The Political and Historical Significance of the Fischer Controversy

Abstract

In this article the main phase (1961–5) of the Fischer Controversy will be analysed. The hostile rejection by fellow German historians will be seen in contrast to the more neutral and sometimes even positive responses by leading journalists. The controversy advanced to become a media event and ultimately was seen as the ‘decisive incident in the historiography of the Federal Republic’. The thesis that Germany had pushed more for war in 1914 than any other power electrified the debate in the public. His demolition of politically and historically ‘comfortable’ views led to a strong defensive reaction among conservative historians. Even members of the CDU-government intervened in 1964 and warned of the dangers to the ‘national consciousness’ of the Federal Republic. The intensity of the controversy reached new heights at the two historical congresses in Berlin in October 1964 and in Vienna in September 1965. Against the background of the Eichmann and Auschwitz Trials the Fischer Controversy led to a very intensive and wide-ranging debate about the political and historical identity of the Federal Republic. It marked the beginning of a much more critical interpretation of German history in the twentieth century.