Lingering Discourses: Critics, Jews, and the Case of Gottfried Wagner

Abstract

The spirit of Adolf Hitler continues to haunt postwar Germany. Just when the endless discussions of the guilt of the fathers, the suppressed trauma of the postwar generation, and the problems of “coming to terms with the past” appeared to have taken their course and had given way to the political laissez-faire of the postmodern age, National Socialism once again seemed to function as a central feature within the formation of modern German identity. That the Nazi past still constitutes what the Germans call “ein wunder Punkt” (a “sore spot”) within the public arena is clear not solely from the emergence of the neo-Nazi skinheads—who systematically exploit their country’s sensitivity regarding its racist heritage—but also from a host of highly publicized debates and controversies in the recent past. These include, for example, the Historikerstreit (“The Historians’ Debate”) from the late 1980s; the Goldhagen affair of the mid-1990s;¹ the debates surrounding the Jewish memorial in Berlin; the publication of Botho Strauss’s “anschwellender Bocksgesang;” Martin Walser’s “Paulskircherede” (“Speech at St. Paul’s Church”) and the ensuing debate with Ignatz Bubis concerning the author’s resentment regarding his country’s association with the Holocaust;