Rainer Zitelmann - The Historikerstreit

The Historikerstreit

During the Historikerstreit between 1986–1988, Zitelmann was a strong defender of Andreas Hillgruber and Ernst Nolte. In the preface to the second edition in 1988 of his 1987 book Adolf Hitler Selbstverständnis eines Revolutionärs included a lengthy attack on the critics of Nolte and Hillgruber. In an interview with the Swedish historian Alf W. Johansson in November 1992, Zitelmann stated that the Historikerstreit ended with the defeat of the right-wing historians and the triumph of the "Left-liberal" historians. Zitelmann went on to state that "Politically, this means that the conservatives are rather defensive and are not united". Zitelmann argued "that has more to do with academic conditions than with the intellectual situation in Germany where now, naturally a few years after the Historians' Controversy, there is in reality a certain change, since the Leftish intellectual circles are no longer on the offensive, but, to the contrary, they find themselves in increasing difficulties".