Judging the Past in Unified Germany

Preface; Glossary; Note; Part I. Introduction on Judging the East German Past: 1. Interpreting East Germany's history; 2. Four types of retrospective justice; Part II. Criminal Justice: Prosecuting GDR Officials: 3. Competing arguments for justice; 4. Seeking justice within the law; 5. A 'trial of the century'; 6. Judicial architects of German unity; 7. The risks of going too far; 8. An ambiguous message about culpability; Part III. Disqualifying Justice: Searching for Stasi Collaborators: 9. Contending views on the Stasi's reach; 10. Level one: distilling truth from the files; 11. Level two: screening for Stasi activity; 12. Level three: appealing dismissals before the courts; 13. The competing messages of screening; Part IV. Moral Justice: Assessing the Complete Record of Dictatorship: 14. Finding fault with the churches; 15. A different stand on the Deutschlandpolitik; 16. Mixed emotions about the silent majority; 17. Revisiting East Germany's difficult past; 18. A better commission?; Part V. Corrective Justice: Returning Private Property: 19. The narrow choices behind the property settlement; 20. The challenge of implementing the property statute; 21. The legitimacy of Jewish claims ...; 22. ... But the irreversibility of Soviet expropriations; 23. Vying responses to GDR-era injustice; 24. The ambiguities of drawing the line: an enduring burden of multiple pasts; Part VI. Conclusion: A Manageable Past?: 25. The FRG's constrained options; 26. Judging the past in the right way; 27. GDR wrongdoing in perspective; 28. Contending venues of justice.

'A clear and well-argued study.' Publishers Weekly 'Well-written with tight analysis, this book should benefit graduate students and scholars of contemporary German affairs.' Choice