Hans Mommsen dies at 85 – RP ONLINE

Tutzing. He was one of the uncomfortable of his profession. He was not a scholar in the silent Studierstübchen but a historian, the presence stood by exploring the past. On Thursday Hans Mommsen died on his 85th birthday in Tutzing From Lothar Schröder

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With his death, also a dynasty of German historians has come to an end. Founder was Hans Mommsen’s legendary great-grandfather, the historian Theodor Mommsen. His “Roman History” has remained a standard work and been in 1902 ennobled with the Nobel Prize for Literature

But even Hans Mommsen’s father William was a historian who, with his research, however, andi duck at the Nazis and thus -. In spite of great efforts – no longer regained his professorship after the war

It may be that this part of the family history he dictated the research field. Hans Mommsen explored the workers’ movement, yet painstaking and tough but the system of government of the Nazis. His theses to were new, were often debated passionately and did not seem to be always completely harmless. How about its review of Adolf Hitler. Meanwhile seduction namely be overestimated in the opinion of the historian. Rather Mommsen tried to steer our attention to the structures and functions of the system. From this perspective, he believed a self-enhancing radicalization identify

That meant. A lot of German was not only involved in the genocide, but also responsible and even decisive for the horror. The destruction madness of the Nazis was followed by a selbstläufiger process. Critics, however, noted that in this interpretation of the so-called Third Reich, the figure of Hitler and his role will significantly underestimated.

Hans Mommsen, who taught from 1968 for almost three decades at the Bochum Ruhr University, could not scare something , He was a passionate debater, a public scholar whose research should mean something to the living. Leading his investigation on the relationship between armor, forced labor and extermination, using the example of the VW Group. It is perhaps his masterpiece. Significant was also his role in the legendary historical dispute. Mommsen had gone in confrontation to his colleague Ernst Nolte, who wanted to explain the Shoah to respond to Soviet crimes.

Hans Mommsen is the debates in this country are missing, because his knowledge was gone a long way to go before it the presence could be effectively

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