Representing the Good German in Literature and Culture Aft

In the aftermath of the Second World War, both the allied occupying powers and the nascent German authorities in the political and cultural spheres sought Germans whose record during the war and the Nazi period could serve as a counterpoint to the notion of Germans as evil. That search, both actual and transposed into literary and cultural representation in the form of novels and films, has never really stopped. In the past few years, we have witnessed a burgeoning in the number of cultural representations of this "other" kind of Third Reich citizen - the "good German" - as opposed to the dominant tropes of the committed Nazi or genocidal maniac. Such representations have highlighted individuals' choices in favor of dissenting behavior, moral truth, or at the very least civil disobedience. Within the context of the rise of Nazism and the fall of ethics, the lesson of the "good German" is not necessarily a moral story evoking Kant's imperative or Hegel's idealism, but often involves highly ambivalent responses to an irrational, fascist state. The "good German's" counterhegemonic practice cannot negate or contradict the barbaric reality of Hitler's Germany, but reflects a value system based on humanity and an "other" ideal community. This volume of new essays explores an array of representations of "good Germans" during the Third Reich in literature and culture - as well as some historical personages - and analyzes the logic of moral behavior and cultural and moral relativism, as well as the forces of social conformity found in those representations. The book thus draws together discussions relating to the function and reception of cultural representations of "good Germans" in Germany and abroad.