THE TROUBLED LEGACY

From 1945 until at least reunification in 1989 German intellectual and cultural life, including philosophy and literature, was dominated by the endeavour to come to terms with the past. At the conclusion of its second military defeat in less than three decades, Germany was morally exhausted and physically devastated. In contrast to the First World War, when Germany surrendered before it was invaded by foreign armies, the Second World War brought tremendous losses for Germans both on the battlefield and at home. Three and a half million German soldiers lost their lives fighting for Adolf Hitler and his Reich, and just as many civilians perished; ten million German soldiers were taken as prisoners of war, some never to return. The economic destruction was immense: Germany, reduced in size by about a quarter, experienced a loss of about a third of its national wealth, along with fifteen percent of its available housing. Hardest hit were the major cities, which were the primary targets in the Allied air attacks. Shortly after the end of hostilities another pressing problem arose: the refugees from the East began pouring into a country that could not even take care of its own population. It is estimated that up to twenty-five million Germans lost their homes because of evacuation, flight or bombing. The situation was most dire in the eastern portions of Germany, where the battles between the German and the invading Soviet armies had been severely contested.