Dresden Firebombing

Tony Joel is Associate Professor in History in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Deakin University, Australia. A former German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) scholarship holder, and a founding member of Deakin’s Contemporary Histories Research Group, Tony’s main research interests include the politics of war memory and commemoration and sports history.

• INTRODUCTIONThe Destruction of Dresden and the Shifting Dynamics of German Victimisation DiscourseDresden as paradigm of German victimisation and sacrificeWriting about the Dresden bombing and its aftermathConceptual framework and key termsA mythical tabooVictimisation discourse in divided GermanyBombing and victimisation discourse in reunified GermanyApplication of conceptsCHAPTER 1The Western Allies’ Strategic Bombing Offensive and Dresden’s Transformation from European Kulturstadt to Germany’s OpferstadtBuild-upWatershedEscalationWhy is Dresden special? Or, why Dresden is specialWartime reactionsIssues of interpretation: shaping and reflecting controversyConclusionCHAPTER 2The Fashioning of Dresden’s Destruction into a Political Asset: 1946 to the Early 1980sThe Nuremberg interregnumThe 1950sThe 1960sThe 1970s and early 1980sCHAPTER 3Dresden’s Last Milestone Gedenktag before the Fall of the Wall: 13 February 1985West German mass-mediation of Dresden as OpferstadtThe party’s Gro?kundgebungThe reopening of the SemperoperThe Frauenkirche ruinsConclusionCHAPTER 4Dresden Memory Politics in the Schwebezeit: 1989-90Kohl, the ruins, and “die Einheit der Nation”Church over ruins?Dresden’s stateless Gedenktag: 13 February 1990ConclusionCHAPTER 5A British Dimension to Dresden Commemorative Politics: 1992-2000Homage to a hangman, or misunderstood memorialisation?Dresden: the awkward but obligatory interludeBritain responds to the Ruf: the Dresden TrustThe 1995 Gedenktag and a signal of intentThe 2000 Gedenktag and making good on a promiseConclusionCHAPTER 6Dresden as a Memory Battleground: 13 February 2005The Queen and Dresden: revisiting a theme, but not the cityDepicting Dresden as the “Bomben-Holocaust”Renewed focus on longstanding controversiesReconciliation remains a central plankMaking a statement in absentiaMixed messages and the struggle over commemorationConclusionCONCLUSIONMemory Work-in-Progress: Remembering the Past, Reflecting on the Present and FutureNOTESBIBLIOGRAPHY

Tony Joel's in-depth study does much to explain why the fire-bombing of Dresden has come to hold such iconic status. An original interpretation of changing and conflicting memory cultures, this work is also highly readable.!AZ Professor Mary Fulbrook, FBA, Professor of German History and Vice-Dean (Interdisciplinarity), University College London !(R)The literature on the politics of memory in Germany is immense, but only recent research has dedicated itself to the processes after the fall of the wall and German unification in 1990. Tony Joel!AZs study is one of the first to combine a broader view of German identity and memory through the prism of the Dresden Bombing. The author can be congratulated for this achievement. This is a highly informative, well written and perceptive work.!AZ Jost D' lffer, Professor of Modern History, University of Koln