Quellen und Darstellungen zur Zeitgeschichte

Erst mit Beginn der 1960er Jahre gelang es dem Münchner Automobilhersteller BMW, zur allgemeinen Prosperitätsentwicklung der bundesdeutschen Nachkriegszeit aufzuschließen. Im „Wirtschaftswunder" angekommen, sah sich das Unternehmen schlagartig mit den strukturellen Herausforderungen des Booms konfrontiert: Die steigende Nachfrage nach BMW-Modellen brachte die Notwendigkeit mit sich, die Produktion massiv auszuweiten und neue Fertigungsmethoden zu implementieren. Die Einstellung der erforderlichen Arbeiter stellte aufgrund des Mangels an Arbeitskräften in Zeiten der Vollbeschäftigung jedoch ein großes Problem dar.

Mario Boccia untersucht in seiner Studie die Betriebspolitik der Unternehmensführung und deren Auswirkungen auf die Produktionsbelegschaft: Neben der „Gastarbeiterbeschäftigung", sozial- und personalpolitischen Maßnahmen sowie der Intensivierung der menschlichen Arbeit steht auch die Rolle des Betriebsrats im Fokus. Die mit der fordistischen Produktionsweise einhergehende Unzufriedenheit bei den Mitarbeitern zeitigte zwei Resultate: Die Zunahme von fabrikinternen linksradikalen Protesten sowie die am Anfang der 1970er Jahre einsetzende „Humanisierung" der Arbeit.

The people who lost their lives in the confrontation between German left-wing terrorists and the state were not ordinary victims. The interpretative battles that raged around them played a major role in the bloody confrontation. Kevin Lenk traces those battles, showing that the history of left-wing terrorism and its impact on the Federal Republic of Germany cannot be understood without considering the political instrumentalization of its victims.

With this analysis of the June 2 movement, Max Gedig makes an essential contribution to the scholarly understanding of the radical left as well as political violence in German postwar history. The author paints a detailed picture of members’ milieu, their political objectives, and the most important events that occurred during the group’s existence, between 1969 and 1980.

In 1920, Otto Meissner became Chief of the Office of the Reich President, a post he held until 1934. In late 1937, Adolf Hitler then appointed the native Alsatian to the post of State Minister, with Meissner serving as the head of the Führer’s presidential chancellery until 1945. Stefan Paulus takes various perspectives to examine Meissner’s role and impact as a high-ranking state official during the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich.

Paul von Hindenburg and Philippe Pétain both managed to work their way up from general to head of state. Their followers declared them saviors. Their opponents condemned them as traitors, attacking the political order that these two heroes of World War I represented. Stefan Schubert compares those orders and examines the connection between the heroization of the military and its political impact in Germany and France.

In the occupied Soviet Union, the Einsatzgruppen were succeeded by the offices of the commanders of the Security Police and Secret Service. Designed for the long term, they were to realize in practice the dystopia of an Eastern Europe dominated by Germany. This volume is the first to examine the history and personnel of these offices in the Reichskommissariat Ukraine, thereby shedding new light on the Holocaust and the practice of occupation.

What did former National Socialists think about the Volksgemeinschaft – national community – in the Third Reich? This pioneering study is the first to examine self-perceptions, strategies of justification, and constructions of community in the internment camps of the British and US occupation zones. It thus allows for a new view of German postwar society and the limits of allied reeducation policy.

Self-service, the computerization of cash registers, rationalization, part-time work, closing time – these phenomena shaped the rapid development of retail in the second half of the twentieth century. In this study, the author examines the protagonists of this transformation – sales women – and uncovers the structural mechanisms of the working world that have led to gender-based inequality in democracy again and again.

In the thaw of Détente, two antagonists broke a taboo in 1973: the communist SED regime and Francoist Spain assumed diplomatic relations. The GDR was the only socialist country in Europe that exchanged ambassadors with Franco’s Spain. This study is the first to portray relations between the GDR and Spain, which were in need of explanation from the outset and remained unusual until the end.

