ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the significant cultural changes that West Germany experienced after 1945 and prior to unification with the former German Democratic Republic in 1990. It discusses a similarly fundamental transformation in the area of political culture. The chapter explains how the burdens of a troubled past continued to affect the lives of West Germans after 1945. The mixture of profound cultural transformation and partial cultural continuity in West Germany after World War II was quite clearly reflected in developments in the Federal Republic's political culture. In the course of the survey of West German political culture, the chapter repeatedly observes the importance of generational differences. The course of modern German history has been marked by such discontinuity and upheaval that the normal manifestations of generational heterogeneity in political culture have been increased even more. The development of a national consciousness has contributed to the rise of democratic movements; however, become unpolitical and so supported and deified authoritarian regimes.
