A Controversy about the Historicization of National Socialism

Abstract

September 28, 1987 Dear Mr. Friedlander, On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the end of Nazi rule in May 1985, I published an essay entitled A for a Historicization of National Socialism (Plidoyer ffir eine Historisierung des Nationalsozialismus) in the magazine Merkur. As far as I know, you have voiced reservations about the concept and fundamental idea of this historicization postulate a number of times in various lectures and articles, more than any other of my colleagues in the field of contemporary history in Germany and abroad. Moreover, your apprehensions were also affected by the backwash of the Historikerstreit that erupted in 1986 in the Federal Republic, though this particular debate has been characterized in part by a quite different set of motives, emphases and opposing camps. In my view, this dispute has certainly also led to some positive results. Yet the Historikerstreit was not particularly suited as a means toward furthering an objective discussion of the notions which I for completely nonpolemical reasons had put forward in my Plea a year earlier. Rather, a part of my arguments were extolled and applauded by the wrong camp, while in contrast, certain reservations and doubts surfaced where the basic ideas expressed therein (in my Plea) had met open-minded interest and agreement before. Due to such distortions of the objective discussion of the topic as a result of the Historikerstreit, I declined (as you are aware) after giving the matter considerable thought to accept an invitation by the Fischer Verlag to contribute to a paperback collection of essays that