Obdachlose gehören zum städtischen Alltag. Sie sind sichtbar und werden zugleich kaum wahrgenommen. Nadine Recktenwald blickt in die historischen Räume der Obdachlosen wie Asyle, Notunterkünfte und selbstangeeignete Orte. Sie untersucht deren Erfahrungen mit urbanen Strukturen, sozialstaatlichen Maßnahmen und gesellschaftlicher In- und Exklusion.

Mit einem raumanalytischen Ansatz, umfangreichen Quellen und Einzelbiografien erforscht die Autorin, wie Obdachlose spezifische soziale Praktiken ausbildeten, um ihre gesellschaftliche Position zu beeinflussen. Eindrucksvoll zeigt sie die Interaktionen der Betroffenen untereinander ebenso wie mit Ämtern, der Justiz und den städtischen Öffentlichkeiten. Eine aufschlussreiche Sozial- und Stadtgeschichte der Obdachlosen in der Weimarer Republik, im Nationalsozialismus und in der Bundesrepublik.

Contaminated air and poisonous rivers – this is what environmental pollution in the GDR is often associated with. But how did the Federal Republic react to the environmental problems crossing the border from the East? How did representatives of both German states discuss this subject? This study examines environmental negotiations to shed light on the entanglements of politics, conservation, economics, and civil society between East and West.

The Canadian-American economist John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) is considered to be one of the most prolific economic and societal commentators of his time. Anne-Kristin von Dewitz examines his relationship to Germany from the 1940s onward and describes the influential impact he made as a public intellectual in the decades after the war against the backdrop of major societal and political upheavals.

The GDR gay rights movement of the 1970s and 1980s was always both East German and German-German. The actors in the GDR performed a balancing act between adaptation and rejection, and between different feelings of belonging, e.g., between the GDR and a transnational movement, and between state and church. Teresa Tammer goes beyond the Wall to investigate East Germans’ self-assertion strategies as well as their networks and transfers.

Since 1945, medical advancements and demographic change have fundamentally altered the end of life. Florian Greiner traces the different responses in East and West: the emergence of hospice movements and palliative medicine, the fight for assisted dying, and churches’ search for religious meaning. His pioneering study starts with the experiences of World War II and ends with the reunified Federal Republic.

Management consultants have been a regular fixture in the German public sector since the late twentieth century. But how did this come about and what interests brought consultants and civil servants together to conduct their business? The history of public sector consulting is testament, firstly, to the rise of a self-perpetuating industry and, secondly, to the political desire for practical, resistant, easily accessible bodies of knowledge.

This work examines the role of communications experts and scholars in state propaganda in the United States, Germany, and the Soviet Union from the 1920s through the Cold War. In a three-sided interwoven history of perception and relations, Benno Nietzel thus sketches for the first time a transnational knowledge history of mass communication and propaganda in the 20th century.

In the late 1960s, there was unrest between the Catholic minority and the Protestant majority in Northern Ireland. Andreas Spreier examines how the British legal state reacted to the political violence by looking at state court and internment policies, which transformed from the use of the military and internment without legal proceedings into the criminalization of the IRA by means of the police and justice system.

Karl Christian Führer examines the origins of modern, high-performance agriculture in West Germany. As he clearly demonstrates, "intensive animal farming" was primarily a response from farmers to the new demands being placed on them by consumers, retail, and processing operations. By looking at the product "meat," he thus presents a fascinating economic and social history of the Federal Republic.

The rise of ecology in the 1970s has presented the SPD with a twofold challenge: it questioned its traditional optimism in growth and progress, while the basis-democratic ideals propagated in the environmental movement attacked the classic social democratic policy model. For the first time, Felix Lieb examines the SPD’s attempts to find a way out of this twofold field of tension.

