Klaus Drobisch

Klaus Drobisch (born December 2, 1931 in Leipzig ; † November 27, 2019 in Berlin ) was a German historian . He dealt with the history and problems of German fascism . His main topics lay in the history of Nazi forced labor , the National Socialist persecution of Jews and the history of the National Socialist concentration camps up to 1939. Drobisch was one of the few experts on the history of the Holocaust in the GDR .

Life

After attending primary school , Drobisch completed an apprenticeship as a printer from 1946 to 1949 . He then worked in this profession until 1951. From 1951 to 1953 he attended the workers and farmers faculty in Leipzig. After he had passed the school leaving examination in 1953 , he began to study history at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig .

In 1957 Drobisch graduated as a historian and became a research assistant at the German Institute for Contemporary History in East Berlin . From 1958 to 1991 he was a research assistant, senior research assistant and research associate in the field of "German History 1917-1945" at the Institute for German History (IDG) of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin and at the Central Institute for History of the Academy of Sciences active in the GDR . Here he worked in the “Research Group Fascism / Second World War” under Dietrich Eichholtz . In December 1964 he did his doctorate with Joachim Streisand and Walter Bartel at the Humboldt University in Berlin on "The Exploitation of Foreign Workers in the Flick Group during the Second World War ". In 1987 he submitted his PhD B with "Studies on the History of the Fascist Concentration Camps 1933/34" with Heinrich Scheel , Dietrich Eichholtz, Olaf Groehler , Heinz Kühnrich and Klaus Mammach .

In April 1990 Drobisch took over the management of the research area “German History 1917–1945” at the IDG after the previous head, Klaus Mammach, asked for delivery. Drobisch continued to work in Berlin in 1992/93 as part of the scientist integration program of the coordination and development initiative . From 1994 he worked as a research assistant at the Research Center for the History of Resistance in the Department of Political Science at the Free University of Berlin and the German Resistance Memorial Center. He also worked as a university professor and led seminars, particularly on the development of the SS state and the concentration camp system. In 1996 he retired.

plant

Early work on the connection between fascism and the economy

Drobisch dealt systematically with the history of the National Socialist concentration camps. In 1959/60, using the example of the Himmler Circle of Friends , he dealt with the question of the connection between the economy and the Holocaust , which he answered using the Dimitrov formula . He made this circle of friends of industrialists responsible for the Nazi camp system, since the SS had to comply with “all the wishes of the financial oligarchy for maximum profit and expansion of power”. In his dissertation on the “fascist concentration camp slave market of the monopolies” he also advocated the thesis that the Holocaust was economically motivated by emphasizing “ extermination through work ”. Drobisch wrote anonymously the guide through the Buchenwald memorial , published in 1960 , the text of which he had coordinated with his teacher Walter Bartel .

Drobisch also worked for the employment of foreign forced laborers during the Second World War, especially in the Flick concern. He was also involved in the editing of documents on the Flick Process . He assessed the judgment as a misinterpretation and a missed opportunity for an anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist-oriented reconstruction. The American judges had given him a mild verdict on instructions, because the “US imperialists needed the German monopoly rulers and their experiences” against the Soviet Union .

Fascism and Holocaust

In 1962, Drobisch was commissioned by Günter Paulus , head of the “Fascism and Second World War” working group at the Institute for History of the German Academy of Sciences, to work with other historians on a thesis paper on the origin of the Holocaust. In it, Drobisch represented an intentionalist position by describing the murder of the Jews as “the end of anti-Semitism in the planned war” and making it clear that the forced labor of Jews took a back seat to the “ideological motive” of the intention to exterminate. In doing so, he contradicted the thesis of "annihilation through work", which he had previously represented. Although these approaches were suppressed by the SED and Paulus dismissed in 1965, Drobisch was one of the few experts in the GDR in the field of Nazi persecution of Jews since Paulus' research assignment.

Together with Helmut Eschwege and Rudi Goguel , Drobisch worked on the book Kennzeichen J (1966), at the time the first coherent account of the persecution and murder of European Jews. Originally, he wrote a benevolent opinion and also created a chronicle of Eschweges book, which could only appear with delay and with difficulty; Drobisch, however, only seems to have come to the authors after 1966, when Eschwege was to be removed from the project of a history of the persecution of the Jews. In his report, he recommended the book with reference to the GDR's threat of scientific isolation in this field.

