Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Introduction: The Purposes and Problems of German Life Writing in the Twentieth Century 1
4. 1: Life Writing and Writing Lives: Ego Documents in Historical Perspective 25
5. 2: From Erlebnis to Erinnerung: Rereading Soldiers’ Letters and Photographs from the First World War 39
6. 3: From Das Antlitz des Weltkrieges to Der gefährliche Augenblick: Ernst Jünger, Photography, Autobiography, and Modernity 54
7. 4: Persuasive Illusions of the Self: Albert Speer’s Life Writing and Public Discourse about Germany’s Nazi Past 71
8. 5: The Shoah before the Shoah: The Literary Technique of Allusion in Elias Canetti’s Autobiography 92
9. 6: “Ich schäme mich meiner Augen”: Photography and Autobiographical Identities in Grete Weil’s Leb ich denn, wenn andere leben 105
10. 7: “Mich in Variationen erzählen”: Günter Grass and the Ethics of Autobiography 121
11. 8: Voyeurism? Autobiographies by Children of the Perpetrators: Niklas Frank’s Der Vater: Eine Abrechnung (1987) and Meine deutsche Mutter (2005) 137
12. 9: Dismembering the Past, Remembering the Self: An Interrogation of Disability Narratives by Luise Habel and Christa Reinig 151
13. 10: “Schicht um Schicht” — The Evolution of Fred Wander’s Life Writing Project in the GDR Era and Beyond 164
14. 11: Thought Patterns and Explanatory Strategies in the Life Writing of High-Ranking GDR Party Officials after the Wende 179
15. 12: “Ein reines Phantasieprodukt” or “Hostile Biography”? Günter de Bruyn’s Vierzig Jahre and the Stasi files 196
16. Notes on the Contributors 209
17. Index 213