| Ernst Nolte |
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EARLY LIFE Born in . ''FASCISM IN ITS EPOCH'' Nolte first rose to fame with his has written that although written in an excessively arcane and obscure language, Nolte's theory of fascism as a “form of resistance to transcendence” marked an important step in the understanding of fascism, and helped to spur scholars into new avenues of research on fascismGriffin, Roger ''International Fascism'' Arnold: London, 1998 page 48.. Other historians were more hostile in their assessement of ''The Three Faces of Fascism''. Criticism from the left centered on Nolte's focus on ideas as opposed to social and economic conditions as a motivating force for fascism, and that Nolte depended too much on the fascist writings to make support his thesisKershaw, Ian The ''Nazi Dictatorship'', London: Arnold 1989 page 27.. From the right, historians such as , ''The Three Faces of Fascism'' was one of the first books that devoted an extensive study of the ultra-nationalist and anti-Semitic ''Action Française'' movement of France , but many have questioned Nolte’s claim that the ''Action Française'' was a fascist movement, or in the case of John Lukacs , whatever such a thing as generic fascism ever existedLukacs, John ''The Hitler of History'' New York: Vintage Books, 1997, 1998 page 118.. As a professor at the , Nolte was to reject the theory of generic fascism that he had championed in ''The Three Faces of Fascism'' and instead embraced Totalitarian theory as a way of explaining both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union . In Nolte's opinion, Nazi Germany was a "mirror image" of the Soviet Union and with the exception of the “technical detail” of mass gassing everything the Nazis in Germany did, the Communists in Russia did firstEvans, Richard J. ''In Hitler's Shadow'' New York: Pantheon Books, 1989 page 27.. METHODOLOGY All of Nolte’s historical work has been heavily influenced by German traditions of and Renzo De Felice , both of whom Nolte sometimes corresponded with, Nolte has sought to develop a wide-ranging paradigm capable of explaining (or Nolte’s words “understanding”) the 20th Century . THE ''HISTORIKERSTREIT'' Nolte is best known for his role in launching the '' an "''überschießende Reaktion''" (overshooting reaction) to Bolshevik crimes, and to alleged Jewish actions in support of Germany's enemiesBaldwin, Peter ''Reworking The Past'', Boston : Beacon Press, 1990 page 5.. As proof of this argument of the Holocaust as a defensive reaction, Nolte presented a letter written by "). The second piece of evidence Nolte presented was a book written in 1940 by the American author Theodore N. Kaufman called '' Germany Must Perish! '' that appealed to have all German men sterilized. Nolte argued that the Nazis felt forced to stage the Holocaust because Hitler concluded that entire Jewish population of the world had declared war on Germany. From Nolte’s point of view, the Holocaust was act of “Asiatic barbarism” forced on the Germans out of the fear over what Joseph Stalin , who Nolte charged had significant Jewish support, might do to them. Nolte has argued that after the Japan ese attack on the United States in 1941 , the U.S. authorities interned the entire Japanese-American population, so by the same logic, the Germans were within their rights to "intern" the Jewish population of Europe in Concentration Camps "Nolte, Ernst “Between Myth and Revisionism” pages 17-38 from ''Aspects of the Third Reich'', edited by H.W. Koch, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985 page 28.. Subsequently, Nolte expanded upon these views in his calling for middle-class Germans to be gassed, which in Nolte's view, was much more deplorable then the celebratory comments made by some right-wing newspapers about the assassination of the German Foreign Minister Walter Rathenau in 1922Nolte, Ernst "Standing Things On Their Heads: Against Negative Nationalism In Interpreting History" pages 149-154 from ''Forever In The Shadow of Hitler?'' edited by Ernst Piper, Humanities Press, Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, 1993 page 152; both Kershaw, Ian ''The Nazi Dictatorship'', London: Arnold, 1989 page 176 & Evans, Richard J. ''In Hitler's Shadow'' New York: Pantheon Books, 1989 page 37 claim that Nolte has taken Tucholsky's sardonic remark about chemical warfare in the future out of context.. These views ignited a firestorm of controversy. Most historians in 's letters by the ''Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft'' (German Research Community), the group that was responsible for the financing of the Herzl papers project.http://www.codoh.com/thoughtcrimes/8706nolt.html.. The philosopher Jürgen Habermas in an article in the ''Die Zeit'' newspaper on July 11, 1986 entitled “A Kind of Settlement of Damages” strongly criticized Nolte together with Andreas Hillgruber and Michael Stürmer for engaging in Habermas called “apologetic” history writing in regards to the Nazi era, and for seeking to “close Germany’s opening to the West” that in Habermas’s view had existed since 1945.Habermas, Jürgen “A Kind of Settlement of Damages On Apologetic Tendencies In German History Writing” pages 34-44 from ''Forever In the Shadow of Hitler?'' edited by Ernst Piper, Humanities Press, Atlantic Highlands, 1993 page 43... In particular, Habermas took Nolte to task for suggesting a moral equivalence between the Holocaust and the Khmer Rouge genocide. In Habermas’s opinion, since Cambodia was a backward, Third World agrarian state and Germany in a modern, First World industrial state, there was no comparison between the two genocides. In response, Fest, who was one of Nolte’s leading defenders, called Habermas a racist for suggesting that it was “natural” for Cambodians to engage in genocide, and “unnatural” for Germans to engage in genocide. Some of the historians who denounced Nolte’s views included , which as its title indicated comprised a lengthy polemicial essay attacking every aspect of Nolte's views. Criticism from abroad came from Ian Kershaw , Gordon A. Craig , Richard J. Evans , Saul Friedländer , John Lukacs , Michael Marrus , and Timothy Mason . Coming to Nolte's defence were the journalist '' and '' Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung '' attacking his critics; for an example, in a letter to ''Die Zeit'' on August 1, 1986, Nolte complained that his critic Jürgen Habermas of attempting to censor him for expressing his viewsNolte, Ernst "Letter to the Editor of ''Die Zeit'' August 1, 1986" pages 56-57 from ''Forever In The Shadow of Hitler?'' edited by Ernst Piper, Humanities Press, Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, 1993 page 57.. One of Nolte's letters created another controversy in late 1987 , when the Israeli historian Otto Dov Kulka complained that a letter he wrote to Nolte criticizing his views was edited by Nolte to make him appear sympathetic to Nolte's arguments, and then released to the pressKershaw, Ian ''The Nazi Dictatorship'', London: Arnold, 1989 page 171.. In 1987, Nolte wrote an entire book responding to his critics both German and foreign, ''Das Vergehen der Vergangenheit : Antwort an meine Kritiker im sogenannten Historikerstreit'' (''The Offense Of The Past: Answer At My Critics In The So-Called Historians' Dispute''). Perhaps the most extreme response to Nolte's thesis occurred on February 9, 1988 when was his car was burned by a group of extreme leftistsEvans, Richard J. ''In Hitler's Shadow'' New York: Pantheon Books, 1989 page 177. The ''Historikerstreit'' attracted much that was attended by some of the leading British, American, Israeli, and German specialists in both Soviet and German history. Among those who attended included Sir Ralf Dahrendorf , Sir Isaiah Berlin , Lord Weidenfeld , Harold James , Carol Gluck, Lord Annan , Fritz Stern , Gordon A. Craig , Robert Conquest , Samuel Ettinger, Jürgen Kocka , Sir Nicholas Henderson , Eberhard Jäckel , Hans Mommsen , Michael Stürmer , Joachim Fest , Hagen Schulze , Christian Maier, Wolfgang Mommsen , Hugh Trevor-Roper , Saul Friedländer , Felix Gilbert, Norman Stone , Julius Schoeps, and Charles MaierThomas, Gina (editor) ''The Unresolved Past'', New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990 pages vii-viii.. Nolte was invited to the conference, but declined, citing scheduling conflicts. Nolte’s opponents have expressed intense disagreement with his evidence for a Jewish "war" on is false, because the Jews of Europe were sent to Death Camps , not concentration camps and that the U.S. government did not attempt to exterminate the Japanese-Americans in the internment campsEvans, Richard J. ''In Hitler's Shadow'' New York: Pantheon Books, 1989 pages 38-39.. LATER CAREER Nolte’s critics have frequently charged him with having such as the My Lai Massacre and the '' Shoah ''. In particular, controversy has centered around an argument that Nolte made in his to support his argumentsLukacs, John ''The Hitler of History'' New York: Vintage Books, 