Abstract
The history of the Allied occupation of Germany has generally been studied as part of a larger narrative: the emergence of modern Germany; the development of the Cold War; or the history of the European postwar. It is only recently that scholars have begun to think about the occupation in a more complex way, and to consider the ruling strategies of the four powers, their interactions with the civilian population and the ways in which the occupation transformed German society. The new perspective changes the focus of interest from purely German history to the comparative study of military occupations more generally. To some extent, of course, the two perspectives overlap. Yet, adopting a new approach, this stimulating volume of essays offers fascinating insights into the period of occupation in the British, French and US zones.
The 15 essays are organized in five sections. The first sets out the new conceptualization of occupation as a discrete system of rule (Camilo Erlichman and Christopher Knowles), considers US wartime planning for occupation which drew on previous experiences in the confederate states, the Rhineland in the 1920s and Italy (Susan Carruthers), and shows how the British and the US did not even consider their occupation to be subject to the 1899/1907 Hague Regulations (Peter Stirk). The second group of essays examines ruling practices regarding the treatment of former Nazis. This includes a discussion of denazification in the US zone (Rebecca Boehning), the treatment of interned German civilians in all three western zones (Andrew Beattie) and an examination of Allied policy regarding the execution and burial of war criminals (Caroline Sharples).
The third section focuses on the contradictions that soon became clear in Allied policy. The image of British benevolence was soon dented by the requisitioning of German homes for British officers and the refusal to return empty homes to their former owners (Bettina Blum). The occupiers dissolved the Nazi sports organizations but replaced them with new ones which similarly relied on ‘youth leaders’ and top-down attempts to instil notions of fair play and sportsmanship; some felt that one kind of authoritarianism had simply been replaced by another (Heather Dichter). US occupation officials soon found themselves confronted with local protests against the trigger-happy hunting practices of American personnel, which conflicted with the rule-based conventions followed by the German hunting fraternity (Douglas Bell).
Interactions and personal relations between occupiers and occupied in spite of the general fraternization ban are highlighted in the fourth section. Nadja Kloprogge examines the way personal relationships between white German women and African American GIs allowed both the GIs and the US black press to view Germany as a proxy venue for the struggle for social justice in the US itself. Ann-Kristin Glöckner’s analysis of interactions between occupiers (including colonial soldiers) and occupied in the French zone shows that the former were not necessarily dominant as German men found ways to assert their own primacy in spaces such as the pubs and streets of Freiburg, while women retained a fear of the occupiers for much longer. The case of two British women who worked during the occupation (Daniel Cowling) reveals yet another perspective: both found work, fulfilment and adventure that lingered in fond memories for many years afterwards.
The legacies of the occupation were diverse and are explored in the final section. Catholic priests of the bishopric of Freiburg in the French and US zones were often critical of the occupation regime, but by taking over some of the functions formerly exercised by government they managed to reinforce their own social significance well into the 1960s (Johannes Kuber). The recruitment by the occupiers of German government officials who were given senior roles in the new administrations did not signify a simple restoration of the old regime, as some critics later argued, but according to Dominik Rigoll it did account for the authoritarian features of the new democratic system of the FRG. Even more striking was the extent to which the British, French and US intelligence agencies recruited former members of the SA, SS and Wehrmacht, many of whom ended up in the security and intelligence services of the FRG (Michael Wala).
In 2003 the Iraq War brought the subject of occupation back into public awareness, with claims made by President Bush and others that what had worked so spectacularly well in Germany and Japan after 1945 could now work in Iraq. Collectively, the contributors to this book provide an explanation of why things turned out very differently. They show that occupation is an extremely complex system of rule, whose outcome is rarely straightforward and always shaped by myriad factors that make it impossible to define any simple formula for success.