Lions and Lambs

Conflict in Weimar and the Creation of Post-Nazi Germany

Strote Noah Benezra

A bold new interpretation of Germany's democratic transformation in the twentieth century, focusing on a group of intellectuals who shaped the post-Nazi reconstruction.

Not long after the horrors of World War II and the Holocaust, Germans rebuilt their shattered country as a robust democracy and one of the Western world's leading nations. In his debut work, Noah Strote analyzes this remarkable turnaround and challenges the widely held perception that the Western Allies – particularly the United States – were responsible for Germany's transformation. Instead, Strote draws from never-before-seen material to show how Hitler's rise ultimately united the fractious social groups that had vied for supremacy during the so-called Weimar Republic of 1918 to 1933. Strote's character-driven narrative follows ten Germans of diverse backgrounds who lived through the breakdown of the Weimar Republic and together assumed founding roles in the post-Nazi reconstruction. Accessible, deeply researched, and strikingly original, this book offers a fresh understanding of postwar Germany and, more broadly, the postwar European order.

About the Author

Noah Benezra Strote is assistant professor of European history at North Carolina State University. A former fellow at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, he currently lives in Durham, NC.

Reviews

"In this learned, sharply observed, and elegantly written book, Strote offers a brilliantly conceived argument about the nature of democracy in Germany's tumultuous twentieth century. It will exert considerable influence on how we think about Weimar and the Federal Republic" – Peter Fritzsche, author of "An Iron Wind: Europe under Hitler"

"Ever since the sociologist M. Rainer Lepsius popularized the notion of 'social milieux', it has been commonplace to recall Wilhelmine and Weimar-era Germany as a society divided into discrete cultural-political domains. After 1945, however, a new spirit of partnership brought together these once-antagonistic groups to forge the relatively stable and enduring ethos of the German Federal Republic. In his broad-ranging and suggestive new book, Noah Strote sheds a helpful light on this ideological transformation" – Peter E. Gordon, author of "Adorno and Existence"

"'Lions and Lambs' is an impressive, innovative exploration of ideas about overcoming conflict and achieving consensus in Germany from the Weimar Republic through the early years of the Federal Republic. This book will change how we think about Germany's transformation after 1945" – Richard Bessel, author of "Germany 1945: From War to Peace"

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