Bei der historischen Betrachtung extrem rechter Parteien gerät meist aus dem Blick, dass auch Frauen dort schon immer einen aktiven Part gespielt haben. So auch in der NPD, deren Geschichte hier zum ersten Mal in weiblicher Perspektive aufgearbeitet wird. Die einst aktivste Partei am rechten Rand bot insbesondere ehemaligen Nationalsozialistinnen vielfältige Betätigungsfelder, ob in den Parteistrukturen, der Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit, der ideologischen Zuarbeit oder als Abgeordnete in den Landtagen der Bundesrepublik. Valérie Dubslaff untersucht die personellen, politischen und ideologischen Entwicklungen der NPD seit ihrer Gründung 1964 und fragt dabei nach dem politischen Selbstverständnis der Nationaldemokratinnen in unterschiedlichen zeitgeschichtlichen Zusammenhängen. Sie zeigt, dass deren nationalistischer „Kampf für Deutschland" immer auch mit einem innerparteilichen Ringen um weibliche Handlungsmacht in der stark männlich dominierten extremen Rechten einherging.

Catholic educators around 1900 seem to have been overwhelmed by "modern" pedagogical developments. This study looks at educational practices between 1918 and 1945 using the example of Bavaria, identifying continuities in notions of morality and analyzing how Catholic youth workers and carers sought to unite rigid moral thought and a belief in progress, and the consequences that this had for the youth welfare system.

The 1970s were a turning point for global monetary and currency relations. The Bretton Woods system collapsed, the oil crisis stoked the fires of inflation, and European states laid the foundations for their own currency union. This volume examines how the Deutsche Bundesbank and the Banque de France positioned themselves, the impact they had, and the strategies they pursued.

Recently, there have been increasing calls for improvements to research and education to be carried out at a European level. This study reveals that many of the ideas and concepts for strengthening university cooperation in Europe being discussed today have been around since the 1950s. The author portrays an exciting history full of controversies surrounding the possibilities and limits of tertiary education at a European level.

On June 10, 1944, Waffen-SS soldiers destroyed the French village of Oradour. In her study, Andrea Erkenbrecher examines how the Germans dealt with the massacre after 1949. She investigates the legal prosecution of the perpetrators, reparation payments, the significance of German Oradour revisionism, and the possibilities and limits of reconciliation – without losing sight of the survivors and those left behind by the massacre.

While disillusionment has been ascribed great historical significance, this sentiment has rarely been the subject of specific research. The volume explores the causes, manifestations, and consequences of collective and individual disillusionment. Covering the entire scope of the 20^th century, they show the conflicted nature of expectations as the sources of later disappointments. However, disappointment never means the “end of history.”

How did German reunification impact career opportunities for female East German physicists? Heike Amos investigates the broader consequences of reunification by looking specifically at the example of female physicists. Drawing on many unpublished documents and interviews conducted by the author, she describes the "feminine" and "masculine" development of science in the new German states.

For those persecuted by the Nazi regime, an ability to distinguish between the private and political was an essential skill. Exclusion and suppression infused the language of those who emigrated. This study by Christian Meyer expands earlier perspectives on the nature of privacy in National Socialism, which swung between the extreme politicization of private life and a withdrawal to the hidden corners of the quotidian.

How did the former East German communist party become today’s left-wing party “Die Linke”? What was its impact on West Germany? The book looks back at the history of integration of the PDS in a united Germany and analyzes the debates that erupted on this issue. What were the drivers, circumstances, and obstacles for one of the most contentious and consequential political developments of recent decades?

The West German left was heavily invested in the transformation processes in the “Eastern bloc” after 1980. It organized solidarity for Solidarność, and despite any ideological difference, continued to take part in joint activities. Konrad Sziedat traces the expectations – and disillusionments – of the West-German left through the mid-1990s by examining the historical semantics of such terms as “socialism,” “Third Way,” and “civil society.”

Based on private and public communications by German-Jewish associations, the study investigates the ways they perceived, assessed, and overcame anti-Semitism. Expectation management by the associations is revealed by their suggestions for conduct and sentiment. The study offers new insights on the relations between Jewish and non-Jewish Germans between the First World War and the first years of National Socialism.

Mass disenchantment seems to be crippling democracy in our times. Bernhard Gotto examines the temporal scope of this sentiment in contemporary history. His study analyzes the emotional processing of day-to-day political experience in political parties, unions, and social movements. It shows that failed hopes have also been incentives for new efforts, such that dealing with disenchantment may even revitalize democracy.