Together with Goguel and Werner Müller, an editor of New Germany , and the church historian Horst Dohle, Drobisch published a follow-up volume on the persecution and murder of German Jews that emerged from Eschweges project in 1973 with Jews under the swastika . As in Mark J , the authors named other reasons and motives for the Holocaust in addition to monopoly capitalism . Jews under the swastika were received positively not only in the GDR but also in the West. Western historians, however, also saw this as a justification for the GDR's policy of not making reparations. The historian Nicolas Berg criticizes Drobisch and Müller for distorting Eschweg's manuscript. In this respect, their “insolence” to put themselves on the front page as authors and to thank Eschwege in the foreword for suggestions and preliminary work is justified. Joachim Käppner praises the work as “the first really scientific book about the extermination of the German Jews”, which, as “the first integrating overall presentation of German historians”, closed a gap. Nevertheless, the GDR historians were more than a decade behind the results of West German science, especially since the authors were no longer looking for innovative research approaches, but "shyly adhered to the SED history doctrine". Drobisch had given the persecution of the pre-war years the function of diversion and enrichment policy; the pre-determined judgments of the Dimitrov formula and the party's course towards Israel were confirmed, while the communists were placed at the forefront of the fight against fascist crimes. At the same time, however, Drobisch distanced himself from the older school of GDR history, analyzed the mass murder “within the framework of the fascist imperialist war aims” and anchored this attempted explanation, which referred to the “ General Plan East ” as a key document, in the GDR's historical theory. In this analysis, Joachim Käppner criticizes the fact that Drobisch avoided the question of what status the general plan and its authors had in the Nazi hierarchy. The Holocaust was used as evidence of far more extensive, planned crimes, but at the same time its importance was marginalized and integrated into the context of a major anti-communist campaign.

Within the research group “Fascism and World War II” Drobisch was involved in the preparation and edition of the six-volume publication Germany in World War II . Together with Wolfgang Schumann , under the direction of Karl Drechsler, he worked on the second volume, From the attack on the Soviet Union to the major offensive near Stalingrad (1975).

Working on fascist terror

Drobisch wrote the two systematic works on GDR fascism research on the National Socialist terror system. His essays On Terror and its Institutions in Nazi Germany (1980) and Kriegsschauplatz Innerdeutschland (1989) analyzed the goals and functions of political terror as well as the centralization of police power and the practice of unrestricted police access. It was not until 1993 that he published his presentation of the system of the National Socialist concentration camps until 1939, which he wrote together with Günther Wieland .

