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How did the West German society of the 1950s utilize “communicative silence” as a strategy for social cohesion, and how did the transition from suppressing the Nazi past to confronting it shape the political culture of the Federal Republic? This article explores the complex psychological and legal landscape of West Germany in the decades following World War II. It argues that the immediate post-war period was characterized not by a reckoning with the Holocaust, but by a collective “amnesia” and a focus on German victimhood (expulsion, bombing, POWs). This silence was politically sanctioned by the Adenauer government’s policy of integrating…
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How did Konrad Adenauer’s “Chancellor Democracy” prioritize Western integration and domestic stability over national reunification, and to what extent did this strategy define the political culture of the early Federal Republic? This article examines the fourteen-year chancellorship of Konrad Adenauer, the founding father of the Federal Republic of Germany. It analyzes his controversial strategy of Westbindung (Western integration), arguing that Adenauer deliberately sacrificed the immediate possibility of German reunification in exchange for sovereignty, security, and economic recovery within the Western alliance. The article explores his patriarchal leadership style—termed “Chancellor Democracy”—which provided much-needed stability for a traumatized electorate but also stifled parliamentary debate…