Fostering responsibility for the past among citizens in the Federal Republic of Germany from the 1950s to the 1980s: ethical and legal aspects

The efforts to foster a sense of responsibility for the past in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from the 1950s to the 1980s were influenced by the tension between the legal and ethical evaluations of the outcomes of World War II. The article describes the legal foundations underpinning this process and the challenges faced by the legal system of the FRG during the trials of war criminals. The article also explores the ethical foundations and key debates in German society regarding the creation of a new kind of German citizen - one who condemns National Socialism and is willing to take responsibility for Nazi crimes. The analysis shows that establishing a new post-conflict culture, based on the supremacy of civil rights and freedoms, and a critical reexamination of the past, has been a complicated process. German intellectuals actively debated the need for an ethical foundation for society. However, these new foundations were rejected in legal practices due to the continued influence of legal positivism, which emphasized adhering to the “letter of the law” rather than universal moral norms in the administration of justice. The law offered a different view of the German people: independent of historic changes, they could not be blamed simply for living under National Socialism. The process of fostering responsibility for the past was over only by the late 1980s, after the aforementioned conflict had been resolved and a more liberal approach in law had become dominant.