Fallen elites : the military other in post-unification Germany / Andrew Bickford.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bickford, Andrew, 1966-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Retired military personnel--Germany--Attitudes.

Retired military personnel.

Retired military personnel--Germany--Social conditions.

Germany--History--Unification, 1990.

Germany.

Germany (East). Nationale Volksarmee--Officers--Attitudes.

Germany (East).

Germany (East). Nationale Volksarmee--Officers--Social conditions.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (289 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Military officers are often the first to be considered politically dangerous when a state loses its authority. Overnight, actions once considered courageous are deemed criminal, and men once praised as heroes are redefined as villains. In Fallen Elites, Andrew Bickford examines how states make soldiers and what happens to fallen military elites when they no longer fit into the political spectrum. Gaining unprecedented entry into the lives of former East German officers in unified Germany, Bickford relates how these men and their families have come to terms with the shock of unification, capitalism, and citizenship since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Often caricatured as unrepentant, hard-line communists, former officers recount how they have struggled with their identities and much-diminished roles. Their disillusionment speaks to global questions about the contentious relationship between the military, citizenship, masculinity, and state formation today. Casting a critical eye on Western triumphalism, they provide a new perspective on our own deep-seated assumptions about "soldier making," both at home and abroad.

Contents:

The military imaginary : soldiers, myths, and states

Emotions, generations, and death cults : militarization and the creation of socialist military personalities

Coming of age in the NVA : the master narratives of militarization

The writing on the wall : the NVA surrenders

A war of signs, images, and memories : German militaries in the Cold War and unification

"Unification has ruined my life" : the political economy of the military other

As Germans among Germans : life in the Kameradschaft

"We're the Jews of the new Germany" : heroic victimhood, fallen elites, and the slipperiness of history and memory

Death and allegiance : toward an anthropology of soldiering.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780804777162

0804777160

OCLC:

726734854