International Committee for Scientific Research into the Causes and Consequences of the Second World War

The International Committee for the Scientific Research into the Causes and Consequences of the Second World War (Luxembourg Committee or ICL for short; initially "European Committee for the Scientific Research into Tyranny 1933–1945") was an organization founded in 1968, which in fact existed until the 1980s originally wanted to devote himself to researching the causes and consequences of World War II , but actually concentrated largely on trying to prove that the leadership of the National Socialists was responsible for the Reichstag fire of February 1933.

History and Practical Effectiveness of the Committee

The committee was founded after lengthy preparations on January 18, 1968 on the occasion of a conference with the title “Meeting of writers, scientists and politicians in exile 1933-1945” in Luxembourg under the name “European Committee for the Scientific Research into the Tyranny 1933-1945” with the Established with the aim of a coordinated collaboration between historians and political scientists who were active in the field of research into the history of the 1930s and 1940s, to gain in-depth knowledge of the emergence and consolidation of Nazi rule in Germany, the preparation for the Second World War and what happened the war years to arrive.

The patronage of the committee was taken over by the Luxembourg Foreign Minister Pierre Grégoire , the French Culture Minister André Malraux and the German Foreign Minister Willy Brandt . The scientific management of the committee was in the hands of the Swiss historian Walther Hofer . The function of the general secretary entrusted with the practical management of the committee was entrusted to the publicist Edouard Calic . Other researchers who played a key role in the work of the committee were Hofer's assistant Christoph Graf and the Berlin historian Friedrich Zipfel . The historians Jürgen Schmädeke , Karl Dietrich Bracher , Henri Michel (historian) and Golo Mann , the publicist Eugen Kogon , the thermodynamic scientist Karl Stephan (process engineer) (at the time director of the Institute for Thermodynamics at the TU Berlin) and the criminologist Heinz Leferenz were also close to him (at the time professor of criminology at the University of Heidelberg) and the former deputy American chief prosecutor during the Nuremberg trials Robert Kempner .

The main political concern of the committee was initially to identify revisionist tendencies in contemporary history research during the Nazi era. B. the functionalist interpretation approach to the genesis of the Nazi dictatorship, which began to establish itself at that time - to counteract by means of "scientifically established facts".

In the founding statute it was determined that one wanted to counteract the following theses:

"1. There was no National Socialist program for the introduction of totalitarianism and the preparation and unleashing of war.

2. The conditions in the concentration camps and the genocide were the result of the war imposed on the Third Reich, and the descriptions of terror and genocide are by and large exaggerated.

3. The military defeat was the result of political betrayal. "

In practice, however, the committee's activities were essentially limited to researching the fire in the Reichstag in February 1933 and organizing exhibitions and symposia, and in particular the publication of books on this subject.

Research and publications on the Reichstag fire

By far the best-known structure of the committee was the so-called "Reichstag Fire Commission", a working group made up of historians, thermodynamics and criminologists, which researched the Reichstgsbrand of February 27, 1933 until the 1980s. The aim of her research was to refute the so-called “single perpetrator thesis”, according to which the Dutchman Marinus van der Lubbe left the Reichstag building alone on the evening of February 27, 1933. H. I set fire to it without accomplices, instigators or backers, or proof that the fire was actually started at the instigation of leading National Socialists and with the participation of other perpetrators from among the supporters of the Nazi movement. In this context, a two-volume source edition on the Reichstag fire and a research report, also published in 1978, were published in 1972 and 1978.

While the first volume of the documentation claimed to provide “negative” evidence that the individual perpetrator thesis was incorrect by publishing, with the help of fire-technical expertise and other materials, according to which it would have been impossible for a single perpetrator to visit the Reichstag building with the van der To set Lubbe on fire, the second volume stated that it presented “positive” evidence of the Nazi perpetration by publishing documents which, in the opinion of the editors, clearly indicated that the Nazis were responsible for the arson. The second volume of documentation in particular was severely attacked after its publication. In particular, the editors were accused of having eaten up fake sources and disseminating them through their publication, or even fabricating them themselves. Inconsistencies in content and anachronisms as well as linguistic irregularities that were found in some documents were cited as evidence for this. The result was that there were sharp arguments between researchers of the committee and their critics, which dragged on until the late 1980s. An authenticity check proposed by the Koblenz Federal Archives failed because the committee was only in possession of copies, but not the originals, of the documents in question.

