Günter Paulus

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Günter Paulus (born August 20, 1927 in Berlin ) is a German historian. As an important representative of the history of the GDR , he was responsible for developing a “History of Germany in the Second World War” at the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin from the early 1960s . However, he pursued interpretations that deviated from the prevailing view of history, in particular from the Dimitrov thesis . One of his publications was therefore withdrawn in 1966. Paulus was transferred to a sentence and taught at the Berlin School of Economics until 1990 . His fall is considered an extraordinary event in the history of GDR historiography, also because it took extraordinary efforts to consolidate the threatened discourse on rule.

Life

School and study

Paul attended high school and was still certified when he was called up in August 1944. He took part in World War II until 1945 and was taken prisoner by the Americans . He then made his living as a farm laborer. In 1946 he passed his Abitur and began studying history, German and philosophy at the Humboldt University in Berlin .

Paulus joined the SED and from 1948 to 1951 worked part-time as an editor at the school book publisher Volk und Wissen in East Berlin . In the academic year 1949/50 he was given leave of absence from the Ministry of National Education in order to take part in the “first Marxist-Leninist history books”. In 1952 he completed his studies as a graduate historian.

From 1952 to 1956 Paulus was employed as a research assistant at the Museum of German History in Berlin. From 1956 he worked initially as a research assistant, from 1957 as a senior research assistant and deputy head of the department 1917–1945 at the Institute for History at the German Academy of Science in Berlin . In February 1963 he was with a thesis on "collapse and revival of German militarism 1918-19" at the Humboldt University doctorate .

Deviations from the official line of GDR history

In 1964 Paulus took over the leadership of the research group “Fascism and World War II” at the Institute for History, where he was to be in charge of developing a “History of Germany in the Second World War”. He was also involved in the drafting of a new university textbook on German history on behalf of the SED Politburo . According to Martin Sabrow , he was one of the leading historians in the GDR at this point in terms of professional performance and academic position.

In 1959, while still in his function as secretary of Working Group I at the Institute for History at the Academy of Sciences, Paulus criticized the previous presentation of the Nazi era . This is too schematic. He explicitly mentioned the treatment of "the Jewish problem in 1938" in a textbook draft for the years 1936–1939. In 1962 he formulated an analysis of the state of research on the history of the Second World War, in which he noted the lack of an overall scientific representation of the concentration camp system and criticized the lack of a description of the suffering of the Jewish population in Europe as a “political-moral 'gap'”. He commissioned Klaus Drobisch to prepare a thesis paper on the topic.

At the end of 1965 Paulus published the monograph The Twelve Years of the Thousand Years' Reich in Deutsches Militärverlag . Sidelights on the time of the fascist dictatorship over Germany , based on a series of 1962 in Germany transmitter based held radio lectures. In it Paulus shared the basic positions of GDR historical studies such as the Dimitrov thesis and struck partisan and militant tones. But at the same time he deliberately touched the boundaries of the traditional image of history by attesting Hitler, as the “main manager of state monopoly capitalism in Germany”, a “certain independence”, acknowledging the importance of material aid to weapons deliveries by the Western powers to the Soviet Union during the Second World War, and when interpreting the War defeat as a liberation to tie in with the violence of his readers. The printing had been approved by Bruno Löwel and Ingo Materna , who had demanded changes in line with the historical rulership discourse in the GDR. This is how Paulus treated the existence of the secret additional protocol to the Hitler-Stalin Pact , which was taboo in the GDR, even though he interpreted it within the political norms of the prescribed historical image as the rescue of millions of people from the attack of the German militarists. Before publication, he deleted the term “additional protocol”.

Exclusion from the history of the GDR

The book was withdrawn in January 1966 after the social sciences sector in the science department of the Central Committee of the SED had pointed out the author's “un-Marxist and opportunist positions”. However, a large part of the edition of 5000 copies had already been given. Since Paul was suspected of "revisionist deviations" in September 1964 and had received a disciplinary punishment after extracts from one of his papers on the origins of the Second World War had appeared on September 6 in New Germany under the title The Man of Monopoly the SED apparatus resolutely opposed him. In December 1965, after a short period of liberalization , the 11th plenum of the Central Committee of the SED decided to change course in the cultural sector. In particular, the reviewers of the Institute for Marxism-Leninism , Gerhard Nitzsche and Karlheinz Pech , gave the political assessment of Paul by calling the book an "attempt" to "give space to the imperialist ideology in the history of the GDR". In the “party group 1917–1945” only Wolfgang Ruge defended his colleague Paulus.

In 1966, Paul was subjected to SED party proceedings. He had already publicly justified his exclusion from instrumental history in advance. In addition to a strict reprimand, he was given a four-year publication ban and transferred to the University of Economics in Berlin-Karlshorst as a teacher for basic Marxist-Leninist studies . He turned down an offer to return to the academy four years later. In February 1969 he became a lecturer on the history of the German labor movement at the School of Economics .

In May 1975, Paulus' PhD B “On the Genesis of Modern Militarism and its Special Manifestations in German History” with Alfred Schröter , Heinrich Scheel and Kurt Pätzold took place at the Humboldt University . From September 1975 on, Paulus was a full professor for the history of the German labor movement at the Marxism-Leninism section of the School of Economics. His professorship was terminated in 1990.

