Dissertation Information for Wulf Kansteiner NAME: - Wulf Kansteiner
DEGREE:
- Ph.D.
DISCIPLINE:
- History
SCHOOL:
- University of California, Los Angeles (USA) (1997)
ADVISORS: - Saul P. Friedlander
COMMITTEE MEMBERS: - None
MPACT Status: Incomplete - Not_Inspected
Title: Television and the historicization of National Socialism in the Federal Republic of Germany: The programs of the "Zweite Deutsche Fernsehen" between 1963 and 1993
Abstract: The dissertation addresses the question how West Germans have come to terms with the Nazi past, how they explained the events of WWII and the "Final Solution" to themselves and to following generations, and how they dealt with the questions of guilt and responsibility. The project pursues these questions through a qualitative and quantitative analysis of German television programs about Nazism and WWII which were aired by the Zweite Deutsche Fernsehen (ZDF) between 1963 and 1993.
Television in the Federal Republic of Germany was organized as a public service monopoly from 1957 to 1984. For the first six years of regular broadcasting West German viewers were served through a single national station, the ARD network. In 1963 state authorities founded a second public station, the ZDF. Both stations are in operation to this day but they have lost audience shares after the introduction of commercial television in 1984.
Over a period of 31 years the ZDF has broadcast over 1,200 individual programs about Nazism, primarily movies, television plays, documentaries, and television features. The programs cover a wide variety of topics including WWII, the postwar consequences of Nazism, and the Nazi crimes, but they stay within a carefully delineated, consensical middle ground which is devoid of apologetics as well as decidedly self-critical programs. The ZDF has for instance frequently represented the history of the "Final Solution" but refrained from investigating the bystanders and the perpetrators of the Nazi genocide.
The evolution of the ZDF programs corresponds to the general generational dynamics which have determined the process of coming to terms with Nazism in Germany. The ZDF programs about Nazism have evolved in two steps represented by two phases of engagement which lasted from 1964 to 1971 and from 1979 to 1986. The two phases of engagement represent television for different generations of viewers. The shows of the 1960s offered contemporaries of Nazism the opportunity to reconsider and rework their own memories of the Nazi period. In contrast, the programs of the 1980s provided younger generations who had not experienced Nazism with vivid, surrogate memories of life in the Third Reich.
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MPACT Scores for Wulf Kansteiner A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2009-01-12 10:54:54
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