1997, 1998 page 229; Evans, Richard J. ''In Hitler's Shadow'' New York: Pantheon Books, 1989 pages 166-167.. Nolte has always denied these allegations of Nazi sympathies. Likewise, Nolte has pointed out that he always refused frequent offers to speak at the gatherings of the , David Hoggan , Fred Leuchter , Arthur Butz , Paul Rassinier and other Holocaust deniers as superior to the work of "mainstream" scholars; in 1993 Nolte wrote that "radical revisionists have presented research which, if one is familiar with the source material and the critique of the sources, is probably superior to that of the established historians of Germany"Wistrich, Robert S. "Holocaust Denial" pages 293-301 from ''The Holocaust Encyclopedia'' edited by Walter Laqueur, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001 page 299; Lukacs, John ''The Hitler of History'' New York: Vintage Books, 1997, 1998 page 233.. In '' between Thomas Sheehan and Nolte over the former’s hostile review of Nolte’s Biography of Heidegger. Nolte protested that Sheehan misquoted and misinterpreted some of his statementshttp://www.nybooks.com/articles/2618. Sheehan in response to state that Nolte had deliberately engaged in selective misquotation of his reviewhttp://www.nybooks.com/articles/2618. Perhaps in jest, Nolte described himself in his letter of protest as an “wicked revisionist”http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2618. Another controversy around Nolte was caused in 1994 when Nolte made a speech that maintained that there was much that was “positive” about National Socialism , and that in his opinion, unfortunately too many historians had neglected the "positive" aspects of Nazism"Ein historisches Recht Hitlers"? Der Faschismus-Interpret Ernst Nolte über den Nationalsozialismus, Auschwitz und die Neue Rechte' pages 83-103 from ''Der Spiegel'' , Volume 40, 1994.. Since the ''Historikerstreit'', Nolte has became an increasing marginalized figure within the German historical profession. The reception on the part of most historians to his 1991 book ''Geschichtsdenken im 20. Jahrhundert'' (''Historical Thinking In the 20th Century'') was very hostile at best. In the latter work, Nolte asserted that the 20th Century produced three “extraordinary states”, namely the Germany , Soviet Union , and Israel . Nolte claimed that all three “abnormal once”, but whereas the Soviet Union and Germany were now “normal” states, Israel was still an “abnormal” state and was in Nolte’s view, in danger of becoming a fascist state that might commit Genocide against the Palestinians. Many criticized Nolte’s book as both Anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli, with its implied conclusion that there is a moral equivalence between Soviet Communism, German National Socialism and Israeli democracy. Another controversial work by Nolte was his 1998 book ''Historische Existenz'' (''Historical Existence''). An prominent theme of the latter book was a restatement of Nolte's view first expressed during the ''Historikerstreit'', that because a disproportionate number of Soviet partisans were Jews, the '' Einsatzgruppen '' massacres, which saw one million Soviet Jews shot in 1941 - 1942 were an acceptable counter-insurgency tactic that should not be regarded as either an War Crime or an Crime Against Humanity . Between . Nolte often contributes ''Feulliton'' (opinion pieces) to German newspapers such as '' Die Welt '' and the '' Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ''. Most recently, in a 2006 interview, Nolte in a partial return to the theories he first expressed in ''The Three Faces of Fascism'', has written that Islamic Fundamentalism is the third variant, after Communism and National Socialism of the “resistance to transcendence”, and has expressed regret that he will not have enough time to fully study Islamic Fascism http://www.welt.de/print-welt/article225060/Religion_vom_absoluten_Boesen.html.. On - 2004 , Nolte was a prominent defender of Martin Hohmann , whose views about the ''Shoah'' were very similar to Nolte's. Some of Nolte’s claims made in his 1993 book ''Streitpunkte'' (''Points of Contention'') such as his assertion that historical understanding of The Holocaust has been “distorted” by “biased” Jewish historians were recently favorably cited by a web-site maintained by the government of Iran promoting Holocaust Denial . Currently, Nolte is a professor emeritus of contemporary history at the Free University Of Berlin . WORK
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