How did the Germans manage to recover from the shattering experience of defeat in World War II and rehabilitate themselves from the unspeakable crimes of the Holocaust? This book seeks to answer this question by analyzing the restoration of civility and civil society, which were destroyed by the Nazis and then rebuilt during the post-war period.

During the second half of the 1960s and the early 1970s, the Germans themselves tried to catch up to the modernization taking place among their neighbors by Westernizing their culture, democratizing their outlook and expanding participation through generational protest. During the second half of the 1980s and the early 1990s they attempted to complete their metamorphosis by repudiating Communism in the East, recovering a more normal sense of identity and dealing with the difficult immigration issue. This long-range transformation process has fostered the emergence of a new Berlin Republic that not only changed the location of the capital, but also infused German politics with a new, more self-confident spirit. Viewed from the vantage point of the physical and mental devastation of 1945, this rebirth is a truly astounding success story.

PREFACE
INTRODUCTION: RUPTURE OF CIVILIZATION
PART I: FORCED REORIENTATION
1. Renouncing War
2. Questioning the Nation
3. Rejecting the Plan
PRECONDITIONS OF FREEDOM
PART II: CONTRADICTORY MODERNIZATION
4. Embracing the West
5. Arriving at Democracy
6. Protesting Authority
PARADOXES OF MODERNITY
PART III: CHALLENGES OF CIVIL SOCIETY
7. Abandoning Socialism
8. Searching for Normalcy
9. Fearing Foreignness
IMPLICATIONS OF UPHEAVAL
CONCLUSION: CONTOURS OF THE BERLIN REPUBLIC
INDEX