Necessary Preamble: I'm NOT a sociologist nor a proper historian. Just a german history nerd who is volunteering at the Auschwitz Museum right now and very invested in the topic.

-Firstly, the real, proper Nazis (like former SS, party officials, rednecks) didn't just stop being Nazis. In fact, many of them held onto their beliefs, prejudices. It just wasn't broadly accepted anymore to voice the kind of hate speech people used in Nazi Germany openly. That is in part due to the fact, that many free thinking intellectuals that were shushed by or even fled from the Regime were now able to return to public debate and direct the content towards a more democratic flavour. Also in the immediate aftermath of the war, the Allied administration were pursuing Nazis rather vigorously juristically meaning they had an interest in not going too public and drawing interest. -But the Social Democrats and Christian Democrats, too, didn't just stop being themselves during the war. More than one might think (still not many) actually maintained reason during the war. These people became very quickly the new academic and political elite in post-war Germany. -The Allied forces had a so called White List which named famous Germans, who definetely hadn't been Nazis (such as the ones above). Konrad Adenauer, our first chancellor, was one of them. The List however was short, very short. The Allied were in desperate need of politicians, experts, intellectuals, buisenessmen to rebuild Germany. And because fascist experts are still experts, they were "allowed" to participate in public life without too much social or institutional shaming, if you will. These experts had to adapt to a new reality to live a normal, stable life, so they kept their mouths shut/changed their minds. Remember, people are social animals. The mainstream eventually does take over. It goes in both directions, ya see. -Furthermore, the average citizen didn't know about the camps. Locals who lived near one didn't realize the Holocaust's dimensions. They knew of persecutions, participated in progroms, so the public guilt is definetley there. But the shock after the war was great nonetheless. If people now talked about the Nazis, they had to talk about the gas chambers, which was just too painful for many families. So they just didn't talk about it at all. New liberal sentiments filled the gaps and there was a lot of „Well we didn’t know. WE did not know.” So jumping on the new ideals was a way to absolve themselves for many. Trauma is another reason. Soldiers and the citizens of bombed cities (generally) didn't like speaking about the war. Either out of shame, guilt, fear of persecution or, simply and most commonly, because it was so terrible. People suffered. Another reason why there was such a huge silence after the war. -That silence of the war generation was deafening. The war generation didn’t speak about the war at all for the aforementioned reasons, their children were generally occupied with rebuilding the industry and the cold war. Also they were just too close to their parents; it took a lot of bravery to confront your father about his NSDAP party membership when you’ve seen the Holocaust images in school. The grandchildren, however, had had enough. They were fed up with the silence; with the former Nazi experts in important positions in the entire young republic; with the lack of reconciliation with other countries. They started what we know call the „68-Revolution”. Driven mainly by university students, young people mobilised immense energies to call former Nazis out, confront their families about their own past and generally proudly proclaim their love for Liberalism and Democracy and Equality. The so called „Nazi-Mief”, the Nazi-stank, was driven out. These people are now in their 40s-60s and the bedrock of the liberal middle class in Germany. -Also, geopolitical reasons. The Cold War was almost immediatley gathering steam after the war ended. The Allied needed a strong, functioning, productive Germany as a buffer zone to the neighbouring Soviet Union. So they invested. Heavily. All the money was accompanied by propaganda that promised that liberal capitalism brings results. And results it did indeed bring. That probably helped people to get over the Nazi times and avoid a „the-good-old-days-when-Hitler…” sentiment. Their old system was just being proven wrong by the minute. -Alongside these investments, Europe also focused on institutional reconciliation works to improve international relations. Particularly between France and Germany, as the question of European peace has always been the question about the Franco-German relationship. As such, people met, travelled, a dialogue was created, the industries cooperated, wealth grew, lovable partnership proclaimed by the media and the politicians. The „Erbfeind Frankreich”, the Traditional Enemy France had been made a friend and partner. -Last, but not least, the creation of the EU’s predecessors which greatly helped spread a new set of ideals. But that’s a huge topic on its own.

Im at work right now, but will include credible source asap. But all info I wrote is rather easily verifieable I believe 