Events

April 28-30, 1969: "Symposium on National Socialist Measures to Deceive the German People and the World" in Luxembourg
May 1970: Symposium in West Berlin
September 1970: Symposium “The World War and Peace Between Peoples” in Zagreb. Patronage: Josip Tito , participants: Charles Bloch , Karl Dietrich Bracher , Eugen Kogon , Friedrich Zipfel
1973: Exhibition "1933 - The Reichstag is on fire!" In Oberhausen
1975: Symposium in Yugoslavia
1979: Symposium in Paris "La Guerre hitlerienne devant l'Histoire"
1980: Exhibition "40 Joer Zweete Weltkrich" in Luxembourg
1982: Exhibition on the 40th anniversary of the Wannsee Conference in Oberhausen
January 1983: Symposium in Paris

criticism

The committee was accused of falsifying history . The political scientist Uwe Backes accuses the committee of placing scientists and publicists who represent the single perpetrator theory in the controversy over the Reichstag fire under Nazi suspicion and of spreading conspiracy theories about them in order to silence them.

Committee publications

Main publications :

Edouard Calic / Walther Hofer / Karl Stephan (among others): The Reichstag fire. A scientific documentation , Vol. 1, Berlin 1972.
Edouard Calic / Christoph Graf / Walther Hofer: The Reichstag fire. A scientific documentation , Vol. 2, Berlin 1978.
The Reichstag fire. The provocation of the 20th century. A research report , Luxembourg 1978.

Smaller publications:

Edouard Calic / Jürgen Schmädeke / Friedrich Zipfel (Ed.): 1933: The Reichstag is burning , Oberhausen 1973.
Simone Veil / Wolfgang Scheffler / Internationales Komitee Luxemburg: Auschwitz, warning and obligation: Memorial exhibition for the 40th anniversary of the so-called Wannsee Conference , 1982.

literature

Marcus Giebeler: "The Luxembourg Committee and its Publications", in: Ders .: The controversy about the Reichstag fire: Source problems and historiographical paradigms , 2010, pp. 81–84.

Individual evidence

↑ And wasn't it the Nazis? The Reichstag fire in 1933 , in: Lars-Broder Keil / Sven Felix Kellerhoff : German legends. About the “stab in the dagger” and other myths of history , CH. Links Verlag, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-86153-257-3 , p. 55.
^ Backes: Reichstag fire, p. 304.
↑ Henning Köhler : The "documentary" part of the "documentation". Counterfeits all the time. In: Uwe Backes , Karl-Heinz Janßen et al .: Reichstag fire - clearing up a historical legend . Piper, Munich and Zurich 1986, pp. 167-215; Lars-Broder Keil and Sven Felix Kellerhoff : German Legends. About the 'stab in the back' and other myths of history. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin, 2002, pp. 55–63.
↑ Uwe Backes: The International Committee for Scientific Research into the Causes and Consequences of the Second World War. In: the same, Karl-Heinz Janßen et al .: Reichstag fire - clearing up a historical legend . Piper, Munich and Zurich 1986, p. 105 ff.

[1] And wasn't it the Nazis? The Reichstag fire in 1933 , in: Lars-Broder Keil / Sven Felix Kellerhoff : German legends. About the “stab in the dagger” and other myths of history , CH. Links Verlag, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-86153-257-3 , p. 55.

[2] Backes: Reichstag fire, p. 304.

[3] Henning Köhler : The "documentary" part of the "documentation". Counterfeits all the time. In: Uwe Backes , Karl-Heinz Janßen et al .: Reichstag fire - clearing up a historical legend . Piper, Munich and Zurich 1986, pp. 167-215; Lars-Broder Keil and Sven Felix Kellerhoff : German Legends. About the 'stab in the back' and other myths of history. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin, 2002, pp. 55–63.

[4] Uwe Backes: The International Committee for Scientific Research into the Causes and Consequences of the Second World War. In: the same, Karl-Heinz Janßen et al .: Reichstag fire - clearing up a historical legend . Piper, Munich and Zurich 1986, p. 105 ff.