The New Europe 19331945 [Hardcover]

This book addresses the deconstruction of a founding myth and the last great narrative (for the time being) of the Occident ??? the narrative that Europe grew out of liberal humanistic traditions and, by way of several intermediate stages since classical antiquity, has gradually come to have its present form, one based on democratic values.The term Europe has not always been understood in the same way. Europe is a construct. That is as true today as in the period before 1945. This monograph focuses on nonfiction books, travelogues and literary-political writings by eight authors who played a key role in the discourse on Europe in the Third Reich and also partly in the early German Federal Republic. The term ??The New Europe?? became generally accepted in Germany during the 1930s, and by the beginning of World War II it was an integral part of the German discourse on Europe.Carl Wege teaches at the University of Bielefeld, Germany.