The Bitburg Affair and the Beginnings of Jewish Activism in 1980s West Germany*

Abstract

President Ronald Reagan and Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s visit to the military cemetery at Bitburg in May 1985 was covered extensively by the international media, and gave rise to a vigorous debate about the place of the National Socialist past in German memory, as well as the dignity accorded to Holocaust victims and survivors. The Jewish voices in this debate were overwhelmingly North American. However, what few have considered thus far is why a perceived insult to Jewish memory in Germany should not also have affected Jews who were living in Germany. Consequently, this article looks at the Bitburg debate from a German-Jewish perspective. What role did the Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland (ZdJ) play in the debate? And what effects, if any, did it have on Jewish life in West Germany, and on the emergence of a new Jewish activism in Germany over the longer term?