The German Historikerstreit Between Event And Memory

The Historikerstreit (historian's dispute) 1986/87, as one of the most important intelligent controversies in Germany after the Second World War, had great influences on the development of German historical political culture and its historiography. With a comprehensive account of its process, I delineate in this dissertation its image in the perspective of event as well as of memory, and at the same time analyse the causes to make a wide-ranging assessment of this dispute.Besides the preface and the epilogue, this dissertation is composed of three parts:In the first part are the explosion, the progress, the finishing and the further development of the Historikerstreit presented. At that time many German intellectuals, most of whom were historians, participated in this argument about historical facts, research methods and academic morality in studies of Nazism. After its hot phase as a bitter quarrel, the Historikerstreit achieved the level of its self historicization, and began to play a role in a different way.In the second part I diskuss the special characteristics of the Historikerstreit as a historical debate under three aspects. The political-cultural context and the conflict between different research trends within the historical studies in Germany led together to a sharp contrast during this dispute. And as a confrontation with history between German historians in the mass media, both the characteristics of the later public historical debates, as well as the philosophical and social political properties of historical studies would be mirrored in the Historikerstreit.In the third part I analyze the image of the Historikerstreit in memory of the historiography and the public. Firstly because of the dissimilar self-image between different generations of historians, and secondly of the different personal experiences of the participants, some inhomogeneous images of the Historikerstreit developed in different groups. In addition, the impact, which comes from the lasting intervention of the mass media, played here a crucial role.In breif, as a not quite scientific historical debate the Historikerstreit could be rated as concentrated expression of several developments in Germany. The openness of historiography and its memory is showed and strengthened through this dispute.