“Hooray, I am a Kriegsenkel!” - Transgenerational Transmission of World War II Experiences in Germany

dc.contributor.authorJakob, lina Birgiten_AU
dc.date.accessioned2016-06-22T00:24:40Z
dc.date.issued2015
dc.description.abstractFor decades talking about the wartime suffering of the German majority population was felt to be a moral taboo. Out of shame about the inconceivable crimes Germans had committed in the name of the ‘Third Reich’, suffering of Germans was largely excluded from public discourses and psychotherapeutic practices. Recently, however, the topic has moved into public focus, and questions about the long-term psychological impact of WWII on the eyewitness generation and their families are being raised. My PhD focuses on the generation of the ‘Kriegsenkel’ - the ‘grandchildren of war’. Although born in the 1960 and ‘70s people who identify as Kriegsenkel feel that through processes of transgenerational transmission, war experiences were passed on to them by their families and underlie many of their emotional problems, from depression, anxiety and burnout to relationship break-ups and career problems. Kriegsenkel now meet across the country in self-help groups, workshops and Internet fora, sharing personal stories and discussing ways to overcome their emotional inheritance. Common psychological symptoms and consequences are extracted from Kriegsenkel life histories collected in popular books, contributed to special websites, and continuously negotiated in closed Facebook-groups. Drawing on more than 80 in-depth biographical interviews and on participant observation undertaken in 2012/13 in Berlin, I argue that through this process of ‘sharing and comparing’, driven by therapy-experienced participants themselves, a cluster of symptoms for a new psychological profile as sufferers of transmitted war trauma is slowly being assembled and associated by them with a Kriegsenkel identity. I show that this new identity is constructed, explored and performed within the framework of Western ‘therapy culture’ (Furedi 2004). Sociologists have critiqued therapy culture as cultivating vulnerability and victimhood and as promoting political disengagement and narcissistic self-concern. Looking from the subjective experiences of ‘consumers’ of therapy and self-help culture, I argue that that they also create meaning for emotional problems and offer therapeutic interventions, often seen as the only hope for a better and healthier future. In the second part of my thesis, I delve more deeply into individual life histories of the Kriegsenkel generation. I explore how mainstreamed concepts of transgenerational transmission form the backbone of my participants’ auto-biographical accounts, and what they often find to be a convincing explanation of their emotional suffering. I examine the strengths and weaknesses of common models of transmission in helping individuals to make sense of and address their problems. Lastly, I call for a broadening of these models in a number of ways to better capture the subjective experiences of descendants of families impacted by war and violence.en_AU
dc.format.extent1 vol.en_AU
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen_AU
dc.identifier.otherb39905251
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1885/104516
dc.language.isoen_AUen_AU
dc.publisherCanberra, ACT : The Australian National Universityen_AU
dc.rightsAuthor retains copyrighten_AU
dc.subjecttransgenerational transmission of traumaen_AU
dc.subjecttherapeutic cultureen_AU
dc.subjectfamily conversations about WWIIen_AU
dc.title“Hooray, I am a Kriegsenkel!” - Transgenerational Transmission of World War II Experiences in Germanyen_AU
dc.typeThesis (PhD)en_AU
dcterms.valid2015en_AU
local.contributor.affiliationCASS, Archeology and Anthropology, Anthropologyen_AU
local.contributor.authoremaillina.jakob@anu.edu.auen_AU
local.contributor.institutionThe Australian National Universityen_AU
local.contributor.supervisorMerlan, Francescaen_AU
local.contributor.supervisorcontactfrancesca.merlan@anu.edu.auen_AU
local.description.notesThesis deposited by author 22/6/2016. It's made open access on 8 July 2020 due to no response from author.en_AU
local.description.refereedYesen_AU
local.identifier.doi10.25911/5d5146cdb317c
local.mintdoimint
local.request.emailrepository.admin@anu.edu.auen_AU
local.request.nameDigital Thesesen_AU
local.type.degreeDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)en_AU
local.type.statusAccepted Versionen_AU

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