David L. Hoggan

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David Leslie Hoggan (born March 22, 1923 in Portland , Oregon , † August 7, 1988 in Menlo Park , Northern California ) was an American historian who is part of the right-wing historical revisionism . His main work was published in German in 1961 by a right-wing extremist publisher, since no American publisher could be found for it. It wasn't released until 1989 in the United States.

Life path

Hoggan served in the United States Army during World War II and then studied history . He received his doctorate from the History Faculty of Harvard University in 1948 with a dissertation on the German-Polish negotiations of 1938/39. After brief teaching at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Hoggan worked from 1949 to 1952 as an assistant professor and assistant to the rector at Munich University . There he continued to deal with German history and also learned the German language. In Munich he also met his future German wife. In the following decade, Hoggan taught at the universities of Berkeley , Carthage, Illinois, and San Francisco . In 1961 his main work on the causes of the Second World War appeared: " The forced war ". Hoggan died of a heart attack on August 7, 1988 in Menlo Park , Northern California .

theses

In his dissertation, Hoggan takes the view that Hitler did not want war and that Great Britain , especially Lord Halifax and the Polish Foreign Minister Colonel Beck, were solely responsible for the outbreak of the Second World War. In his main work “ The forced war ”, too , on 896 pages and with the help of an extensive set of footnotes, he tries to underpin the thesis of the Anglo-American war guilt and to absolve Hitler of responsibility for the Second War. In serious historical research, this view is generally considered untenable.

Hoggan also claims that the treatment of Jews in Poland was more cruel than that of the Germans. The systematic disenfranchisement of German Jews that has taken place since 1933 is accordingly largely trivialized or presented with factual gaps.

In the 1960s at the latest, his increased appearance at meetings of right-wing extremist organizations, as well as the fact that his works were only published by the right-wing extremist Grabert-Verlag for a long time , indicate that by then at the latest he did not shy away from working with right-wing extremist groups.

criticism

As early as the early 1960s, Hermann Graml, an employee of the Institute for Contemporary History, and other historians demonstrated that Hoggan based his argumentation on the systematic falsification and subsequent processing of sources.

The historian Helmut Krausnick judged in 1963 about Hoggan's handling of sources in his book “ The forced war ”: “ Anyone who takes the trouble to compare the reproduction of the documents 'exploited' by Hoggan with their wording will be [...] experience blue miracle; he will be surprised how justified the […] accusation was that Hoggan did not shy away from forgeries himself ”. Therefore, the work is a case of revisionist historical distortion .

In a brochure published by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution , “ The Forced War ” is considered to be “the most important attempt to question the guilt of the Hitler government for the outbreak of World War II to this day ”. The office further ruled: “ Despite the appearance of scientificity, this presentation of the events leading up to the outbreak of war had little to do with historical reality. This is not surprising either: A critical comparison shows that the author made use of falsifying statements as well as invented additions. Like most other revisionists, Hoggan tries to underpin his theses with the deliberate falsification of facts or the ignoring of certain connections. "

Examples

By comparing original source quotations and the corresponding representations of Hoggan, this becomes clear with a few examples. The British Ambassador in Berlin, Sir Nevile Henderson , reported to the British Foreign Secretary, Viscount Halifax , on August 29, 1939:

"He [Hitler] referred to his generous offer made last March, saying that it could not be repeated and assured that only the return of Gdańsk and the whole corridor together with a border adjustment in Silesia [...] could satisfy him."

Hoggan's use of this source falsifies the facts in such a way that Hitler is portrayed as defensive and peace-loving:

“In the course of his remarks [to the British Ambassador in Berlin, Sir N. Henderson,] Hitler admitted that he had been painfully tempted to demand a revision of the senseless […] Upper Silesian border. Polish rule was exceptionally tough [...]. But he did not want to challenge fate by taking up this concern, because he knew that any change in the status quo in that area would seriously impair vital Polish economic interests. "

The trivializing depiction of the systematic disenfranchisement of the Jews in Nazi Germany becomes clear in Hoggan's depiction of the consequences of the November pogroms of 1938 called “Reichskristallnacht” :

"The German insurance companies were instructed to immediately compensate the Jews for all property damage of November 10 [1938]".

The legal regulation in the " Ordinance on the restoration of the street scene in Jewish businesses " said something else:

"§1: All damage to Jewish businesses and homes caused by the people's outrage over the incitement of international Jewry against National Socialist Germany on November 8, 9 and 10, 1938, is immediately to be borne by the Jewish owner or trader to eliminate. §2: The costs of the restoration are borne by the owner of the affected Jewish businesses and apartments. Insurance claims from Jews of German citizenship are confiscated in favor of the Reich. "

The completely out of context presentation was obviously corrected in later editions. The sums insured were only included in the 1 billion gold mark collective fine for the German Jews that was imposed after the pogrom.