Publications

• The Himmler Circle of Friends. An example of the subordination of the Nazi party and the fascist state apparatus by the financial oligarchy. In: Journal of History . 8 (1960), p. 304 ff.
• On the activities of the representatives of the Central Committee of the KPD in Berlin 1939-1941. In: Journal of History. 11, No. 3 (1963), pp. 535-551.
• with Karl-Heinz Thieleke: Case 5. Prosecution, selected documents, judgment of the Flick trial. With a study of the "Aryanizations" of the Flick Group. VEB Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1965.
• Documents about the history and character of the fascist Wehrwirtschaftsführer-Korps. In: Journal of Military History. 5, No. 3 (1966), pp. 323-337.
• Flick and the Nazis. In: Journal of History. 14, No. 3 (1966), pp. 378-397.
• Helmut Eschwege (Ed.): License plate "J". Pictures, documents, reports on the history of the crimes committed by Hitler's fascism against German Jews, 1933–1945. Edited by Helmut Eschwege. With a foreword by Arnold Zweig , an introduction by Rudi Goguel and a chronicle by Klaus Drobisch. Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1966; 2nd Edition. German Science Publishers, Berlin 1981.
• with Gerd Hohendorf: Antifascist teachers in the resistance struggle. People and Knowledge, Berlin 1967.
• (Ed.): We are not silent! A documentary about the anti-fascist struggle of Munich students, 1942–43. Edited and introduced by Klaus Drobisch with a biographical sketch of the Scholl siblings. Union Verlag, Berlin 1968.
• (Ed.): Against the war. Documentary report on the life and death of the Catholic clergyman Dr. Max Josef Metzger. Union, Berlin 1970.
• with Rudi Goguel and Werner Müller: Jews under the swastika. Persecution and extermination of German Jews 1933–1945. Publishing House of Science, Berlin 1973.
• with Karl Drechsler and Wolfgang Schumann : From the attack on the Soviet Union to the Soviet counter-offensive at Stalingrad. (June 1941 – November 1942). With 19 maps and 128 picture plates. Management: Karl Drechsler with the assistance of Klaus Drobisch and Wolfgang Schumann. Pahl-Rugenstein, Cologne 1975, ISBN 3-7609-0170-0 .
• Resistance in Buchenwald. Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1977.
• About the terror and its institutions in Nazi Germany. In: Fascism Research. Positions, problems, polemics. 1980, pp. 157-179.
• Contemporary reports on Nazi concentration camps 1933–1939. In: Yearbook for History. 26, pp. 103-133 (1982).
• Reichstag in flames. ( Illustrated historical booklets : Booklet 29), Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1983, DNB 830496874 .
• with Gerhard Fischer: Resistance by Faith. Christians grappling with Hitler's fascism. 1st edition. Union Verlag, Berlin 1985.
• (Ed.): Concentration camp in Lichtenburg Castle. Commission for Research into the History of the Local Labor Movement of the Cottbus District Management of the SED, Cottbus 1987.
• (Ed.): Antifascist teachers in Buchenwald concentration camp. Biographical sketches. 1st edition. Weimar-Buchenwald 1988.
• Theater of war within Germany. Security policy preparations and exercises 1935/36. In: The way to war. Studies on the history of the prewar years (1935/36 to 1939). 1989, pp. 41-66.
• Everyday life in Luckau prison from 1933 to 1939. In: Persecution, everyday life, resistance. Brandenburg during the Nazi era. Studies and documents. Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-353-00991-4 , pp. 247-272.
• The Judenreferate of the Secret State Police Office and the Security Service of the SS 1933 to 1939. In: Yearbook for Research on Antisemitism. 2: 230-254 (1993).
• with Günther Wieland: System of the Nazi concentration camps, 1933–1939 (= part of the Anne Frank Shoah library ). Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-05-000823-7 .
• Concentration camps and imprisonment. Attempt a synopsis. In: The normality of crime. Balance sheet and perspectives of research on the national socialist violent crimes. Festschrift for Wolfgang Scheffler on his 65th birthday. 1994, pp. 280-298.
• Early concentration camps 1933/34. In: The National Socialist Concentration Camps 1933–1945. 1995, pp. 1-15.
• Behind the gate inscription "Arbeit macht frei". Prisoner work, economic use and financing of the concentration camps from 1933 to 1939. In: Concentration camps and German economy 1939–1945. 1996, pp. 17-28.
• The Wehrmacht and the mass crimes against Greek civilians 1941–1944. Ed. Organon, Berlin 1999.
• Medicine and physicians in early concentration camps 1933 to 1936. In: Medicine and crime. Festschrift for the 60th birthday of Walter Wuttke. 2001, pp. 221-227.

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 3-87916-055-4 .
• 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 .
• Werner Röhr : Processing. The end of the history of the GDR. 2 volumes. Edition Organon, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-931034-16-0 .
• Christoph Kopke: Klaus Drobisch (1931–2019). In: Journal of History. Vol. 68, 2020, Issue 1, pp. 63–64.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Christoph Kopke : Terorsystem analyzed. In: New Germany . December 11, 2019, accessed December 11, 2019 . 
2. ↑ 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 3-87916-055-4 , p. 85 f., Here p. 86.
3. ↑ Thomas Taterka: "Everything is at stake". Unpredictable remarks on Arnold Zweig's place in the GDR's Holocaust discourse. In: Julia Bernhard, Joachim Schlör (eds.): German, Jew, European in the 20th century: Arnold Zweig und das Judentum (= yearbook for international German studies. Series A, congress reports. 65). Peter Lang, Bern / New York 2004, ISBN 3-906767-13-2 , p. 251.
4. ^ Susanne Jung: The legal problems of the Nuremberg trials. Depicted in the trial against Friedrich Flick. JCB Mohr, Tübingen 1992, ISBN 3-16-145941-5 , pp. 206, 210-212, here p. 212.
5. ↑ Käppner: Frozen history, pp. 130 f., Here pp. 131, 134.
6. ↑ Käppner: Frozen history, p. 134.
7. ↑ Käppner: Frozen history, p. 138.
8. ↑ Jeffrey M. Peck: East Germany. In: David S. Wyman, Charles H. Rosenzveig (Eds.): The World Reacts to the Holocaust. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1996, ISBN 0-8018-4969-1 , pp. 447-472, here pp. 458-459.
9. ↑ Nicolas Berg: The Holocaust and the West German Historians. Exploration and memory. 3rd, through Edition. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2013, ISBN 978-3-8353-2044-4 , p. 446.
10. ↑ Käppner: Frozen history, p. 153.
11. ↑ Käppner: Frozen history, p. 154.
12. ↑ Käppner: Frozen history, p. 155 f.
13. ↑ Käppner: Frozen history, p. 157.
14. ↑ Werner Röhr: settlement. The end of the history of the GDR. 2 volumes. Edition Organon, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-931034-16-0 , p. 531 f.