Martin Broszat

Martin Broszat
Born(1926-08-14)14 August 1926
Leipzig, Germany
Died14 October 1989(1989-10-14) (aged 63)
Munich, West Germany
NationalityGerman
Education
ThesisDie antisemitische Bewegung im Wilhelminischen Deutschland (1952)
OccupationHistorian
EmployerInstitut für Zeitgeschichte (1955–1989)
Known forStudy of Nazi Germany
Notable workDer Staat Hitlers (1969), published in English as The Hitler State (1981)

Martin Broszat (14 August 1926 – 14 October 1989) was a German historian specializing in modern German social history. As director of the Institut für Zeitgeschichte (Institute for Contemporary History) in Munich from 1972 until his death, he became known as one of the world's most eminent scholars of Nazi Germany.[1]

Broszat joined the Institut für Zeitgeschichte in 1955 after obtaining his PhD from the University of Cologne.[2] His work at the Institute included serving as an expert witness for the prosecution at the 1963–1965 Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials,[3] and helping to debunk the forged Hitler Diaries in 1983.[4] He also held an honorary professorship at the University of Konstanz.[5]

According to Ian Kershaw, Broszat made important contributions in four areas. From the late 1950s, he worked on the history of Eastern Europe, especially Poland, and on Nazi concentration camps. This led to his exploration of the structure of the Nazi German state, which resulted in his book Der Staat Hitlers (1969), published in English as The Hitler State (1981). In the 1970s he became interested in Alltagsgeschichte and examined everyday life under the Nazis, developing the concept of "Resistenz" (immunity) and co-editing a six-volume work about Bavaria under National Socialism, Bayern in der NS-Zeit (1977–1983).[6] In 1985, he began the debate about the historicization of Nazi Germany, arguing that it should be studied like any other period of history, without moralizing and with recognition of its complexity.[7][8]

  1. ^ Kershaw, Ian (10 October 2003). "Beware the Moral High Ground". The Times Literary Supplement. Archived from the original on 29 May 2004. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Kershaw1990p310 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Pace, Eric (2 November 1989). "Martin Broszat, German Historian And War Crimes Expert, 63, Dies". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 30 January 2013. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
  4. ^ Harris, Robert (1986). Selling Hitler. New York: Pantheon Books, 348–349. ISBN 0-394-55336-5
  5. ^ "List of Contributors", in Elizabeth Harvey, Johannes Hürter (eds.) (2018). German Yearsbook of Contemporary History. Hitler—New Research. Institute for Contemporary History, De Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-055322-2
  6. ^ Kershaw 1990, 311.
  7. ^ Kershaw 1990, 311, 314.
  8. ^ Broszat, Martin and Friedländer, Saul (1988). "A Controversy about the Historicization of National Socialism". New German Critique, 44, Special Issue on the Historikerstreit, 85–12. JSTOR 488148