"Volksgemeinschaft". Potenzial und grenzen eines neuen forschungskonzepts

Abstract

This essay indicates three differing ways in which Volksgemeinschaft is currently used: to denote changed power relations; as a mobilising force through 'affective integration'; and as a vehicle of exclusion, discrimination and persecution. It acknowledges in each area some value in the concept. But it sees nevertheless a major problem in trying to turn a propaganda slogan into a tool of historical explanation. It points to the difficulty in demonstrating consensus in a terroristic dictatorship, to the continued existence of subcultures that challenged the unity of a Volksgemeinschaft, and to surviving pluralistic attitudes even towards the treatment of Jews. It suggests that a binary divide between inclusion and exclusion might be too simplistic a model. The essay concludes that the Volksgemeinschaft concept has prompted some valuable research but that it has major defects as a genuine tool of analysis. Copyright © 2009 Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag GmbH.