Winning the Peace

The British in Occupied Germany, 1945-1948

Christopher Knowles (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

288 Seiten

2018
Bloomsbury Academic (Verlag)
978-1-350-10187-6 (ISBN)

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By adopting a unique biographical approach, this book examines the aims and intentions of twelve important and influential individuals who worked for the British Military Government in occupied Germany during the first three years after the end of the Second World War. British policy was distinctive, and the British zone was the largest and economically most important of all four zones. Although the three Western Allies all ended in the same place with the creation of an independent Federal Republic of (West) Germany in 1949, they took different paths to get there. The role of the British has been much misunderstood.

Winning the Peace strikes a balance between earlier self-congratulatory accounts of the British occupation, and the later more critical historiography. It highlights diversity of aims and personal backgrounds and in so doing explains some of the complexities and apparent contradictions in British occupation policy. The book concludes that, despite diversity among those studied, all twelve individuals followed a policy described as the ‘three Rs’ — Reconstruction, Renewal and Reconciliation — rather than the ‘four Ds’ — De-militarisation, De-nazification, De-industrialisation, and Democratisation — highlighted in earlier histories of the occupation.

Whilst reflecting on the role of human agency, Christopher Knowles examines why individuals sometimes failed to achieve what they originally intended, and how their aims and perceptions changed over time to reveal broader political, sociological and cultural forces, outside their direct control. This book is an innovative study for those interested in the Allied occupation, the post-war history of Germany and the study of military occupation generally.

Christopher Knowles is Visiting Research Fellow at Kings College London, UK.

1. Introduction
Part I. Physical Reconstruction - The Military Governors and Army Generals
2. Creating Order Out of Chaos
3. The Occupation as a Moral Crusade
4. Criticism at Home and Allegations of Corruption
Part II. Political Renewal: Civilian Diplomats and Administrators
5. ‘Trying to Beat the Swastika into the Parish Pump’ - First Steps Towards Political Renewal
6. International Socialist Visions of Political Renewal
7. Regional Administration in Hamburg
Part III. Personal Reconciliation - Young Men with No Adult Experience but War
8. A Younger Generation
9. The English Army Officer who Created the German News Magazine Der Spiegel
10. Getting to Know the Germans
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	29.09.2018
Zusatzinfo	11 bw illus
Verlagsort	London
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 234 mm
Gewicht	413 g
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Zeitgeschichte
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
ISBN-10	1-350-10187-7 / 1350101877
ISBN-13	978-1-350-10187-6 / 9781350101876
Zustand	Neuware