Schizophrenia was the most widely discussed psychiatric disorder during the second half of the 20^th century. This study examines the changing concepts of schizophrenia among psychiatrists and in the general population, the changing role of psychoanalysis in this process, and the crisis in the mental health profession triggered by these changes.

Politician, parliamentarian, and journalist Kuno von Westarp (1864–1945) was a key figure in political conservatism from the Wilhelmine era to the National Socialist period. Daniela Gasteiger’s biography is the first work in cultural history to track key developments in German conservatism across three political orders.

At the dawn of the 20^th century, great hopes were invested in the ability of the naval forces to turn Germany into a world power. How did the German navy deal with associated expectations and disappointments, and why did it maintain its original aims despite many setbacks? Rojek develops a conceptual framework for analyzing the disappointment of political aspirations, thus making a valuable contribution to political history.

Matthias Kuhnert investigates the logic of humanitarian engagement. The focus of the study is how civil society organizations generate popular support for their activities. Using the example of British NGOs, the author analyzes the ways that humanitarian organizations evoke emotions to help communicate their message and foster popular will to help.

Largely spared from left-wing terrorism after 1968, France faced a new terrorist threat during the 1980s. Various groups perpetrated violent attacks, including Islamist terrorists from the Middle East. Because of this new terrorism, the French began at an early date to confront the major societal challenges that would play a central role in Europe after 9/11.

The CSCE process was largely responsible for keeping alive East-West dialogue during the crisis-ridden period of the 1970s and 80s. France, in full solidarity with the interests of West Germany and with its own important motivations, helped to shape this process through its own disarmament initiative, which continued to have an impact well into the future.

From 1974 to 1977, Stammheim was front stage in the confrontation between the state and the Red Army Faction. The terrorists effectively portrayed their conditions of imprisonment in the media as torture by isolation. Meanwhile, the state granted them privileges while tightening its legal controls. The situation came to a climax in the fall of 1977 when five prominent RAF members killed themselves while confined in Stammheim’s high-security wing.

Terrorism became an international problem in the 1970s, forcing the nine states in the European Community to cooperate in the realm of domestic security. The so-called TREVI meeting set the direction for the development of European domestic security policy. The author shows that the meeting was a pragmatic response to terrorism while at the same time, an instrument of broader integration efforts.

What is the "Volk?" The answers to this question matter greatly to a democracy. Does it involve an association between citizens as equals, a community of descent, or an underprivileged minority? Jörn Retterath analyzes the thinking of the German political mainstream, from the Social Democratic Party (SPD) to the German People's Party (DVP), on the nature of "Volk" and community in Germany during the upheavals of 1917–1924.

The moderate folk-nationalist (völkisch) authors Hans Grimm, Erwin Guido Kobenheyer, and Wilhelm Stapel found great appeal among the German social elites. The author analyzes the ideological proclivity of the Weimar educated middle class and the personal networks, construction of self-image, and mentality of völkisch-oriented intellectuals between the end of the First World War and early West Germany.

In the ghettos of Lithuania an urban infrastructure developed based on the needs of Jewish conscription and forced labor for German occupation forces and the Lithuanian administration. Using the example of the ghettos in Vilnius, Kaunas, and Šiauliai, the author reveals for the first time the ways to which Jewish labor conscription was organized inside and outside the ghettos and the patterns of daily ghetto life as seen by the inhabitants.

After 1945, new methods and tools for forecasting the future grew out of the dynamic developments that were taking place in science and technology. Conceptions of futures research or futures studies as approaches to forecasting, planning and envisaging the future grew out of transnational circulations of knowledge in the 1950s and 1960s. The futures field was epitomized by the perception of many possible futures to be forecast and shaped. However, during the 1970s, the limits of envisioning the future became increasingly evident. This book as the first comprehensive study on the topic focuses on the futures field in Western industrialized countries – particularly the USA and West Germany – but also takes the socialist states and global networks into its ambit.

