Abstract
Historical consciousness in unified Germany 13 years after the fall of the German Democratic Republic is undergoing a profound change whose direction is not yet clearly visible. The article describes the status and contents of historical consciousness of the period from autumn 1989 until the end of the twentieth century. Historical consciousness is at the heart of German political culture and derives from existential experiences during the Third Reich and World War II and the period of reconstruction after 1945. However, German unification in 1990 was the starting point for a new foreign policy and an ongoing change in historical consciousness, partly also due to generational change.