Joachim Hoffmann

This article deals with the historian Joachim Hoffmann. For other people see Joachim Hoffmann (disambiguation) .

Joachim Hoffmann (born December 1, 1930 in Königsberg ; † February 8, 2002 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) was a German historian who mainly dealt with the military history of the Second World War . He is considered the main proponent of the preventive war thesis , which has been refuted by historical scholarship.

Life

Hoffmann's parents came from Berlin , but lived in Königsberg in East Prussia until the end of the war due to the legal profession of their father Paul Hoffmann , from where they had to flee to West Germany as a result of the Second World War and settled in Berlin. From 1951 Hoffmann studied modern history, Eastern European history and comparative ethnology at the Free University of Berlin and the University of Hamburg . In 1959 he received his doctorate. phil. with The Berlin Mission of Count Prokesch-Osten 1849–1852 .

From 1960 to 1995 he worked at the Military History Research Office (MGFA) of the Bundeswehr , most recently as Scientific Director . His research area there was the Red Army . He has published many books and essays on the political, diplomatic and military history of the 19th century and the history of the German-Soviet War .

subjects

Eastern Legions and Vlasov Army

Hoffmann researched the role of the Eastern Legions in World War II at the MGFA . In several books he showed the historical dimension of nationality conflicts that contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Hoffmann's "History of the Vlasov Army " regards this not only as a measure to avert the threatened war defeat of the German Reich , but as a liberation army from Russian history. As part of a renewed interest in this topic, some authors in Russia referred to the book, which was published in Russian translation in 1990: for example Imanuil Levin in “ Moskovsky Komsomolets ” (1991) and Boris Sokolov in “ Nezavisimaya Gazeta ” (1992). Solzhenitsyn recommended the book. In 1992 Hoffmann received the “General Andrei Andrejewitsch Vlasow ” cultural award from a “German-Russian Society” that was founded by former German and Soviet soldiers in 1957, belonged to the Paneuropean Union , also maintained contacts with right-wing extremists and existed until 1996.

Preventive war thesis

Hoffmann approached the preventive war thesis in 1983: in two essays in the series " The German Reich and the Second World War " published by the Military History Research Office (MGFA), he took the view that Josef Stalin himself had an offensive military policy in the run-up to June 22, 1941 Red Army planned westward and after the German invasion waged a war of annihilation against the Wehrmacht.

This thesis brought him into conflict with colleagues at MGFA. Hoffmann wrote on September 7, 1983 to the scientific director of the MGFA Wilhelm Deist : Deist had tried to induce him to suppress historical truth for ideological reasons. Deist then sued Hoffmann for revocation and omission of this allegation, which he considered defamatory. In 1984 the Freiburg Regional Court ruled: Deist's duties as a team leader included expressing change requests and suggesting cuts, which was undisputed. Hoffmann's accusation that Deist is thus falsifying history is not accessible to evidence of the truth. The determination of what is historically true is the task of historical science and not of establishing facts through a court judgment. Ultimately, however, the question could be left open because Hoffmann acted in the protection of his legitimate interests when he submitted his application to his superior. Hoffmann cited the judgment in the new edition of the fourth volume of Das Deutsche Reich und die Second World War as confirmation of his position.

From 1986 he participated in the preventive war debate that the Soviet defector Viktor Suvorov had triggered in 1985 with two essays in the British military journal RUSI Journal . Hoffmann supported his thesis that Adolf Hitler had only just barely anticipated an attack by the Red Army on Germany in letters to the editor to the RUSI-Journal and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (“Stalin wanted the war”). He claimed that the formation of the Red Army in the summer of 1941 indicated a threat rather than a defensive measure. Hoffmann also represented this in 1991 during the Russian debate on Suvorov's book The Icebreaker in an article in the Russian journal “Otechestvennaia istoriia” (4/1993, p. 19). The Russian historian Yuri Afanasyev referred to this .

After retiring from MGFA, Hoffmann tried to substantiate the preventive war thesis in his 1995 book “Stalin's War of Destruction”. Stalin's plan of attack on the German Reich at the time was neither a reason nor a reason for Hitler's decision to attack the Soviet Union. Both dictators had independently prepared a war; Hitler only got Stalin ahead of him. The Stalin speech on May 5, 1941 in the Kremlin to graduates of the Soviet military academies (the authenticity of which is disputed due to inconsistent sources) shows that Stalin had planned a war of annihilation against Germany.