Assessment of the case of Günter Paulus

The historian Martin Sabrow regards the Paulus case as an extraordinary event in the history of GDR historiography, because a Marxist historian was extraordinarily unwavering on a path he recognized as being the right one and it took extraordinary efforts to consolidate the threatened discourse on rule. But: “The discursive dispositive of a partisan view of history, which was formed from the counter-image of the 'objective opponent', the political partisanship of every scientific view and the unattainable ideal of an identitarian society, had proven to be strong enough to make its position against all force historical To preserve facts and individual convictions. "

Joachim Käppner sees the action against Paul as a symptom of far-reaching disputes. "Among GDR historians, resistance against the official definition of fascism and its consequences for research had arisen for the first time." He sees Paulus' fall as a prime example of the compliance of a section of the historians to actively participate in the implementation of the regime's ideological guidelines. By preventing the approach of breaking away from the Dimitrov's formula within the historical institutions of the GDR, Holocaust research in the GDR has also stagnated.

Publications

  • The age of the Counter Reformation and the Thirty Years War. 1st edition. Volk u. Knowledge, Berlin, Leipzig 1948.
  • On the falsification of the history of the Second World War in West German historiography. In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft 1, No. 1 (1953), pp. 445-465.
  • The social structure of the Freikorps in the first months after the November Revolution. In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft 3, No. 5 (1955), pp. 685–704.
  • with Hans Radandt (Ed.): This is how the crime began. 1st edition. Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1960.
  • The second World War. (Documents and materials). Verl. Volk und Wissen, Berlin 1961.
  • and Leo Stern (ed.): Contributions to the topic. The preparation of the 2nd world war by German imperialism. 1st edition. Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1961.
  • The collapse and resurgence of German militarism in 1918/19. Humboldt-U., Phil. F., Diss. V. February 6, 1963 (not for Aust.) - Berlin, 6. F., Berlin 1963.
  • with Gerhard Förster and Olaf Groehler: On the relationship between war aims and war planning of fascist German imperialism. In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft 12, No. 6 (1964), pp. 929-948.
  • The twelve years of the millennial kingdom. Highlights of the time of the fascist dictatorship over Germany. 1st edition. German Military publisher, Berlin 1965.
  • On the imperialist strategy of "limited wars". In: Scientific journal // University of Economics Berlin: Articles from research a. Teaching. 13, No. 3 (1968), pp. 331-338.
  • On the development of the military policy of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany and its importance for the all-round strengthening of the German Democratic Republic. In: Scientific journal // University of Economics Berlin: Articles from research a. Teaching. 14: 337-344 (1969).
  • Kurt von Schleicher. Fractional struggle of the counter-revolutionaries. In: Fall into the Third Reich: histor. Miniatures and Portraits 1933/35. 1983, pp. 72-78.

literature

  • Joachim Käppner: Frozen history. Fascism and Holocaust as reflected in the history of science and history propaganda in the GDR. Results Verlag, Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3879160554 .
  • Lothar Mertens : Lexicon of the GDR historians. Biographies and bibliographies on the historians from the German Democratic Republic. Saur, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-598-11673-X .
  • Martin Sabrow: History as a Discourse of Power . The Günter Paulus case. In: Berlin Debate INITIAL. No. 4/5 1995, pp. 51-67.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Mertens, Lexicon of GDR Historians , p. 477.
  2. ↑ a b Martin Sabrow: History as a power discourse. The Günter Paulus case. In: Berlin Debate INITIAL. No. 4/5 1995, p. 54.
  3. ↑ Joachim Käppner: Frozen history. Fascism and Holocaust as reflected in the history of science and history propaganda in the GDR. Results Verlag, Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3879160554 , p. 90 f.
  4. ↑ Käppner, Frozen History , p. 129.
  5. ↑ Käppner, Frozen History , p. 130.
  6. ↑ a b Martin Sabrow: History as a power discourse. The Günter Paulus case. In: Berlin Debate INITIAL. No. 4/5 1995, p. 52 f.
  7. ↑ Quoted from Käppner, Frozen History , p. 127.
  8. ↑ Martin Sabrow: History as a discourse of power. The Günter Paulus case. In: Berlin Debate INITIAL. No. 4/5 1995, p. 55 f.
  9. ↑ Martin Sabrow: History as a discourse of power. The Günter Paulus case. In: Berlin Debate INITIAL. No. 4/5 1995, p. 56 f.
  10. ↑ Martin Sabrow: History as a discourse of power. The Günter Paulus case. In: Berlin Debate INITIAL. No. 4/5 1995, p. 61.
  11. ↑ Martin Sabrow: History as a discourse of power. The Günter Paulus case. In: Berlin Debate INITIAL. No. 4/5 1995, p. 62.
  12. ↑ Martin Sabrow: History as a discourse of power. The Günter Paulus case. In: Berlin Debate INITIAL. No. 4/5 1995, p. 64 f.
  13. ↑ Martin Sabrow: History as a discourse of power. The Günter Paulus case. In: Berlin Debate INITIAL. No. 4/5 1995, p. 65.
  14. ↑ Käppner, Frozen History , p. 128.
  15. ↑ Käppner, Frozen History , pp. 234, 289.
personal data
SURNAME Paulus, Günter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian
DATE OF BIRTH August 20, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin