More Thoughts on the Legacy of National Socialism

So,

On Saturday, the 10th of October, I visited the Deutsches Technikmuseum (their museum of science and technology). First impression after walking to a rather dead part of the city center (it's always amazing when really central parts of cities nevertheless are devoid of the people and energy one expects in the heart of a bustling city. Sort of like being in Murray Hill in NYC, which often feels a little sleepy compared to so many other parts of Manhattan.) was that the museum seems perhaps a little dated. The placards to explain things were on somewhat dingey no-longer-white paper. The translations to english were spotty and highly irregular (meaning, sometimes there were translations and other times there were not; and this condition lacked any or all semblance of a pattern). However, once one got going through the museum, and beyond the really endless models of ships, airplanes, and more ships, it became quite interesting.

First, it's enormous. It covers several buildings (5 or 6) and one requires several days to really appreciate the various exhibits. Further focus on the exhibits, however, served to once again demonstrate something I've noted in prior blogs. Namely, the omnipresence of the period of Nazi National Socialism in Germany's history and how they must grapple with this in such a diverse array of mundane, and not so mundane, ways. This time, it arrives under the guise of describing the prowess of things like U-Boats and German fighter plane technology that were developed in the interest of serving the grandly evil schemes of the Nazis. Once again, as I believe I noted about the German History Museum, we have a very "just the facts mam" approach to the intersection, this time, of technology and National Socialism.

In the section of the museum covering the building of the first working program-controlled computer, by Konrad Zuse, there is pride in this exhibit. They have 12 replicas of the man's various prototypes. It it noted that the company he helped found did not, like its counterpart IBM in the U.S., have any government subsidization. However, with respect to the various war-time technologies (much of which, I am fairly certain, made its way to civilian uses) that pride is largely absent. In fact, there's a whole exhibit (in the portion of the museum dedicated to the evolution of rail technology) that delves into the issue of the transportation of Jews to the concentration camps. I should be careful not to overstate the quantitative significance of the period of National Socialism to this museum that contains copies of the Gutenberg press, numerous old weaving machines, and millions of other technological artifacts developed in Germany. However, viewing those areas that were greatly promulgated and supported by the National Socialists reminded one of the ways in which Germany, to this day, remains a pariah nation, if not in the world, certainly in its own collective psyche.

And that's what I find so endlessly fascinating. I contend without hesitation that the U.S. has as much to be ashamed of in its history as Germany does. Perhaps there's not a large and wealthy minority group continuing to remind the world about our national evils, but those evils, such as they are, seem visible upon the most cursory review of history. Of course, the sheer vastness of our country, somewhat attenuates the ability to experience, in a visceral sense, the negative aspects of our history. Berlin was the capital of Nazi Germany and was largely destroyed. There has been no expiation by fire of any location in the U.S. where atrocities were either committed or from which they were directed. As such, there isn't the opportunity to see evidence of our grave and bold steps away from our creed of equality, fairness, justice, etc. As a result, most Americans, especially white Americans, remain quite sanguine in their American exceptionalism. I find this results, partly, from the fact that we neither passively, nor certainly not actively, revisit America's brutal past. There are not reminders all around the South of locations where African Americans were routinely lynched. There are not reminders, all around the country of locations where Native Americans were massacred or starved.

Like glaciers rolling over mountains, the authority of history's victors to roll over the bumps within their illusory mask of cultural and historical superiority knows no limit. It is Manifest Destiny writ large in an existential and historical context. On the one hand, I pity that Germans cannot share, given the blight that Nazism continues to exert on their national psyche and their global reputation, in the almost universal tendency of people to experience national pride. On the other hand, however, America could use a large dose of humility that might come from having routinely to face its dirty laundry as we say. Indeed, this paucity of historical context has made America a far more dangerous country than it needed to be and, furthermore, will, I believe, ultimately contribute to an expedited exit from the position of the lone global superpower. But more on that later.