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With Vladimir Putin's brutal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the new coalition government's resulting reorientation of German foreign and security policy--an epochal shift that jettisoned 30, even 50 [...]

Although it has not been that long since the articles of the previous special issue devoted to the 2017 Bundestag election and its aftermath have been published, the political situation [...]

The elections for the German Bundestag on 24 September 2017 saw heavy losses for the two governing parties--the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD)--and the rise of the right populist Alternative for Germany (AfD). It took almost six months for a new grand coalition to be formed in light of the extremely fragmented parliament. Despite the good economic situation and relative calm domestically and internationally, much change is occurring under the surface. Most importantly, the country is preparing for the end of Chancellor Angela Merkel's long tenure. Who and what will come next? Can the surging AfD be contained? Will Germany step up into the leadership role for which so many have called? KEYWORDS: 2017 Bundestag election, Alternative for Germany (AfD), Angela Merkel, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) German Parliament, political parties, Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), Liminal Germany I was recently re-watching the last Harry Potter film and was struck by the scene where Harry speaks with Dumbledore in a kind of purgatory, having to decide [...]

It sometimes seems that Germany is a country perpetually caught in the past. There are so many anniversaries that some sort of tracker is necessary to remember them all. Commemorations [...]

Observers across Europe and the world were shocked when British voters decided in June 2016 to leave the European Union. Since the Brexit decision, British politics have been in disarray and the government's incoherent negotiation positions have created much economic and political uncertainty. Germans and others have had to formulate policy based on assumptions and predictions. Despite slightly different emphases, all mainstream German parties have endorsed a harder line rejecting British efforts to cherry pick the most desirable aspects of a relationship with the EU. This stance accords with the preferences of European Union actors and the vast majority of member states. Moreover, the likely effects on the German economy will not be catastrophic. Thus, as much as Germans prefer that the UK remain in the EU, there is also little desire to accommodate British demands--and there may even be a sense of relief., KEYWORDS: Brexit, European Union, German economy, United Kingdom The Referendum Along with the rest of the continent and most of the world (except Donald J. Trump, who 'predicted' the outcome [...]

ABSTRACT Germany-watchers and many Germans have long been sour about the unified country. Often for well-founded reasons, there are few policy or cultural areas that have not been subjected to [...]

ABSTRACT The Federal Republic of Germany--both before and after 1989--has been influenced deeply by collective memories of the Nazi period and the Holocaust, a seemingly 'unmasterable past.' In a first [...]

One of the most important developments in the incipient Berlin Republic's memory regime has been the return of the memory of German suffering from the end and aftermath of World [...]

Paradigm Shift? As the inestimable Harold Wilson once put it, 'a week is a long time in politics.' Certainly, the evolution of collective memory and scholarship devoted to it is [...]

I recall a conversation from a while back with a colleague. He was disdainful of German politics, stating that they are ponderous, lackluster, even boring. He prefers to follow Italian [...]

The Shifting Terrain of Memory Before the series of 60th anniversary commemorations of the end of the Holocaust, Nazism and World War II in 2005, the big development regarding German [...]

Memory Still Matters Is 'memory fatigue' setting in? One often hears this question in regards to Germans whenever another Holocaust-centered or Nazi era memory event erupts. But, one also increasingly [...]

Omer Bartov, Germany's War and the Holocaust: Disputed Histories (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2003) Eva Hoffman, After Such Knowledge: Memory, History and the Legacy of the Holocaust (New York: Public [...]

Robert Gellately and Ben Kiernan, eds., The Specter of Genocide: Mass Murder in Historical Perspective (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003) Jan-Werner Muller, ed., Memory and Power in Post-War Europe: [...]

Andreas Huyssen, Present Pasts: Urban Palimpsests and the Politics of Memory (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003) Refining and updating his previous book, Twilight Memories: Marking Time in a Culture of [...]

Jorg Friedrich, Der Brand.' Deutschland im Bombenkreig 1940-1945 (Munich: Propylaen Verlag, 2002) Gunther Grass, Crabwalk (Orlando: Harcourt, 2002) W. G. Sebald, On the Natural History of Destruction (New York: Random [...]

I. Introduction: A New Clash of Memories? Are collective memories currently changing in the land where the 'past won't go away?' Long dominated by memory of the Holocaust and other [...]

Micha Brumlik, Hajo Funke and Lars Rensmann, Umkampftes Vergessen: Walser-Debatte, Holocaust-Mahnmal und neuere deutsche Geschichtspolitik (Berlin: Verlag Das Arabische Buch, 2000) Robert G. Moeller, War Stories: The Search for a [...]

(Koln: Bohlau Verlag, 2000) Felix Lutz's Geschichtsbewusstsein der Deutschen is a path-breaking contribution to the study of German political culture. Through the presentation and analysis of an original, representative survey [...]