Black and White Memories of War: Victimization and Violence in West German War Films of the 1950s

Films, especially war films, played a key role in overcoming the extreme identity crisis that West German political culture suffered after 1945 due to defeat, division, and the moral consequences of National Socialism. Despite their often somber tone, war films provided a comfortable interpretation of the Second World War (1939-45), which cast Germans as helpless victims or heroic nonconformists rather than historical actors and compliant, or even eager, collaborators. War films helped to construct a specifically West German identity during the 1950s by creating the myths and memories so important to the legitimacy of the Federal Republic and the prosperity of that decade.