates that healing a national identity requires designation of both of these experiences. Germany can start building a healthy national identity if they accept both the function of the victim and the perpetrator. Open talks about both aspects of past – without tabooing 1 of them – are crucial for overcoming trauma. Gabriele Baring in his book puts the bold thesis that both the experience of expulsions and the heritage of Nazism must be recognized as integral elements of German history. He stresses that only through open work of both these threads Germany can free itself from the historical burden and make a healthy, balanced national identity.
Various Perspectives
The book is written in an accessible, though profoundly analytical way. The author uses both intellectual investigation and past to present a comprehensive image of the problem. The kind of writing is empathic and at the same time critical of existing patterns of thinking.
Baring combines psychological, historical and sociological perspectives, making her conclusions convincing. The author not only diagnoses the problem but besides suggests solutions, making the book a useful tool in the process of self-development. The book deals with hard and controversial topics many authors avoid. The book focuses on a circumstantial German context, which may limit its application to another societies. any conclusions may seem more individual than nonsubjective analyses. The book takes small account of alternate perspectives on German identity.
Meaning for Modernity
Die Deutschen und ihre verletzte Identität It is simply a book that examines the intellectual and social consequences of German history. Gabriele Baring offers an crucial voice in the debate on national identity, encouraging courage in confronting the past. Despite any limitations, the book is simply a valuable origin of cognition and inspiration for those who want to realize mechanisms affecting the identity of generations. The Baring publication is crucial in the context of contemporary debates on national identity in Germany. In times of globalisation and migration, the problem of building a healthy national identity is crucial not only for Germany, but besides for another countries with a hard history.
The book can be helpful to therapists, educators and politicians who want to realize deeper sources of social tensions and fears.
Notes about the author
Gabriele Baring is simply a German therapist and author specializing in working on intergenerational traumas. Her clinical experience and interest in historical psychology prompted her to research the subject of national identity. Baring engages in popularizing cognition about healing emotional and cultural wounds that affect societies.
Other works by the author include: Die geheimen Ängste der Deutschen – analysis of German fears and their roots in the past; Trauma und Vergebung: Heilung durch Aussöhnung – a book about the forgiveness process as a key component in the treatment of trauma; Familiengeheimnisse: Wie die Vergangenheit unsere Zukunft prägt – about the influence of household secrets on the lives of descendants.
Matthäus Golla
Gabriele Baring, Die Deutschen und ihre verletzte Identität, Europa Verlag, München 2017, p. 312.