English translation and extended edition here:

https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/SeefriedShaping

Shaping Tomorrow’s World tells the crucial story of how futures studies developed in West Germany, Europe, the US and within global futures networks from the 1940s to the 1980s. It charts the emergence of different approaches and thought styles within the field ranging from Cold War defense intellectuals such as Herman Kahn to critical peace activists like Robert Jungk. Engaging with the challenges of the looming nuclear war, the changing phases of the Cold War, ‘1968’, and the growing importance of both the Global South and environmentalism, this book argues that futures scholars actively contributed to these processes of change. This multiple award-winning study combines national and transnational perspectives to present a unique history of envisioning, forecasting, and shaping the future.

West Germany’s policy toward the CSCE following the Helsinki conference was shaped by the subsequent meetings in Belgrade (1977–1978) and Madrid (1980–1983) as well as further Expert Meetings. The study shows how important the CSCE process was for Bonn as an instrument for crisis management against the backdrop of deteriorating international relations, to preserve East-West détente, and to make the Iron Curtain more permeable.

Researchers in contemporary history have only recently turned their attention to government activities to combat ‘old’ terrorism and its socio-cultural implications. This compendium takes a much-needed next step by comparing the history of confrontation between democracy and terrorism and examining different anti-terrorism policies in the context of international relations.

The importance of oil for modern economic and political regimes increased during the economic boom of the post-war decades. Yet in 1973-1974, rising oil prices and reduced production raised the specter of an uncertain future. Rüdiger Graf examines the national and international strategies formulated to deal with this challenge to political sovereignty, exploring the first oil crisis in the context of the transformational processes of the 1970s.

Andreas Malycha analyzes intra-party conflicts and decision-making processes in the inner power circle of East Germany’s SED (Socialist Unity Party). The study focuses on previously undocumented disputes about economic and social policy in the Honecker era, shedding new light on the stability and instability of the East German state.

In Poland during the Second World War, the German judicial system was part of the National Socialist occupation machine from the outset and became a key element in the policy of “Germanization,” Germany’s principal objective for the annexed portions of Poland. The courts systematically discriminated against Poles, and between September 1939 and the beginning of 1945, imposed thousands of death sentences.

The Soviet leadership was certain of its success after the signing of the Final Act of the CSCE (Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe), and especially pleased with the agreements on trust-building measures. Yulia von Saal’s study convincingly shows how the Kremlin underestimated the explosive power of the Final Act in terms of civil and human rights, which launched it on a path of constantly mounting pressure for democratization.

Switzerland was not content to stay on the sidelines of the CSCE (Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe) negotiations. Particularly in the area of human rights policies and by applying its talent for successful mediation between East and West, Switzerland achieved great recognition, as Philip Rosin’s thoroughly researched and methodologically persuasive study clearly reveals.

Austria was active in the CSCE (Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe) negotiations, primarily in the contentious areas of humanitarian issues and human rights. Despite consistent claims of neutrality, Vienna supported the Western position on all important questions. Benjamin Gilde's broadly researched study offers major insight into the history of the humanitarian aspect of the CSCE.

The ubiquitous violence of the Nazi regime reached its climax just as it was collapsing. Systematic terror served to stabilize the regime and preserved its ability to act until the very end. This terrible epilogue to Hitler’s rule is described in striking detail, drawing on an extremely broad range of sources.

The firmly established view is that the German justice system utterly failed in its responsibilities after 1945. Edith Raim does not turn this interpretation on its head, but she relativizes it in many respects. Her starting point is the nuanced history of West German justice after 1945, including an examination of the passionate discussions between the Allies and Germany about Nazi “crimes against humanity.”

Ethnic “cleansing” is the dark side of modern democratization and the formation of nation states. Beginning in the 19th century, the Balkans and colonies outside Europe became the laboratories for this form of national problem solving. After 1914 these instruments of violence struck back on the European continent. Michael Schwartz describes the global context of ethnic “cleansing”.

The title of this book, Sophie’s Sister, refers to Inge Scholl, whose siblings Hans and Sophie were executed in 1943 for their part in the White Rose student resistance movement against the Nazi regime. Initially, Inge Scholl was unaware of her siblings’ resistance activities, but she later conducted extensive research, and became a prominent activist in post-war West Germany’s commemoration of resistance to the Third Reich.

