ABOUT THIS BOOK

Today, strategic aerial bombardments of urban areas that harm civilians, at times intentionally, are becoming increasingly common in global conflicts. This book reveals the history of these tactics as employed by nations that initiated aerial bombardments of civilians after World War I and during World War II. As one of the major symbols of German suffering, the Allied bombing left a strong imprint on German society. Bas von Benda-Beckmann explores how German historical accounts reflected debates on postwar identity and looks at whether the history of the air war forms a counternarrative against the idea of German collective guilt. Provocative and unflinching, this study offers a valuable contribution to German historiography.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Bas von Benda-Beckmann is affiliated with the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies in Amsterdam.

REVIEWS

“Benda-Beckmann’s ability to compile, synthesize, and summarize disparate histories is admirable; the book functions as an excellent survey of the way German views on the air war changed over time. . . . A solid, well-researched contribution to postwar German historiography. Highly recommended.”

— Choice

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction
German historians and the Allied bombings

1. Putting the Allies on trial
The early Federal Republic, 1945-1970
1.1 The Allied bombings in the early Federal Republic
1.2 West German historiography and the air war in the 1950s and 1960s
1.3 Nazi propaganda and foreign texts
1.4 The Allied bombings and German guilt

2. Dresden and the Cold War
East-West Debates on the bombing of Dresden, 1945-1970
2.1 East German historical accounts of the attack on Dresden
2.2 East-West debates on Dresden
2.3 A shared Dresden myth?

3. A past becomes History
The professionalizing of the air war historiography of the Federal Republic
3.1 Dresden im Luftkrieg: Götz Bergander
3.2 Horst Boog amd the professionalizing of West German military history

4. The 'Imperialist Air War'
East German historiography and the work of Olaf Groehler, 1965-1995
4.1 Part of the system: Olaf Groehler
4.2 Debates with the West

5. Breaking taboo
Jörg Friedrich and the 'rediscovery' of the Allied bombings
5.1 Jörg Friedrich's Der Brand
5.2 Der Brand and the new public interest in the Allied bombings
5.3 Der Brand and recent German historiography

Conclusion
The contested Air War

Abbreviations

Bibliography

Index