Reprocessing National Socialism

Reviewing Germany’s approach to handling the legacy of National Socialism.

Grappling with the collective national socialist past has had a profound influence on the history of the Federal Republic of Germany. It presented a challenge that many Germans were reluctant to accept. Attempts at legal reappraisal, the question of the perpetrators, the perspective of personal responsibility, political discussions and social suppression, along with autobiographical literature and public remembrance at memorial sites and museums: over more than seven decades, all this has formed a panorama of working on the past.
Up until now, however, no summarizing analysis on this complex has been published. Magnus Brechtken has assembled leading historians, who provide a compendium on the most important topics in form of more than 25 contributions. They provide descriptive summaries of contemporary knowledge, specifying the historical facts and how they are handled.

With contributions by Frank Bajohr, Christopher Browning, Constantin Goschler, Jeffrey Herf, Ulrike Jureit, Wulf Kansteiner and many others.


Magnus Brechtken is the associate director of the Institute of Contemporary History Munich-Berlin.