The German Patient: Crisis and Recovery in Postwar Culture. By Jennifer M. Kapczynski. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press. 2008. Pp. x + 261. Cloth $70.00. ISBN 978-0472070527. Paper $26.00. ISBN 978-0-472-05052-9.

摘要

It is impossible to study the Third Reich without grasping the Nazis’ obsessionrnwith biology. Hitler’s political vision centered on an understanding ofrnGermans as a damaged “body” (Volkskörper), whose long-term survival dependedrnon the removal of impure elements, notably Jews, and a subsequent racial regen-rneration. But can a similar obsession with sickness and healing be found in earlyrnWest Germany? Jennifer Kapczynski makes a compelling case that it can. Inthis impressive book, the author demonstrates that after World War II, Germanrnintellectuals employed a vocabulary of illness in their attempts to understandrnhow Germany could have succumbed to fascism. While their “biopoliticalrntexts” (p.19) had an entirely different aim from Nazi tracts, namely to understandrnthe nature of collective guilt, their language nonetheless came “uncomfortablyrnclose” (p. 60) to that of National Socialism.