"Lieder machen Leute": Teaching Postwar German Identity through Song.

The negotiation of a West German identity in the decades that followed World War II can be traced in the issues and movements that preoccupied the populace. These in turn are documented in the work of socially and politically motivated Liedermacher. Songs thus serve as a point of entry for students into how Germans saw themselves in the Bonn Republic. By focusing on the Wirtschaftswunder, anti-nuclear activity, the environment, and patriotic militarism as addressed in five song texts from 1967 to 1985, this article provides a resource platform from which to build learning units and student projects exploring this era.