March 17, 1997 Contact: Jennifer McNulty (408) 459-2495; mcnulty@ua.ucsc.edu
THE GERMAN PREDICAMENT: SUPERPOWER OR CHASTENED STATE?
New book explores Germany's struggle to reconcile its history with its role as a modern global power
* Andrei Markovits is available for media interviews; see contact information below *
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SANTA CRUZ, CA--As Europe's most important power, Germany has the economic, military, and political influence to be a major player on the world scene, yet the country's "burdened history" limits its ability to act. Unification in 1989 removed the physical scars of the Cold War, but the question remains: Can Germany reconcile its past with its future and become a normal country like any other?
This question is explored in the new book The German Predicament: Memory and Power in the New Europe. Fascinated by Germany's postwar emergence as a powerful nation and the tension generated by collective memory, authors Andrei S. Markovits and Simon Reich examine the ways in which history's shadow haunts Germany's future.
In The German Predicament (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997), Markovits and Reich consider the dilemma facing Germany today, and they weigh the contrasting views of its fate. One view holds that contemporary Germany has been tamed by the Holocaust and has no drive to expand or dominate; the other view maintains that Germans have suppressed rather than obliterated their predatory ways and that Germany's democracy, which was imposed by the Allies, is fragile.
"Both views are real, and that's where the tension lies," explains Markovits, a professor of politics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. "For the Germans, they're damned if they do and damned if they don't. If they're going to live up to their role as a major power, they will be called on to act, but then they are subjected to greater scrutiny than any other nation because of their history. And if they do nothing, they'll be accused of not pulling their weight as the wealthiest, most powerful nation in Europe."
Germany must not seek to expand its power, but it must recognize and use its power responsibly, maintains Markovits. Its "ideological predisposition toward smallness lags behind its increasing structural power," write Markovits and Reich, a professor of political science at the University of Pittsburgh.
"The German Left would like to say 'We're big, but we're just another Switzerland,' but it doesn't work that way. The United States cannot be Canada," says Markovits. "There's no exit from this predicament for the Germans. The contradictions will only become sharper as Germany becomes a global actor."
Markovits is optimistic about Germany's democracy, which he calls a "model democracy," but he is less confident about Germany's role as a power in the European and international arena. Germany's potential sphere of influence is enormous, yet the German response is "caution and confusion rather than opportunism and predatory behavior," he writes with Reich. The source of German constraint is largely internal, they contend, asserting that the "politics of collective memory" is the biggest factor mitigating the exercise of German power.
Biographical information about Andrei Markovits:
Markovits, who is also a senior associate of the Center for European Studies at Harvard University, is a leading authority on Germany and Eastern Europe. His books include The German Left: Red, Green and Beyond and From Bundesrepublik to Deutschland: German Politics after Unification. He is also a contributor to the new book The World Reacts to the Holocaust (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), a major new examination of how the postwar world has dealt with the Holocaust. Markovits coauthored the chapter on West Germany's reaction.
To reach Andrei Markovits:
Home phone: (408) 458-0340; office phone: (408) 459-3764 E-mail: andymar@cats.ucsc.edu Mailing address: 41 Grandview Street, Apartment 1502, Santa Cruz, CA 95060
To request a review copy of The German Predicament: Memory and Power in the New Europe:
Call Jennifer McNulty in the UCSC Public Information Office at (408) 459- 2495, or send e-mail to mcnulty@ua.ucsc.edu.
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