Fulbrook Mary. Dissonant Lives: Generations and Violence through the German Dictatorships

Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2011. — 672 p. — ISBN-10: 0199287201; ISBN-13: 978-0199287208.Dissonant Lives is not a standard 'history of Germany' in the twentieth century, or even of the German dictatorships. It is concerned with the ways in which Germans of different ages and life stages lived through this terrible period in German history, and how they interpreted, confronted, and responded to the multiple challenges of their times. In volume two, Mary Fulbrook explores the move from the Nazi dictatorship to the communism that succeeded it, examining the experiences and perceptions of selected individuals, and how major historical events affected the course of their lives and their outlooks. In doing so, she provides a new understanding of the ways in which not only the character of the German state, economy, and social structure changed over the century, but also the very character of the German people themselves.ContentsIntroduction: Violence and generations through the German dictatorshipsViolence abroad: Generations and the legacies of imperialism
Uncomfortable compatriots: Societal violence and the crises of Weimar
Divided generations: State violence and the formation of ‘two worlds’ in Nazi Germany
The escalation of violence: War and genocide
Who was who in the GDR — and why? The shifting formation of generations after 1945
Transitions from Nazism to communism
Mobilization for the future (again)
The ‘iron cage’: Coming to terms with the present
Embodying the past
Turning pointsConclusions: Generations in an age of violence