- Dörte von Westernhagen
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Dörte von Westernhagen (born 5 August 1943)[1] is a German writer.
Von Westernhagen was born in Perleberg, now in Prignitz, in 1943.[1] She is descended from a Prussian Junker family. She studied in Berlin,[1] and earned a doctorate of law.[2] She worked in the administration of Baden-Württemberg, until she decided to write her own story. Her book "Kinder der Täter" (The Perpetrators' Children) made quite a round in Germany when it was published in 1987.[3] The book was immediately recognized as one of the first attempts to get the NS-children out of their parents' shadow.[4]
Westernhagen starts her narrative with her own childhood. Then her father takes over. Her father was a colonel in the Leibstandarte.[2] He was shot through his head in Hungary in her first year.[3] The book is about his daughter's sorrow. In the small-typed appendix she returns to her own childhood memories and those of other German NS-children. The importance of Westernhagen's work lies in the fact that she was the first European NS-child to discuss her father both as a personally brave man and a war criminal.
References
- ^ a b c von Westernhagen, Dörte. "Dr. Dörte von Westernhagen". Prignitzlexikon. Culture Management Berlin. http://home.arcor.de/prignitzportal/citizen/seite_westernhagen_doerte.htm. Retrieved 2009-11-18.
- ^ a b Wyden, Peter (2001). The Hitler virus: the insidious legacy of Adolf Hitler. Arcade Publishing. p. 269–270. ISBN 9781559705325.
- ^ a b Ullrich, Volker (12 August 1988). "Mit den Untaten der Eltern leben (Living with their parents' misdeeds)" (in German). Die Zeit. http://www.zeit.de/1988/33/Mit-den-Untaten-der-Eltern-leben?page=all. Retrieved 28 October 2009.
- ^ Danieli, Yael (1998). International handbook of multigenerational legacies of trauma. Springer. p. 85. ISBN 9780306457388.
External links
Categories:- 1943 births
- Living people
- People from Perleberg
- German writers
- German writer stubs
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