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Table of Contents 2/2012
Essays:
- Hubert Wolf: Was the Reich Concordat Exchanged for the Enabling Act? On the Historisation of the Scholder-Repgen Controversy Regarding the Relationship of the Vatican with National Socialism. [
 Abstract] [Open Access] - Daniel Schmidt: The SA-Leader Hans Ramshorn. A Life Between Violence and Community (1892–1934). [Abstract]
- Markus Krzoska: The “Bloody Sunday at Bromberg” 1939. Controversies and Research Findings. [Abstract]
- Gabriele Metzler: Confrontation and Communication. Fighting Left-Wing Political Violence in the Federal Republic of Germany and the United States in the 1970s. [Abstract]
- Karsten Jedlitschka: The Arcanum of Power. The “Secret Section” in the Central Archive of the GDR State Security Apparatus. [Abstract]
Discussion:
Bernhard Dietz und Christopher Neumaier: On the Use of the Social Sciences for Contemporary History. Values and Changing Values as Topics for Historical Research. [Abstract]
Memo:
 Thomas Schlemmer and Hans Woller: The Sixth Aldersbach Practical Writing Seminar is being Organised by the Institute of Contemporary History and Oldenbourg Publishers.
Reviews online (January–March 2012)
Abstracts
Hubert Wolf: Was the Reich Concordat Exchanged for the Enabling Act? On the Historisation of the Scholder-Repgen Controversy Regarding the Relationship of the Vatican with National Socialism. Did the Holy See accelerate the end of the Weimar Republic in 1933 in order to conclude the Reichskonkordat with the National Socialist state in return? Did the Vatican push the Centre Party to accept the Enabling Act and the German bishops to retract their warning against National Socialism? These questions have been widely discussed ever since the Fifties, not only by historians, but also by the general public. The debate reached its peak in the late Seventies, and its protagonists were the Protestant church historian Klaus Scholder and the Catholic historian Konrad Repgen. About thirty years later, after the documents of the pontificate of Pius XI have been made accessible in the Vatican Archives, the present essay reviews this controversy from a new, critical point of view and aims at its historisation. It is now possible to reassess Scholder′s and Repgen′s arguments. Moreover, it is very enlightening to analyse the antagonists′ controversy on the historical method, their argumentative strategies in the dispute and their respective positions in the social networks of the “old” Federal Republic, not least with a view of the position and the methods of today´s contemporary church history. Read More: www.oldenbourg-link.com/doi/abs/10.1524/vfzg.2012.0010[Open Access] [German language only]
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Daniel Schmidt: The SA-Leader Hans Ramshorn. A Life Between Violence and Community (1892–1934).
How does the conventional life and career of a Prussian officer veer off course and onto the winding path of a Völkisch (ethnic nationalist) paramilitary? This article will address the above question using the biography of Hans Ramshorn (1892–1934) as an example. Characteristic of this soldier´s life was, on the one hand, his absolute hostility towards those he held responsible for Germany′s defeat in the First World War, combined with a radical inclination towards violence, and on the other hand the quest to shape his life as the leader of a militant fraternity of like-minded men. Ramshorn fought in the First World War and on the civil war fronts of the post-war period before playing a substantial role in the suppression of the 1921 uprising in central Germany as a police officer in the service of the Weimar Republic. He later joined the Black Reichswehr, became active in the Völkisch movement and ultimately found his way to the SA in 1931. His excellent connections and qualities as a paramilitary organiser led to his rise to the position of leader of the Upper Silesian SA and finally, in spring 1933, to his appointment as chief of police in Gleiwitz. However, this proponent of an uncompromising course of violence did not succeed in expanding his position of power, and neither did the other Silesian SA leaders. Ramshorn was executed on the night of 1 July 1934 when the conflict between the Reichswehr, the SS and the SA escalated. As with many other soldierly renegades who had organised the rise of National Socialism, Ramshorn ultimately failed due to the political ambivalence of his paramilitary leanings which on the one hand sought subordination, but on the other hand remained “anarchic” (Ernst Jünger). German language only] Abstracts / Top of page
Markus Krzoska: The “Bloody Sunday at Bromberg” 1939. Controversies and Research Findings To this day, the so-called “Bloody Sunday at Bromberg” (3./4.9.1939) and its consequences are among the most contentious subjects in the history of the Second World War. Despite extensive efforts by German and Polish researchers it has not been possible to clear up the events at the time. In view of the lack of central sources on the German side this is probably no longer possible. In contrast the investigation of the number and names of the Polish victims has advanced noticeably during the last few years. The present article adds to existing Polish material published in 2008/2009 on the basis of unpublished German sources of the Historisch-Landeskundliche Kommission für die Deutschen in Polen [Historical Commission on the Germans in Poland], among them the papers of the former teacher August Müller, kept at the Herder Institute in Marburg. The comparative analysis of the names of the dead exhibits surprising differences, while the estimate of the overall number of casualties (over 400) is astonishingly similar both on the German and Polish side. In any case, final clarification seems impossible on the basis of the sources known to date. [German language only]
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Gabriele Metzler: Confrontation and Communication. Fighting Left-Wing Political Violence in the Federal Republic of Germany and the United States in the 1970s. Nearly all Western liberal democracies were facing the challenge of left-wing political violence in the 1970s. Historical research has been focused for some years on the emergence of “terrorist” groups, on their radical political ideas, and their violent strategies that have been interpreted as acts of communication. Only recently, however, have the states′ responses to politically motivated acts of murder, abductions, bomb attacks, and bank robberies come into the focus of research. In this article the “anti-terror policy” of West Germany and the United States are analysed comparatively. Acts of government, police actions, and trials against perpetrators are interpreted from a perspective that blends performance theory and historical methods. Particular emphasis is put on performative acts that also involved the broader public and on narratives that were presented by major political actors (such as heads of government). In these narratives, references to war – either the Second World War or the Cold War – played an equally central part as labeling “terrorists’ and gendering “terrorism”. While terrorism research has highlighted the meaning of violence and living underground as a “way of life”, this article shows that to no lesser degree, also the fight against it implied habitual changes and the adoption of specific roles. [German language only]
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Karsten Jedlitschka: The Arcanum of Power. The “Secret Section” in the Central Archive of the GDR State Security Apparatus. In December 1953, State Security created an additional sealed section in its Central Archive, the so-called “Secret Section”. During the following decades almost 13000 files with a total volume of approximately 350 linear metres were deposited there. The operations were subject to the highest degree of secrecy, were kept sealed in separate, locked filing cabinets, access was strictly regulated and borrowings and returns were meticulously recorded. The article analyses the contents of this special section and the motives for its establishment. It becomes apparent that, next to highly charged secret service operations, it was mostly used for files recording morally or criminally relevant misbehaviour within the SED security and power structure. The “Secret Section” ensured that these explosive issues were locked away for the long term. This was its contribution to the safeguarding of the Communist dictatorship. [German language only]
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Bernhard Dietz und Christopher Neumaier: On the Use of the Social Sciences for Contemporary History. Values and Changing Values as Topics for Historical Research. In using research results from the social sciences, contemporary historiography is confronted with a methodological problem: should such results be treated strictly as sources that reflect contemporary self-descriptions or do they also contain analytical potential that can be used critically? In contrast to Rüdiger Graf and Kim Christian Priemel (VfZ 59.4 2011), this article argues that they can be used both as sources and as analytical tools. To demonstrate how, this article introduces our approach, Historical Research on Changing Values, which was developed from a methodological criticism of a social science paradigm. Such an approach has enabled us to analyse when, how, and why values changed during the 19th and 20th centuries. [German language only]
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