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Federal Republic of Germany The Other Germany In the Federal Republic of Germany there came up over the course of time a whole series of very successful exoneration strategies. The most successful is no doubt the veneration of the men of the 20 th of July as members of the Resistance. The idea that the Wehrmacht was at core without reproach and had offered resistance arises out of the stylization of the attempted assassination of Adolf Hitler and turns it into a deed carried out by the Wehrmacht itself. The notion of the Wehrmacht as a bulwark of resistance appeared as early as 1946. Accordingly, the title of one of the first books on the subject was "Offiziere gegen Hitler" (Officers against Hitler) by Fabian von Schlabrendorf. In the course of time the 20 th of July has become a day of remembrance on which postage stamps are printed and commemorations held. The Wehrmacht is granted the status of an upright institution; it was the SS and the National Socialists who were responsible for all the crimes. At the end of the War the opinion prevailed that the Germans had above all been seduced, if not victimized, and were in fact the first real victims of the NS regime. And the soldiers were among them. |
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One of the first postage stamps on the 20th of July appeared in 1954 and shows a hero in an aureole, without naming the persons concerned. It shows the "Memorial for the Victims of the 20th of July 1944" by Richard Scheibe in the so-called Bendlerblock in Berlin. The memorial was inaugurated in 1953. |
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It was not only the 20 th of July that became the focus of the resolution to show resistance within the Wehrmacht; in the 1950s certain other persons were raised to the rank of heroes of the Resistance. Carl Zuckmayer's drama "Des Teufels General" ("The Devil's General"), which premiered in Zurich in 1946, was loosely based on the fighter pilot Ernst Udet. The play was made into a film by Helmut Käutner in 1955. General Harras has no sympathies for the Nazi regime. But since he is responsible for the technical direction of the Luftwaffe, they can't do without him. After many new airplanes crash, sabotage is suspected and it is believed that Harras is to blame. But when one of his best friends also crashes and he himself had been arrested for a short time, the general sets out to find the perpetrator. In the decisive scene he takes his friend Oderbruch to task and is forced to learn that Oderbruch is responsible for the sabotage. Harras decides to commit suicide in order to protect his friend. |
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