Abstract
What did it mean to rebuild Germany after the defeat of Nazism? This question was not only debated by military and political leaders from the victorious states as they occupied former Nazi territory but also by journalists, writers and artists as they were invited to examine, explore and contemplate defeated Germany. Lara Feigel writes a narrative history of Germany’s occupation, from the last months of the war, through early occupation policies, the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal, the Berlin airlift and the emergence of the Cold War and divided Germany. She does so through the stories of twenty artists, most of whom were sent to Germany by either the American or British governments or by newspapers and magazines from the United States and Britain, as they grappled with this same question. In taking this approach, Feigel gives new perspectives and insight into the urgency of the debate during and immediately after the Second World War as well as fascinating details about life and love in the ruins of post-war Germany.
Feigel focuses on writers like Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn, sent to accompany the American Army as it entered Germany; Erika and Klaus Mann, the children of exiled German writer Thomas Mann, themselves exiles who had opposed Nazism before fleeing Germany in 1933; and a group that gathered at Nuremberg for the trials of Nazi leaders, such as the British writer Rebecca West and the artist Laura Knight.
The chief question for most of the book is that of denazification. Feigel analyses scenes like the photographer Lee Miller shooting an image of herself in Hitler’s Munich apartment bath with her Army boots still caked with mud from Dachau concentration camp at the foot of the tub (p. 46). She examines the writing of Martha Gellhorn, critical in the early days after surrender with the reluctance of ordinary Germans to admit to being Nazis, and similar thoughts from George Orwell. Feigel then juxtaposes these with the optimism of the writers Stephen Spender and W. H. Auden, Germanophiles before Hitler’s rise, who believed that culture could and should play a role in returning Germany to its proper place in the western world (pp. 72–73). In showcasing the debates these artists and writers engaged in while on the ground of defeated Germany, amidst rubble, death and denial of the crimes of the Nazi regime, Feigel reveals different and fascinating perspectives that bring alive the debates of the time. Using the published writings of these artists, as well as their personal letters and diaries, she writes an engaging narrative that draws the reader into this important period.
Feigel also demonstrates the significance of the setting in delving into the romantic affairs of the military and political elite with these individuals travelling across Germany. Her account of the simultaneous affairs of General James M. Gavin of the 82nd Airborne division with Marlene Dietrich and Martha Gellhorn is cast as part of the ‘crazy energy of the ruined town’ of Berlin as he rushed from meetings meant to solve the food crisis to rendezvous with his mistresses, including Dietrich in uniform, fresh from entertaining US troops as part of a USO tour (p. 116). Similarly, Feigel goes into great detail on the affairs between Rebecca West, sent to Nuremberg to write about the trials of Nazi leaders, and Francis Biddle, the American judge at the trial. Ultimately, Feigel uses the story of West’s disappointment at Biddle returning to his wife as evidence that people, especially in extreme settings, are only ‘part sane’, as West had written in the 1930s, and thus helps us understand the desperation, desire and hope that co-existed in occupied Germany as the Nazis were dealt with and the future was contemplated (p. 208).
Whether they entered Germany with hope for the future or anger and vengeance against the Nazis, most of the artists Feigel studies were disappointed and disillusioned by 1949 as the Cold War led to the recovery of German sovereignty and the division of the country into two states. The chance to denazify Germany had passed, largely unaccomplished, and so too the opportunity to make Germany into a new kind of transnational European state (p. 366). The result was a series of pessimistic writings, ambivalent and tragic works of art that caught the mood of occupied Germany and those who lived there. The Austrian exile Billy Wilder’s Hollywood film A Foreign Affair, released in 1948, hinted at American imperialism and incompetence as an occupying power and was deemed not suitable for German release (p. 314). This film, for Feigel, was Wilder’s effort to reveal to the world the nature of Germany after war. However, released as the Cold War emerged and ‘film was now propaganda’ on all sides, it fell on deaf ears (p. 315).
This is a beautifully written, captivating book that reveals the occupation as a time of despair, passion and a missed opportunity to come to terms with Nazism and its impact. It is a worthy contribution that invites us to engage with the occupation and its moment in history once again.