The Allied air war and urban memory : the legacy of strategic bombing in Germany / Jörg Arnold.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Arnold, Jörg, 1973- author.

Series:

Studies in the social and cultural history of modern warfare ; 35.

Studies in the social and cultural history of modern warfare ; 35

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--Germany--Kassel.

World War, 1939-1945.

World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--Germany--Magdeburg.

Bombing, Aerial--Germany--Kassel--History.

Bombing, Aerial.

Bombing, Aerial--Germany--Magdeburg--History.

Collective memory--Germany--Kassel.

Collective memory.

Collective memory--Germany--Magdeburg.

Kassel (Germany)--History--Bombardment, 1943.

Kassel (Germany).

Magdeburg (Germany)--History--Bombardment, 1945.

Magdeburg (Germany).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xviii, 387 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Other Title:

The Allied Air War & Urban Memory

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The cultural legacy of the air war on Germany is explored in this comparative study of two bombed cities from different sides of the subsequently divided nation. Contrary to what is often assumed, Allied bombing left a lasting imprint on German society, spawning vibrant memory cultures that can be traced from the 1940s to the present. While the death of half a million civilians and the destruction of much of Germany's urban landscape provided 'usable' rallying points in the great political confrontations of the day, the cataclysms were above all remembered on a local level, in the very spaces that had been hit by the bombs and transformed beyond recognition. The author investigates how lived experience in the shadow of Nazism and war was translated into cultural memory by local communities in Kassel and Magdeburg struggling to find ways of coming to terms with catastrophic events unprecedented in living memory.

Contents:

Introduction: a poem and an image

1. From experience to memory: the emergence of Lieux de mémoire, 1943-1947

Part I. Commemorating Death: 2. 'Soldiers of the Heimat': commemorating the dead, 1940-1945; 3. 'In quiet memory'?: post-war memory cultures, 1945-1979; 4. The return of the dead: the renaissance of commemoration, 1979-1995

Part II. Confronting Destruction: 5. 'What we have lost': framing urban destruction, 1940-1960; 6. From celebration to lamentation: dealing with the legacy of the air war, 1960-1995

Part III. Writing Histories: 7. Reconstructing the 'night of horror': local histories of allied bombing, 1940-1970; 8. The 'greatest event in municipal history': local research as antiquarian endeavor, 1970-1995

Conclusion.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-107-22115-3

1-139-12482-X

1-283-29622-5

1-139-12333-5

9786613296221

1-139-11758-0

1-139-12824-8

1-139-11322-4

0-511-79257-3

1-139-11541-3

9780511792571 (electronic book)

OCLC:

769341775