Channeling Janus: The Birth of the West German State and Rebirth of the German Nation

Authors

  • Jack Jacovou

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30722/anzjes.vol10.iss2.15199

Abstract

CESAA Essay Competition 2018 – Undergraduate winner: Jack Jacovou

This essay will submit three arguments which will sustain this thesis respectively: 1) the incorporation of expellees, the expellee movement, and their irredentism which romanticised the Nazi period, saw a form political extremism rise as a direct consequence of the breakup of Germany after World War II (WWII)1; 2) the decline of the German Communist Party (KPD) and National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) reflected Germans becoming critical of the political extremism prevalent between the 1919 until 19452; 3) influenced by both the War and German history wholistically, the Allies and Germans crafted a Basic Law (Grundgesetz) which embodied a strong parliamentary and federal system.3 With all this in mind, the first argument to highlight how Germany drew upon its history to craft new political institutions and a new culture, is the incorporation of the expellees and their irredentism.

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Published

2021-02-07

Issue

Section

Articles