As early as 1987, specialist historians rejected the preventive war thesis and classified the debate in the West German historians' dispute at the time . The reviewer Günther Gillessen , who had agreed to Suworow in 1986, ruled in 1995 that Hoffmann had "not kept up the scientist's cool tone in his book". In 1996, Spiegel publisher Rudolf Augstein described Hoffmann as a “Communist eater”, “who in this country emphasizes the thesis of Stalin's preventive intent more vehemently than anyone else”. German, Russian, Anglo-Saxon and Israeli specialist historians re-examined the preventive war thesis and unanimously rejected it as inapplicable at an international Moscow historians' day in 1997. Right-wing history revisionists, on the other hand, welcomed Hoffmann's book, for example in the new right-wing journal Junge Freiheit , and used his reputation as a former military historian to uphold the preventive war thesis. Hoffmann is often shared with other right-wing extremist or right-wing conservative representatives of the preventive war thesis such as Fritz Becker, Max Klüver, Werner Maser , Heinz Magenheimer , Walter Post, Franz W. Seidler , Wolfgang Strauss , Adolf von Thadden and Ernst by researchers on the Nazi era and right-wing extremism Topitsch mentioned and criticized.

Number of victims of the Holocaust

Hoffmann wrote historically correct about the number of victims in the Auschwitz concentration camps in his book Stalin's War of Extermination : So far, the released death records of the Soviet archives only confirmed 74,000 victims among the "able-bodied deportees" (i.e. those who initially survived the selection on the Auschwitz ramp). The previously stated total number of four million victims has been proven to be incorrect. The more recent total number of victims was also reported in 1990 by Jean-Claude Pressac "... but underwent a strong reduction, according to the latest reports - and no less terrible - it is now between 631,000 and 711,000." Some historians therefore classify Hoffmann as being close to right-wing extremist historical revisionism. Recent research has found a likely number of at least 1.1 million victims in Auschwitz.

In 1991 the contemporary history research center Ingolstadt , which represents Holocaust denial and Holocaust relativization, awarded Hoffmann the “Dr. Walter Eckhardt Honorary Gift for Contemporary History Research ”.

In 1995 the right-wing publisher published Wigbert Grabert the anthology foundations of contemporary history of Germar Rudolf , one for sedition convicted Holocaust deniers, under whose pen name "Ernst Gauss". Grabert was charged for this. Hoffmann prepared an expert opinion for his trial, stated in it that he did not know "Gauss", approved of the anthology of scientific quality and criticized the author for not highlighting the mass extermination of the Jews in Auschwitz clearly enough. The Tübingen District Court had the anthology withdrawn because of Holocaust denial and sentenced Grabert to a fine. Rudolf published Hoffmann's report in 1997 in the Holocaust-denying journal Vierteljahreshefte für free historical research (VffG). The 1998 report for the protection of the constitution in Baden-Württemberg mentioned Hoffmann with this incident.

In 1996, members of the Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen party in the German Bundestag asked two questions about a foreword that Manfred Kehrig, the director of the Freiburg military archive , had written to Hoffmann's book, Stalin's War of Extermination .

Publications

• The Eastern Legions 1941–1943. Turkotartars, Caucasians, Volga women in the German army. (= Individual writings on the military history of the Second World War. 19). Publishing house Rombach, Freiburg i. Breisgau 1976, ISBN 3-7930-0178-4 .

Review: Michael G. Hillinger in The American Historical Review. Volume 81, Issue 5, Dec 1976, p. 1155.

• Germans and Kalmyks 1942–1945. (= Individual writings on the military history of the Second World War. 14). Publishing house Rombach, Freiburg i. Breisgau 1977, ISBN 3-7930-0173-3 .

Review: GC Field in The American Historical Review. Volume 80, Issue 4, Oct 1975, p. 964 f.

• The Soviet Union up to the eve of the German attack and The conduct of the war from the perspective of the Soviet Union. In: Jürgen Förster, Horst Boog , Joachim Hoffmann (ed.): The German Reich and the Second World War. Volume 4: The attack on the Soviet Union. 2nd Edition. Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, 1987, ISBN 3-421-06098-3 , pp. 38-97 and pp. 713-809.
• Caucasus 1942/43 - The German Army and the Eastern Peoples of the Soviet Union. Rombach, Freiburg / Breisgau 1991, ISBN 3-7930-0194-6 .
• The Soviet Union's preparations for attack in 1941. In: Bernd Wegner (Ed.): Two ways to Moscow - From the Hitler-Stalin Pact to "Operation Barbarossa". Piper, Munich / Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-492-11346-X , pp. 367-388.
• The tragedy of the 'Russian Liberation Army' 1944/45. Vlasov against Stalin. Herbig, new edition 2003, ISBN 3-7766-2330-6 .

Reviews: Catherine Andreyev in Soviet Studies. Great Britain 3/1985; Earl F. Ziemke in The American Historical Review. 4/1985; Lawrence D. Stokes in German Studies Review. USA, May 1985; Ralf Georg Reuth in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. May 25, 1985; Roman Dneprov in Novoye Russkoye Slovo. New York, November 21, 1985; FL Carsten in The Slavonic and East European Review. Great Britain 1/1986; H. Baron von Vogelsang in the Liechtenstein fatherland. October 11, 1984; RJ Overy in The English Historical Review. Volume 102, Issue 404, July 1987, p. 759.

