Between Rejection and Idealisation: Interpretations in the Federal Republic of Germany
Author: Milan Spindler
For decades, the German view of the war in Italy remained narrow, distorted, or completely absent. Only gradually did perception begin to change, at first in specific social spheres, later increasingly in the public and political realm.
In the immediate postwar years and into the 1950s, West Germany was marked by an atmosphere of silence. Confrontation with National Socialist crimes hardly took place. Instead, experiences of suffering and loss, for example through expulsion or Allied bombing, dominated public discourse. Many continued to see Italy as a former ally. The Resistenza, particularly in conservative circles, was regarded as Communist-influenced and, against the backdrop of the Cold War, was rarely acknowledged as a legitimate struggle for freedom. In public debate it played almost no role. By contrast, what is striking is that German war criminals tried and imprisoned in Italy often met with sympathy and support in parts of West German society.
On the cultural and literary level as well, for many years the image of the Italian resistance was shaped by the perspective of former Wehrmacht soldiers. In their memoirs, partisans were portrayed as cowardly or criminal, as an enemy avoiding open battle. This interpretive pattern influenced not only the view of the Resistenza but also of other resistance movements in occupied Europe.
A shift began only in the 1960s and 1970s. With a generational change and profound social upheavals, above all the student movement, the confrontation with the Nazi past came into sharper focus. In leftist and intellectual milieus, the partisan increasingly became a symbol of anti-fascist resistance. Coming to terms with developments in Italy was easier than with the largely unknown Eastern European theater, which remained scarcely present in West German public awareness.
At the same time, scholarly work emerged that examined Italy’s role in the Second World War beyond the old categories of alliance. Italy was now recognized as the site of an autonomous and multifaceted resistance movement. Research, newspaper reports, documentaries, and works of fiction began to portray the German occupation of Italy in a more nuanced way.
From the 1980s onward, memory culture became increasingly institutionalized. Town twinnings, school exchange programs, and commemorative events contributed to historical engagement. Yet one issue remained particularly sensitive: the treatment of German soldiers who deserted and joined the Resistenza. In the Federal Republic they were long branded as traitors; the sentences imposed on them for Desertion remained legally valid. Only in 2002 were these judgments annulled and the deserters recognized as victims of Nazi injustice, at a time when in Italy they had long been honored on memorial plaques and monuments as buoni tedeschi (‘good Germans’). Nonetheless, they never fit comfortably into Italian memory culture, which after 1945 emphasized its distance from German National Socialism.
Since the 2000s, transnational memory culture has gained strength. German and Italian heads of state have commemorated together the victims of German occupation, as in 2013 when Federal President Joachim Gauck and Italian President Giorgio Napolitano visited Sant’Anna di Stazzema. School projects, digital commemorative initiatives, plays, films, and literary works have further deepened engagement with the Resistenza. Educational trips now take participants to sites of resistance in Italy, linking historical learning with personal encounters.
Nevertheless, knowledge of the war in Italy remains limited in large parts of the German public. Not all aspects of the occupation period are equally present. Yet the official stance of the Federal Republic has clearly shifted, from ignorance and disparagement to recognition and an acknowledgment of historical responsibility.