From Post-War to Post-Wall Generations

By the 1980s, both German states had come to occupy respected niches in the international community. Still, neither side seemed to have found an acceptable home for the problematic notion of German national identity. Was it the Germans' historically overburdened and divided perception of themselves that continued to breed uncertainty about their future? Or was it outsiders' unwillingness to accept many political and cultural changes that had redefined the concept of German identity since 1949 and that kept Angst alive and well in Central Europe? Joyce Marie Mushaben seeks to offer a number of clear answers to the highly amorphous "German question" as it shifts from post-war to post-wall Germany.