Cover -- Table of Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- German historians and the Allied bombings -- 1. Putting the Allies on trial -- The early Federal Republic, 1945-1970 -- 1.1 The Allied bombings in the early Federal Republic -- 1.2 West German historiography and the air war in the 1950s and 1960s -- 1.3 Nazi propaganda and foreign texts -- 1.4 The Allied bombing and German guilt -- 2. Dresden and the Cold War -- East-West Debates on the bombing of Dresden, 1945-1970 -- 2.1 East German historical accounts of the attack on Dresden -- 2.2 East-West debates on Dresden -- 2.3 A shared Dresden myth? -- 3. A past becomes history -- The professionalizing of the air war historiography of the Federal Republic -- 3.1 Dresden im Luftkrieg: Götz Bergander -- 3.2 Horst Boog and the professionalizing of West German military history -- 4. The 'Imperialist Air War' -- East German historiography and the work of Olaf Groehler, 1965-1995 -- 4.1 Part of the system: Olaf Groehler -- 4.2 Debates with the West -- 5. Breaking taboos -- Jörg Friedrich and the 'rediscovery' of the Allied bombings -- 5.1 Jörg Friedrich's Der Brand -- 5.2 Der Brand and the new public interest in the Allied bombings -- 5.3 Der Brand and recent German historiography -- Conclusion -- The contested Air War -- Abbreviations -- Bibliography -- Index -- Photos -- Figure 1 Rolf Hochhuth and David Irving in Der Stern office, during their first meeting, 25 January 1965 -- Figure 2 Propaganda pamphlet, 1943 -- Figure 3 Joseph Goebbels inspects destroyed residential area, Cologne 1940 -- Figure 4 Pieta in the Hofkirche in Dresden made by Friedrich Press in 1973 -- Figure 5 Olaf Groehler, 1935-1995 -- Figure 6 Helmut Kohl laying a wreath at the Frauenkirche in Dresden, 19 December 1989.