Changing Historical Perspectives on the Nazi Dictatorship

Bibliographic Data

ID12417850
AuthorsHans Mommsen (0000-0003-1535-0612, Ruhr University Bochum, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume17
Issue1
Pages73-80
Publication date2009-02-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEuropean Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1062-7987 • E-ISSN: 1474-0575
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s106279870900057x
OpenAlexW2003377584
LanguageEN
Citations received9

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

Archaeology · Charisma · Democracy · Dictatorship · Economic history · German · Interwar period · Nazi Germany · Nazism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Weimar Republic · World War II · European history and politics · German History and Society · History · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Law

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