The Hamburger Edition is the publishing house of the Hamburg Institute for Social Research. It was established in the fall of 1994 with the aim of publishing results of the institute's scholarship with the broader public in mind. In its over 20-year history, the Hamburger Edition published monographs, essays, and books by more than five hundred authors, many of whom served as members of the Institute while others came from a range of related disciplines in the German-speaking world, and internationally. [1]
In the spring of 1995 the Hamburger Edition published its first nine books which defined the publishing program maintained consistently until today. They were monographs on nationalism and xenophobia, violence, Stalinism, and anti-Semitism. Also in 1995, the Hamburger Edition published the catalogue (in a book form) for an exhibit "Crimes of the German Wehrmacht: Dimensions of a War of Annihilation, 1941-1944" (Verbrechen der Wehrmacht. Dimensionen des Vernichtungskriegs 1941-1944), [1] organized by the institute. [2]
The Panzergrenadier Division "Großdeutschland", also commonly referred to simply as Großdeutschland or Großdeutschland Division, was an elite combat unit of the German Army that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II.
Michael Peter Leopold Hamburger was a noted German-British translator, poet, critic, memoirist and academic. He was known in particular for his translations of Friedrich Hölderlin, Paul Celan, Gottfried Benn and W. G. Sebald from German, and his work in literary criticism. The publisher Paul Hamlyn (1926–2001) was his younger brother.
Friedrich von Mellenthin was a German general during World War II. A participant in most of the major campaigns of the war, he became known afterwards for his memoirs Panzer Battles, first published in 1956 and reprinted several times since then.
During World War II, the German Wehrmacht committed systematic war crimes, including massacres, mass rape, looting, the exploitation of forced labour, the murder of three million Soviet prisoners of war, and participated in the extermination of Jews. While the Nazi Party's own SS forces was the organization most responsible for the Holocaust, the regular armed forces of the Wehrmacht committed many war crimes of their own, particularly on the Eastern Front.
The 10.5 cm leFH 18 is a German light howitzer used in World War II and the standard artillery piece of the Wehrmacht, adopted for service in 1935 and used by all divisions and artillery battalions. From 1935 to the end of the war, 11,848 were produced, along with 10,265 of the leFH 18/40 variant.
The Wehrmacht exhibition was a series of two exhibitions focusing on the war crimes of the Wehrmacht during World War II. The exhibitions were instrumental in furthering the understanding of the myth of the clean Wehrmacht in Germany. Both exhibitions were produced by the Hamburg Institute for Social Research; the first under the title "War of Annihilation. Crimes of the Wehrmacht 1941 to 1944", which opened in Hamburg on 5 March 1995 and travelled to 33 German and Austrian cities. It was the subject of a terrorist attack but the organizers nonetheless claimed it had been attended by 800,000 visitors. The second exhibition – which was first shown in Berlin in November 2001 – attempted to dissipate considerable controversy generated by the first exhibition according to the Institute.
The Wehrmacht were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer (army), the Kriegsmarine (navy) and the Luftwaffe. The designation "Wehrmacht" replaced the previously used term Reichswehr and was the manifestation of the Nazi regime's efforts to rearm Germany to a greater extent than the Treaty of Versailles permitted.
Hans Georg Heer is a German historian, chiefly known for the Wehrmachtsausstellung in the 1990s. While controversial at that time, the exhibition is nowadays widely credited with opening the eyes of the German public to the war crimes of the Wehrmacht committed on the Eastern Front during World War II. Having been suspended in 1999 for review, the exhibit reopened in 2001 under the name "Crimes of the German Wehrmacht: Dimensions of a War of Annihilation 1941–1944". The exhibitions were instrumental in the debunking of the myth of the clean Wehrmacht in Germany.
Harald von Hirschfeld was a general in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany who commanded the 78. Volksgrenadier-Division during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves.
Rudolf Querner was a German SS functionary during the Nazi era. He served as the Higher SS and Police Leader in Austria and Germany and was responsible for the evacuations and death marches from concentration camps at the end of the war. Arrested by the Allied authorities, he committed suicide in prison.
The Hamburg Institute for Social Research is an independent private foundation whose scholarship is focused on both contemporary history and the social sciences. Founded in 1984 by Jan Philipp Reemtsma, it currently employs about 50 people with roughly 50% working in the research fields of sociology and history. The institute publishes a bimonthly journal called Mittelweg 36 and has its own publishing house.
Jan Philipp Fürchtegott Reemtsma is a German literary scholar, author, and patron who founded and was the long-term director of the Hamburg Institute for Social Research. Reemtsma lives and works mainly in Hamburg.
Walter Braemer was a general in the Reichswehr and the Wehrmacht and a high-ranking SS commander during the Nazi era. He was a Nazi criminal responsible for mass murders of the civilian population of Bromberg/Bydgoszcz in Poland at the outset of the Second World War, and later for crimes against humanity in the Holocaust in the Soviet Union. He escaped prosecution and punishment after the war despite having been held for 2+1⁄2 years as a prisoner of war by the British.
Franz Kurowski was a German author of fiction and non-fiction who specialised in World War II topics. He is best known for producing apologist, revisionist and semi-fictional works on the history of the war, including the popular English-language series Panzer Aces and Infantry Aces.
The 203rd Security Division, was a rear-security division in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany. The unit was deployed in German-occupied areas of the Soviet Union, in the Army Group Centre Rear Area and was responsible for large-scale war crimes and atrocities.
Klaus Naumann is a German historian and author who specialises in modern European history. His research and writings have focused on contemporary interpretations of the legacy of World War II and on cultural history. Naumann authored several books on these topics, published both in German and in English.
A war of annihilation or war of extermination is a type of war in which the goal is the complete annihilation of a state, a people or an ethnic minority through genocide or through the destruction of their livelihood. The goal can be outward-directed or inward, against elements of one's own population. The goal is not like other types of warfare, the recognition of limited political goals, such as recognition of a legal status, control of disputed territory, or the total military defeat of an enemy state.
Ulrike Jureit is a German historian.
Walter Stettner Ritter von Grabenhofen was a German general in the Wehrmacht during World War II and a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. In October 1944 he went missing in action on Mount Avala, near Belgrade in Serbia.
The 403rd Security Division was a rear-security division in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany. Throughout the war, the unit was mainly deployed in the Army Group South Rear Area behind the Eastern Front, which was a large, German-occupied area of the Soviet Union. During the whole war, the 403rd Security Division was used throughout the war mainly on the Eastern Front for security tasks in the rear army area, such as capturing scattered Soviet soldiers and commissars. Further anti-Semitic measures, such as confiscations, removal of functions, the formation of "purely" Jewish houses, followed.