Vergangenheitsbewältigung

Historically, Vergangenheitsbewältigung often is seen as the logical "next step" after a denazification drive under both the Allied Occupation and by the Christian Democratic Union government of Konrad Adenauer, and began in the late 1950s and early 1960s, roughly the period in which the work of the Wiederaufbau (reconstruction) became less absorbing and urgent.

[5] Writing in the context of a new wave of antisemitic attacks against synagogues and Jewish community institutions occurring in West Germany at that time, Adorno rejected the contemporary catch phrase "working through the past" as misleading.

He argued that it masked a denial, rather than signifying the kind of critical self-reflection that Freudian theory called for in order to "come to terms" with the past.

[5] Adorno's lecture is often seen as consisting in part of a variably implicit and explicit critique of the work of Martin Heidegger, whose formal ties to the Nazi Party are well known.

In the cultural sphere, the term Vergangenheitsbewältigung is associated with a movement in German literature whose notable authors include Günter Grass and Siegfried Lenz.

The work is formally known as Das Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas (English translation, "The Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe").

As Eisenman acknowledged at the opening ceremony, "It is clear that we won't have solved all the problems – architecture is not a panacea for evil – nor will we have satisfied all those present today, but this cannot have been our intention."

In Austria, ongoing arguments about the nature and significance of the Anschluss, and unresolved disputes about legal expressions of obligation and liability, have led to very different concerns, and to a far less institutionalized response by the government.

The history of the memorials and archives which have been erected at these sites in eastern Europe is associated with the Communist regimes that ruled these areas for more than four decades after World War II.

In some of its aspects, Vergangenheitsbewältigung can be compared to the attempts of other democratic countries to raise consciousness and come to terms with earlier periods of governmental and insurgency abuses, such as the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which investigated human rights abuses by both the National Party Government in South Africa under apartheid and by senior members of the African National Congress including Winnie Mandela and by the ANC's paramilitary wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe.

Comparisons have been made with the Soviet process of glasnost and perestroika, though this was less focused on the past than achieving a level of open criticism necessary for progressive reform to take place.