Building a New Germany: Denazification and Political Re-education, 1944–1948

As the Second World War entered its final year, and the Allied victory looked secure, a growing number of British officials began to consider the future. Alongside their Allied counterparts, they explored ways to ensure that Germany would emerge as a stable, peaceful, and democratic nation. An unprecedented and largely experimental programme of political re-education, aimed at the German people, both Prisoners of War (POWs) and civilians, became central to this endeavour. At special facilities throughout Britain and its empire, large numbers of Germans were subject to a carefully curated course of lectures, film screenings, readings, cultural activities, field trips, and more. The aim was to instil a set of values and ideas which the British believed would be conducive to the emergence of a safe and prosperous Germany.

Building a New Germany: Denazification and Political Re-education, 1944–1948 comprises over 3,700 images, drawn from 46 files in the FO 939 series at The National Archives (UK). The collection explores the policy of re-education from a number of angles. It surveys the high-level government decisions that instigated and framed this innovative process. The documents likewise offer examples of the official guidance and instructions that were sent to camp authorities. You will also find descriptions of the course materials used, reflections of lecturers and educators involved in the process, and the views of the German POWs themselves. The collection offers fascinating insights into British perspectives on extreme ideologies, as well as into concepts of political control and indoctrination, including strategies on how to reverse them. Building a New Germany explores a key transitional period when the British tried to reshape Germany from foe to friend.

This collection will be of value to students and scholars with interests in post-war Europe, ideology, and the social history of conflict and dictatorship. It likewise offers insights into collective psychology, the construction of citizenship, and the processes of peace-making and nation-building.

It is only by cooperation that it will be possible for Germans to realise their mistakes of the past and learn the democratic way of life.

Major-General John Reeve, April 1946, FO 939/56

Insights

When the Allies (Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States) occupied Germany at the end of the Second World War, they sought to eradicate every trace of Nazism and militarism from German life and to prevent their re-emergence.

The process of denazification (in its broadest definition) ran from the purely superficial, such as the renaming of streets and buildings, to the much more substantive, such as the re-education of German citizens. This latter endeavour is surveyed in these records.

The first targets for denazification were Prisoners of War (POWs) housed in camps in Britain and across the empire. A dedicated re-education centre was established at Wilton Park in Buckinghamshire. It was founded and run by Heinz Koeppler, a German-Jewish émigré. Koeppler wanted the centre to have the feel of a residential college, rather than that of a prison.

The content of the re-education programme included lectures from such esteemed speakers as Bertrand Russell, William Beveridge, and Nancy Astor. There were also discussions about citizenship, liberty, democracy, and the British way of life. Screenings of films about the horrors of the Nazi regime, especially the Holocaust, likewise featured.

Tens of thousands of Germans passed through the British political re-education programme. Many of them went on to play prominent roles in the political life of post-war Germany. Willi Brundert, who later became Mayor of Frankfurt, stated that the programme “gave us Germans the possibility to become partners.”