A Farewell to Cultural Dominance. The Cultural Diplomacy of the "Old" Federal Republic and the Nazi Past

When in the 1980s German diplomats in Washington learned that the U.S. government was planning to build a National Holocaust Museum, they panicked, fearing that it would have a devastating impact on the image of the Federal Republic of Germany. This article analyzes their lament at being forced to address the Holocaust after several decades of relative silence by detailing the strategies that the Foreign Ministry employed to avoid confronting the Nazi past for more than thirty years. In its work with neighboring countries, West Germany's cultural diplomacy was supposed to represent a new beginning after Nazism. Despite its failure in this respect, it was lauded for its contribution to the rehabilitation of the country.