The “Historikerstreit” 30 Years Later – From a Responsible Way to Remember to a Dogmatic Standardization of Facing the Past (original) (raw)

This contribution argues that the Historikerstreit, a heated debate between 1986 and 1988 among several prominent West-German intellectuals on the question of the comparability of the Nazi past, not only laid ground for a “comparative ease” of commemorating the German past but even lead to a standardization of memory in policy-oriented peacebuilding. To make this argument, this contribution is separated in two parts: A first part about the historian’s quarrel itself, his main arguments and achievements, and a second part which reasons how the Historikerstreit helped, as an important part of the process that gave rise to the “facing the past” framework, to develop this tendency of standardization of memorialization. To conclude, this text argues that there cannot be a one-size-fits-all solution for how to face atrocious pasts. To find a responsible way to deal with past atrocities each post-conflict society must examine and deal with its own crimes in their uniqueness. Without wanting to propose a standardized solution for a critique on standardization, the author pleads for new historians’ debates in post-conflict societies – in whatever form they may appear – to find a tailor-made solution for how to deal with the past and how to take responsibility for it.