In the Name of the Germans

Richard von Weizsäcker was the last German president to have lived through the Second World War as an adult. This explains the international fame garnered by his speech to mark the 40th anniversary of the end of the war, on 8th May 1985. For this reason, the book ends with Weizsäcker’s speech, and begins with Theodor Heuss, who – as the first head of state of the Federal Republic of Germany – had to find ways and means of speaking about the crimes of the ‘Third Reich’ ‘in the name of the Germans’. In this brilliant, meticulously researched book, Norbert Frei, author of the now-canonical study ‘Vergangenheitspolitik’ and one of the most renowned contemporary historians of our time, traces the long and winding road to the development of a statesmanlike art and respected praxis.