Sophies Schwester – das ist Inge Scholl, deren jüngere Geschwister Hans und Sophie 1943 hingerichtet wurden, weil sie sich dem NS-Regime widersetzt hatten. Inge Scholl wusste nichts vom Widerstand ihrer Geschwister. Doch sie begab sich umgehend auf eine private Spurensuche und avancierte damit nach 1945 zu einer ebenso einflussreichen wie prominenten Aktivistin in der bundesrepublikanischen Erinnerungs- und Gedenkkultur an den Widerstand im "Dritten Reich". Christine Hikel hat darüber ein erhellend-aufregendes Buch geschrieben. Sie kann eindrucksvoll zeigen, wie familiäre Erinnerungen konstruiert wurden, wie sie sich im Laufe der Zeit veränderten, wie und wann sie sich gegen konkurrierende Widerstands-Erzählungen durchsetzten und das öffentliche Gedenken prägten. Die Geschichte der Weißen Rose wird damit in die Zeit nach 1945 verlängert und als faszinierendes Lehrstück präsentiert: Selbst spektakuläre Taten wie die Flugblatt-Aktion Hans und Sophie Scholls in der Münchner Universität finden im kollektiven Gedächtnis nur dann einen Platz, wenn sie Fürsprecher finden, die sie immer wieder neu zum aktuellen politischen und gesellschaftlichen Zeitgeist in Bezug setzen.

Shortlist-Nominierung Opus Primum 2013!

The SS was the Nazi regime’s most violent terrorist organization. According to Hitler’s and Himmler’s design, it was also meant to be National Socialism’s "racial" elite, the prototype for the eugenic "Aryanization" of the German population. In 1939, Himmler’s "Black Order" had 200,000 members. Who were they? How did they come to be in the SS? What actions did they carry out?

Demokratischer Staat und terroristische Herausforderung

Nicht erst die Epoche nach "9/11", sondern schon die 1970er Jahre waren eine Ära des grenzenlosen Terrorismus. Mehrmals hielten transnational vernetzte und operierende Terroristen die Regierungen und die Öffentlichkeit in Westeuropa durch Geiselnahmen in Atem. Besonders spektakulär waren das Olympia-Attentat von München (1972), die OPEC-Geiselnahme in Wien (1975) sowie die Molukkeranschläge in Den Haag, Beilen und Amsterdam (1974/75). Wie reagierten die betroffenen Staaten auf diese neue Herausforderung, in der die Grenzen zwischen innerer Sicherheit und Außenpolitik verschwammen?
Matthias Dahlke zeigt anhand erstmals ausgewerteter Dokumente, wie drei verschiedene westeuropäische Regierungen auf unterschiedlichen Wegen zum Grundsatz der Unnachgiebigkeit gelangten, zugleich aber auch Geheimabsprachen mit Terroristen nicht scheuten. Der transnationale und vergleichende Ansatz, der die gesamtgesellschaftlichen Prozesse einbezieht, ermöglicht eine neue Sicht auf die europäische Geschichte der Auseinandersetzung zwischen Staat und Terrorismus.

After the Cuban Missile Crisis, Khrushchev exercised more prudence and adopted a long-term perspective on furthering his goal of expelling the Western powers from Berlin and rendering a major defeat to NATO. Adenauer’s retirement left him hoping for a change of course in West German policy. Neither goal was truly based in reality. Overall, Khrushchev’s over-ambitious Western policy remained unsuccessful, despite his efforts.

Published for the first time, Khrushchev’s secret conversations, consultations, and notes during the early phase of the Berlin Crisis that he initiated show us a politician filled with strong emotions who aimed at the domination of West Berlin and the “ruin” of NATO, thereby openly challenging the Western powers. However, he was not ultimately prepared to risk the nuclear war he had threatened.

