There is a whole genera of German post-war literature called Trümmerliteratur (rubble literature) or Nachtkriegsliteratur (after the war literature) that is quite good but very dark, very introspective and very complicated. The mood is of a people who are the stunned and disoriented survivors of an enormous catastrophe who are living the rubble of their own making and looking for a way start over. Heinrich Böll is my particular favorite author of this period.

A related concept is the idea of Stunde Null (zero hour) in the sense of a new beginning or turning the page on May 8, 1945. By non-Germans, particularly the Poles, this is often understood as simply forgetting the war. This remains controversial but it is the first assumption of the present German republic.

More recent attempts address the period 1933-45 are Edgar Reitz's 32 episode television series Heimat (Homeland) released in the 1980s and the more recent 2014 television series Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter (Our Mothers, our Fathers).