역사의 정치화, 정치의 역사화 독일 <현대사 연구소> 설립을 둘러싼 논쟁

Abstract

The Institute of Contemporary History [Institut fur Zeitgeschichte (IfZ)], located in Munich, has played a important role in the research of National Socialism. After 1945, many politician and historian were in a long debate on the foundation of the institute, because they had different concept and experience. Because of the unresolved dispute between historians and politicians, the Institute could not be established until 1950. Gerhard Kroll, the representative of politics, accused the historian of serving the regime during the Third Reich and called for the exclusion of historians from the institute, while as the first president of the "Society of German Historian", Gerhard Ritter, argued that the National Socialism should immediately be analyzed by historians, who also should not be reluctant in taking on contemporary issues as a history. As a "political" institute, which was to be a school of the nation, was needed no more, it made mainly a historical research of the National Socialism. But at that time the historian, including Ritter, could not develop a new method of contemporary history, so that they had often difficulty in examining the Third Reich. Particularly they could not separate the role of a historian from the one of a witness. (Kongju National University/ms2991@kongju.ac.kr)