Published for the first time, Khrushchev’s secret conversations, consultations, and notes document his attitude toward the West. A key issue in the period under consideration was the fate of East Germany. Other important issues include the disarmament overtures made toward the US/NATO, efforts to form an “anti-imperialist” front with the nations of the Third World, and Khrushchev’s support for anti-colonialist forces.

Demokratischer Staat und terroristische Herausforderung

In den 1970er und frühen 1980er Jahren erlebte Italien die heftigste Konfrontation zwischen Staat und Terrorismus in allen westlichen Demokratien. Die liberale Republik und ihre pluralistische Gesellschaft wurden von links- und rechtsterroristischen Gewalttätern auf eine harte Bewährungsprobe gestellt. Wie nahm das politische Establishment diese Gefahr wahr? Gelang es dem italienischen Staat, den Terrorismus erfolgreich zu bekämpfen, ohne den verfassungsrechtlichen Rahmen zu verlassen? Tobias Hof analysiert erstmals umfassend die italienische Anti-Terrorismus-Politik während der "bleiernen Jahre", die einen maßgeblichen Einfluss auf die innenpolitische Entwicklung hatte. Sie förderte nicht nur die Annäherung zwischen der christdemokratischen und der kommunistischen Partei, sondern bot dem politischen System Italiens auch eine Chance, seine Legitimationskrise zu überwinden.

Wehrmacht in der NS-Diktatur: Über 17 Millionen Soldaten. Kaum eine deutsche Familie, die nicht einen Angehörigen bei der Wehrmacht hatte. Was waren sie: Täter, Opfer, ganz "normale" Männer oder willige Vollstrecker? Um ihren Anteil an Krieg und Besatzung präzise und anschaulich zu bestimmen, konzentriert sich die Darstellung von Christian Hartmann auf fünf deutsche Divisionen. Sie hätten unterschiedlicher nicht sein können. Identisch sind dagegen ihr Einsatzraum, die Sowjetunion, und die Zeit, das erste Jahr des "Unternehmens Barbarossa". Gerade die Analyse dieses Mikrokosmos´ bietet die Chance, einer Forderung zu entsprechen, die in der Debatte über die Wehrmacht oft zu hören war - die einer realistischen wie differenzierten Darstellung dieser Armee, ihrer Angehörigen und nicht zuletzt ihrer Funktionen, die sie in Hitlers Kriegen hatte.

Wehrmacht in der NS-Diktatur

Über die Wehrmacht im Vernichtungskrieg gegen die Sowjetunion ist viel geschrieben und gestritten worden. Jedoch wusste man bisher wenig über jene höchsten Generale, die das deutsche Heer auf Befehl Hitlers nach Osten führten, unter ihnen so bekannte Namen wie Bock, Guderian, Kluge, Manstein und Rundstedt. Was dachten und wie handelten die Oberbefehlshaber der Heeresgruppen und Armeen, die über Leben und Tod von vielen Millionen Soldaten und Zivilisten zu entscheiden hatten? Johannes Hürter zeichnet erstmals ein genaues Porträt dieser militärischen Elite und darüber hinaus das Panorama eines beispiellosen Feldzugs, in dem traditionelles "Kriegshandwerk" und nationalsozialistischer Rassenwahn eine unheilvolle Verbindung eingingen.

Von 1945 bis 1949 war das Office of Military Government for Germany, United States (OMGUS) die oberste politische Instanz im amerikanisch besetzten Teil Deutschlands und stellte – gemeinsam mit den drei Militärregierungen – im alliierten Kontrollrat die „Regierung“ für das besetzte Deutschland. Das vom Institut für Zeitgeschichte herausgegebene und von sachkundigen Archivaren und Zeithistorikern erarbeitete OMGUS-Handbuch zeichnet Entstehung und Geschichte der OMGUS-Zentrale und der regionalen amerikanischen Militärregierungen in den Ländern Bayern, Bremen, Hessen und Württemberg-Baden sowie im amerikanischen Sektor Berlins nach. Die zahlreichen Abteilungen der Militärregierungen mit ihren vielfältigen Kompetenzen und Aktivitäten und ihrem Personal werden ausführlich dargestellt. Detaillierte Quellenbeschreibungen, Personen- und geographisches Register und diverse Verzeichnisse erleichtern die Benutzung des Handbuchs, das für jeden, der sich mit der Geschichte der Besatzungszeit in Deutschland beschäftigt, ein unentbehrlichen Nachschlagewerk ist.

