Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T08:42:34.974Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Changing Historical Perspectives on the Nazi Dictatorship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2009

Hans Mommsen
Hans Mommsen
Affiliation:
Fakultät für Geschichtswissenschaft, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, D-44780 Bochum, Germany. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper discusses the change of the leading paradigms in the field of contemporary history in the Federal Republic of Germany. While, during the early post-Second World War period, the study of the interwar period was dominated by the theory of totalitarian dictatorship and the discussion of the deficiencies of the Paris peace treaty system, thereby focusing on the charismatic leadership of Adolf Hitler, the post-war generation of German historians analysed the emerging political system of the Third Reich from a more systematic perspective, depicting behind the Hitlerian façade the antagonistic political structure that resulted in an accelerating cumulative radicalisation of the Nazi regime. This functionalist approach, however, has recently been attacked for indirectly exculpating the Nazi crimes by underlining the systemic factors leading to the accumulation of terror and violence and is about to be replaced by a rather moralist interpretation of Nazi politics, accentuating the function of the ‘Volksgemeinschaft’ and the impact of Hitler’s charismatic leadership.

Type
Articles
Information
European Review , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , February 2009 , pp. 73 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © Academia Europaea 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References and Notes

1. Cf. N. Berg (2003) Der Holocaust und die westdeutschen Historiker. Erforschung und Erinnerung (Wallstein, Göttingen), p. 542; cf. P. Nowick (1999) The Holocaust in American Life (Boston), p. 103 ff.Google Scholar
2. U. Herbert (ed.) (1998) Nationalsozialistische Vernichtungspolitik 1939–1945 (Frankfurt), p. 20 f.; U. Herbert (2006) The Holocaust in German history, in: M. Zimmermann (ed.), The Germans and the Jews under the Nazi Regime, Jerusalem, p. 74; D. Diner, Vergangenheit und Schuld, in: Evangelische Kirche im geteilten Deutschland, ed. by C. Hepp, Göttingen, Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 2001, p. 96, quoted in N. Berg (2003) Der Holocaust und die westdeutschen Historiker. Erforschung und Erinnerung (Göttingen), p. 566.Google Scholar
3. N. Berg (2003) Der Holocaust und die westdeutschen Historiker. Erforschung und Erinnerung (Göttingen), p. 513.Google Scholar
4. Cf. G. Paul (ed.) (2002) Die Täter der Shoah, Fanatische Nationalsozialisten oder ganz normale Deutsche (Göttingen); K.-M. Mallmann and G. Paul (eds) (2004) Karrieren der Gewalt. Nationalsozialistische Täterbiographien (Darmstadt).Google Scholar
5. S. C. Browning (1991) Ordinary Men, Reserve Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland (New York), p. 168 ff., 188 f.Google Scholar
6. D. Goldhagen (1996) Hitler’s Willing Executioners (New York).Google Scholar
7. Cf. U. Herbert (1996) Studien über Radikalismus, Weltanschauung und Vernunft, 1903–1989 (Bonn).Google Scholar
8. S. M. Wildt (2007) Volksgemeinschaft als Selbstermächtigung, Gewalt gegen Juden in der deutschen Provinz 1919 bis 1939 (Hamburg), p. 68; cf. D. Schoenbaum (1980) Die braune Revolution, new edn (Köln), p. 97 ff.Google Scholar
9. N. Frei (2005) 1945 und Wir. Das Dritte Reich im Bewusstsein der Deutschen (Munich), p. 113 ff.Google Scholar
10. H.-U. Wehler (2003) Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte, Vol. 4 (Munich), p. 681.Google Scholar
11. S. M. Wildt (2007) Volksgemeinschaft als Selbstermächtigung, Gewalt gegen Juden in der deutschen Provinz 1919 bis 1939 (Hamburg), pp. 68 and 361.Google Scholar
12. G. Aly (2005) Hitlers Volksstaat (Frankfurt am Main), p. 49.Google Scholar
13. Cf. N. Frei (2005) 1945 und Wir. Das Dritte Reich im Bewusstsein der Deutschen (Munich), p. 115; for the repressive character of the NSV see R. Evans (2005) Das Dritte Reich, Vol. II/2 (Munich), p. 582 ff.Google Scholar
14. H.-U. Wehler (2003) Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte, Vol. 4 (Munich), p. 67 ff.Google Scholar
15. Cf. I. Kershaw (2002) Der NS-Staat, 3rd edn (Hamburg).Google Scholar
16. K. Schleunes (1970) The Twisted Road to Auschwitz (Urbana/Chicago/London).Google Scholar