This corresponds to Hoggan's thesis that Hitler's policy did not necessarily expect a war and aimed at it:

“Hitler was convinced that war in Europe need not be inevitable; otherwise he would never have invited the foreign leaders to Munich. "

Hitler himself had said to the Hungarian Foreign Minister in January 1939:

“Do you think that half a year ago I would have thought it possible that Czechoslovakia would have been served me by its friends? I did not believe that England and France would go to war, but I did believe that Czechoslovakia would have to be destroyed by war. How everything came about is historically unique. "

Prices

In 1964 Hoggan received the " Leopold von Ranke Prize " endowed with DM 10,000 from the revisionist " Society for the Promotion of Historical Research ". In the same year he also received the “ Ulrich von Hutten Prize ” from the right-wing extremist “ Society for Free Publication ”, as well as the “ Albrecht Dürer Prize ”. In revisionist and right-wing extremist circles, his main work is still one of the most important alleged key witnesses of revisionist argumentation.

Publications

  • The breakdown of German-Polish relations in 1939 - the conflict between the German new order and the Polish idea of ​​central eastern Europe. Ph. D. Harvard 1948.
  • The forced war. The causes and originators of the Second World War . Translated by Herbert Grabert, Verlag der Hochschullehrerzeitung, Tübingen 1961. (many other editions, the 15th 1997)
For the first time as an English-language edition: The forced war - when peaceful revision failed. Institute for Historical Review , Costa Mesa (California) 1989.
  • France's resistance to World War II. French foreign policy from 1934 to 1939 . Publishing house of the German Hochschullehrer-Zeitung, Tübingen 1963, ISBN 387847010X
  • The unnecessary war: 1939-1945. “Germany must perish”. Grabert-Verlag, Tübingen 1974, ISBN 3-87847-030-4
  • The Blind Century, Volume 1: America, Messianic Disaster. Grabert-Verlag, Tübingen 1979, ISBN 3878470444
  • The blind century, volume 2: Europe, the lost center of the world. Grabert-Verlag, Tübingen 1984, ISBN 387847072X
  • My comments on Germany. The Anglo-American Crusade Thought in the 20th Century. Grabert-Verlag, Tübingen 1990, ISBN 3878471033

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hermann Graml: David L. Hoggan and the documents, in: History in Science and Education 14 (1963), pp. 492-514, Walther Hofer: The Entfesselung des Second World War. A study of international relations in the summer of 1939, Frankfurt a. M. 1964, p. 451ff., Gotthard Jasper: About the causes of the Second World War. On the books by AJP Taylor and David L. Hoggan, in: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte , 10 (1962), pp. 311–340, Wolfgang Schieder: Review of David L. Hoggart: The forced war. The causes and originators of the Second World War . In: Historische Zeitschrift 207, 1968, pp. 509f.
  2. ↑ Helmut Krausnick: Preliminary remark to Graml, David Hoggan and the documents, in: History in Science and Teaching 14 (1963), p. 493
  3. ↑ Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (ed.): Right-wing extremist revisionism. A topic of today . Cologne 2001, p. 6f.
  4. ↑ "Sir N. Henderson on August 29, 1939 to Viscount Halifax", Documents on British Foreign Policy 1919-1939 (DBFP), III, 7th No. 455.
  5. ↑ David L. Hoggan: The Forced War. The causes and originators of the Second World War . 1st edition, Tübingen 1961, p. 704.
  6. ↑ David L. Hoggan: The Forced War. The causes and originators of the Second World War . 1st edition, Tübingen 1961, p. 213.
  7. ↑ Ordinance on the restoration of the street scene in Jewish businesses of November 12, 1938. In: Reichsgesetzblatt, I, 1938, p. 1581.
  8. ↑ David L. Hoggan: The Forced War. The causes and originators of the Second World War . 14th edition, Tübingen 1990, p. 160.
  9. ^ "Hitler to the Hungarian Foreign Minister of January 16, 1939". In: Files on German Foreign Policy 1918-1945 (ADAP), D IV, No. 227.
  10. ↑ Simply beautiful , article from May 13, 1964 on Spiegel Online
personal data
SURNAME Hoggan, David L.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hoggan, David Leslie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American historian, history reviser
DATE OF BIRTH March 22, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Portland , Oregon
DATE OF DEATH August 7, 1988
Place of death Menlo Park , Northern California