Über die Zahl der ermordeten Juden wird seit dem Ende des NS-Staates diskutiert, und die Dimension des Völkermordes wird unter apologetischer Tendenz interessierter Kreise immer noch in Frage gestellt. Einer mathematisch-exakten Beweisführung, die in der Feststellung genauer Zahlenangaben münden würde, stehen erhebliche methodische Schwierigkeiten gegenüber, die gewöhnlich unterschätzt, aber als Beweis für vermutete politische Absichten oder für die Unfähigkeit der Historiker gerne benutzt werden. Absicht dieses Bandes ist es deshalb, nicht nur streng wissenschaftlich und möglichst exakt die Zahl der jüdischen Opfer der NS-Herrschaft zu ermitteln, sondern auch die Probleme aufzuzeigen, die der Bestimmung einer absoluten Zahl der Opfer entgegenstehen. Die hier anhand einer regional gegliederten Darlegung der gesicherten Erkenntnisse gezogene Bilanz ermittelt die Größenordnung des Völkermords jenseits aller Spekulationen.

Dieses Buch beschreibt nur ein einziges Jahr, aber es ist ein Jahr wie selten eines in der Geschichte. Es beginnt mit der Existenzkrise des Dritten Reiches im Sommer 1944, und es endet mit der Potsdamer Konferenz im Sommer 1945. Im Finale des Weltanschauungskrieges auf deutschem Territorium treffen Amerikaner und Deutsche, Sieger und Besiegte aufeinander. In diesem einen Jahr berühren sich zwei Zeitalter, es bildet ferner die Kernzone der deutschen Katastrophen- und Transformationsphase zwischen Stalingrad und Währungsreform, und es sind Monate größter historischer Beschleunigung, in denen das Erleben der Menschen eine Verdichtung erfährt wie selten zuvor und selten danach. Krieg, Eroberung und Besetzung, Sturz der Diktatur und Sieg der Demokratie, Rettung und Vernichtung sind auch ein menschliches Drama und ein geschichtliches Epos gewesen: In wissenschaftlicher Analyse und eindringlicher Erzählung eine Gesamtansicht dieses einen Jahres im Übergang vom Krieg zum Frieden zu geben, ist das Ziel dieses Buches.

Die folgende Darstellung, eingeleitet durch eine biographische Skizze, soll auch dazu beitragen, das Göring-Bild von solchen Klischees zu befreien. Nicht aber die private Person, sondern die Politik Görings und die Grundlagen seiner Machtstellung stehen im Vordergrund dieses Buches. Der weitgespannte Aktionsradius Görings als preußischer Ministerpräsident, Außenpolitiker, Luftwaffenchef und Wirtschaftsdiktator in den Jahren 1933 bis 1939 und die zeitliche Stufenfolge der daraus folgenden Tätigkeiten bestimmen auch die Gliederung der Darstellung.

In the twentieth century, symphony orchestras from Germany and Austria embarked on extended tours within Europe and to North and Latin America, Asia, and Africa. In this global history of classical music and its traveling performers, Friedemann Pestel sheds light on cultural diplomacy, the music market, repertoires, audience reactions, and the global careers of conductors and orchestra musicians.

In this thorough analysis of biopolitical debates in the medical press, Jens Kolata draws a line from early eugenics in the German Empire and Weimar Republic to National Socialist "race hygiene" and the human genetics and prenatal diagnostics of the Federal Republic of Germany. He situates these internal medical debates within the history of population politics, revealing where eugenic and professional political goals collided.

Informal communication shaped German society during World War II. Information could be a source of sovereignty, function as a means of survival, or generate anxiety. Historian Felix Berge examines how rumors and news were compiled, appropriated, and disseminated outside the official media and propaganda channels, reveling how Germans spoke about their hopes and fears, their experiences and expectations, crimes, and the Holocaust.