What a word for the non-German speaker! I (think but not yet sure) that this is a topic I might be more than a little interested in. But I don’t really know what it means/is. Can people please explain the meaning of this term and examples of it revealed as actions or literature etc.?
Google doesn’t have a lot of luck, except for this that gives me a fair sense of what we’re talking about …
http://www.newsandevents.utoronto.ca/bin/bulletin/feb3_98/letters.htm
Recall that following the collapse of totalitarianism in Germany and in the Soviet Union, there was a great deal of soul-searching in both countries: Vergangenheitsüberwältigung in Germany, glasnost-perestroika in the Soviet Union, in effect a renunciation of hegemonical ambitions and of the rule of force.
By: Smith - 17th July 2007 at 00:31
Thanks for this guys. I think PilotFred’s making a valid point. The context in which I found this term, supports the proposition of coming to terms with a past.
W G Sebald in his book “On The Natural History of Destruction” attempts this. I recommend it to all of us armchair historians trying to understand what happened in 1940’s Germany.
By: Pilotfred - 16th July 2007 at 22:40
It’s been suggested to me that the correct term might be Vergangenheitsbewaeltigung = Coming to terms with the past.
HTH
By: tenthije - 11th July 2007 at 21:24
being overwhelmed by past events
Sounds about rigtht, but I am not a native speaker either.
By: Grey Area - 10th July 2007 at 23:12
My German is very rusty indeed, but I think a rough translation would be somewhere along the lines of “the feeling of being overwhelmed by the weight of past events“.
We do have some regulars who are native German speakers. Maybe one of them can come up with a better version?
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July 10, 2007 at 11:03 pm