• Stalin's war of extermination 1941–1945. 8th edition. Herbig, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-7766-2079-X .

Review: Klaus Naumann in Die Zeit. November 10, 1995.

Web links

• Literature by and about Joachim Hoffmann in the catalog of the German National Library

Single receipts

1. ↑ Jens Mecklenburg (Ed.): Handbuch Deutscher Rechtsextremismus , Berlin 1996, pp. 351f.
2. ^ Joachim Hoffmann: The Soviet Union until the eve of the German attack. In: MGFA (Hrsg.): The German Reich and the Second World War, Volume 4: The attack on the Soviet Union. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt , Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-421-06098-3 , p. 58 f. and p. 66 f.
3. ^ Joachim Hoffmann: The conduct of war from the perspective of the Soviet Union. In: The German Reich and the Second World War Volume 4. pp. 713–809, here pp. 778–790.
4. ↑ The eyesore of history . In: Der Spiegel . No. 10 , 2008 ( online - April 7, 2008 , interview with Rolf-Dieter Müller ).
5. ^ Judgment of the Regional Court Freiburg, business number 5 O 83/84, announced on June 19, 1984.
6. ↑ Juri Afanasjew (ed.): The Other War 1939–1945 (Drugaja Vojna), Moscow 1996.
7. ^ Joachim Hoffmann: Stalin's War of Extermination, 1941–1945. Munich 2001, pp. 23-84.
8. ↑ Gernot Erler (ed.): History turning point? Disposal attempts on German history. Dreisam, 1987, ISBN 3-89125-255-2 , p. 101; Reinhard Kühnl (Ed.): The past that does not pass: the “Historians Debate”, presentation, documentation, criticism. Pahl-Rugenstein, 1987, p. 119; Gerd R. Ueberschär : Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union - a preventive war? To revive the old attempts to justify the German attack on the USSR in 1941. In: Brigitte Bailer-Galander , Wolfgang Benz , Gero Neugebauer: Truth and Auschwitz Lie - to combat “revisionist propaganda”. Vienna 1995, p. 163.
9. ↑ Günther Gillessen (FAZ October 10, 1995): The other great spoiler of Europe: Joachim Hoffmann describes the beginning and progress of Stalin's warfare.
10. ↑ Just a sandbox game . In: Der Spiegel . No. 6 , 1996 ( online - Feb. 5, 1996 ).
11. ↑ Volker Dotter Weich: Controversies in contemporary history. Munich 1998, pp. 123-160; Gerd Ueberschär, Lew Besymenski (ed.): The German attack on the Soviet Union in 1941. The controversy about the preventive war thesis. 2nd Edition. Darmstadt 2011, pp. 48-69.
12. ↑ Fabian Virchow : Against civilism: International relations and the military in the political conceptions of the extreme right. Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2006, ISBN 3-531-15007-3 , p. 345.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
13. ↑ Gerd R. Ueberschär, Lev Bezymenskiĭ (ed.): The German attack on the Soviet Union in 1941: the controversy about the preventive war thesis . New edition, Darmstadt 2011, p. 153, footnote 9; Bernd Struß: " Eternal yesterday" and "Nest defilter ": The debate about the Wehrmacht exhibitions - a linguistic analysis. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2009, p. 218. ( Memento of the original from March 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Lars-Broder Keil , Sven Felix Kellerhoff : German Legends. About the 'stab in the back' and other myths of history. Christian Links Verlag, 2002, p. 111.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. P. 260, footnote 26  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .     
14. ^ Joachim Hoffmann: Stalin's War of Extermination. Munich 2001, p. 302.
15. ^ Brigitte Bailer-Galanda, Wilhelm Lasek, Walter Manoschek , Wolfgang Neugebauer : "Revisionist" tendencies in the Austrian armed forces? Statement on statements by Dr. Heinz Magenheimer . Edited by the Documentation Archive of Austrian Resistance , Vienna 1996, p. 27.
16. ↑ Klaus-Dietmar Henke : Deadly medicine in National Socialism: From racial hygiene to mass murder. Böhlau, Cologne 2008, p. 201.
17. ↑ Amtsgericht Tübingen Az. 4 Gs 173/95
18. ^ Ministry of the Interior and Justice of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (Hrsg.): Verfassungsschutzbericht des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen. Interim report 1998, Düsseldorf 1998, p. 32.
19. ↑ German Bundestag, 13th electoral term, printed matter 13/5773 (October 11, 1996): Answer of the federal government to the small question of the deputies Annelie Buntenbach, Volker Beck (Cologne), Winfried Nachtwei and the parliamentary group Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen: attitude of the Federal government on the preventive war thesis (PDF; 325 kB)
20. ^ Klaus Naumann: Stalin's War of Extermination? . In: DIE ZEIT, 46/1995 . Time online. November 10, 1995. Retrieved May 20, 2019.