Can anyone recommend good literature on post-WWII Germany?

[Gravitycollapse]

I'm basically looking for historical or social analysis of Germany and Germans following the war. How they were treated after defeat, how the allies handled German Army occupation of their territories and how the German people were reconstituted back into Europe.

[reteachinwi]

1. Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945

Tony Judt

[Gravitycollapse]

5. Thank you.

[reteachinwi]

8. It's a survey

but would provide a framework to build on.

[HubertHeaver]

2. How deep into this do you want to get?

Do you read German? or Russian?

[Gravitycollapse]

3. No. I only speak English.

Why are there better German or Russian language texts?

[HubertHeaver]

9. Not necessarily better, just different perspective.

In immediate post war Germany, all zones, the population was propagandized very heavily. That is still quite evident in conversation with a German if you know what to listen for.

Anything you read is going to have the Cold War distortion, and the de-nazification distortion. Just be aware anything written by an American will have a strong American bias.

May I ask what triggers your interest? Mine is a period fascination--I grew up in the shadow of the Second World War. My father, four of his brothers and one nephew were in the war. They all came back but all were haunted by their experience.

There was a recommendation of an author in the first post. I am unfamiliar with that author.

[Gravitycollapse]

10. No one ever talks about post-WWII Germany.

At least not in most circles. It seems that most people just kind of treat Germany like it disappeared after the end of the war.

I have always been interested in unconventional history. Particularly history about the two great wars. I've read the abridged version of Gulag Archipelago and enjoy learning about the era of Stalin.

I'm about halfway through my second reading of Gravity's Rainbow. Because of GR, I have at least a limited understanding of the concept of "The Zone," as there is an entire section of the book dedicated to several characters getting on in the zone after the war is over (Granted it's fiction. But Pynchon is a historian above everything else).

[HubertHeaver]

12. This is more a personal interest than academic interest?

In order to understand any historical period or event one must have a working understanding of the previous hundred years or so. Post World War Two has the Marshal Plan and General Agreement on Trade, for starters. These two things did not come out of thin air. Post World War One period set up the possibility, some would say the necessity of World War Two and the GAT and Marshal Plan were an attempt to do things differently.

[Gravitycollapse]

4. And, yes. I would like to go as far down the rabbit hole as I can.

[Recursion]

6. Immediately post-war or the whole time since the war? (nt)

[Gravitycollapse]

7. I guess the "reconstruction" period. Or whatever it's formally called.

[Recursion]

11. It's been a while for me, but Junker might be a good start

http://www.amazon.com/United-States-Germany-Cold-1945-1968/dp/0521168643

Damn. Price has gone up, apparently.

[dogknob]

13. Here's a good doc about Germany's postwar music scene...

[catnhatnh]

14. Armageddon by Leon Uris...

Fall of Berlin through the division of the city and the Berlin Airlift. One of the better novels of the immediate post war period and a good read.

[AngryAmish]

15. The Fall of Berlin 1945 by Antony Beevor

http://www.amazon.com/Fall-Berlin-1945-Antony-Beevor/dp/0142002801

More of a military history book than what you are reading but still interesting. Horrifying tidbit: the Russians raped so many German women that the German government had to open abortion centers all over the Soviet zone of control to get rid of all the issue of rape. Estimates go up to two million rapes took place.

[RZM]

16. 'Divided Memory' by Jeffrey Herf

Great study about dealing (and not dealing) with the Nazi legacy in both East and West Germany after the war.