Ian Kershaw

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Like Broszat, Kershaw sees the structures of the Nazi state as far more important than the personality of Hitler (or any one else) as an explanation for the way Nazi Germany developed. Kershaw subscribes to the view argued by Broszat and the German historian Hans Mommsen that Nazi Germany was a chaotic collection of rival bureaucracies in perpetual power struggles with each other. In Kershaw's view, the Nazi dictatorship was not a totalitarian monolith, but rather an unstable coalition of several blocs in a "power cartel" comprising the NSDAP, big business, the German state bureaucracy, the Army and SS/police agencies (and each of the "power blocs" was divided into factions). [42] In Kershaw's opinion, the more "radical" blocs such as the SS/police and the Nazi Party gained increasing ascendancy over the other blocs after the 1936 economic crisis, and then increased their power at the expense of the other blocs. [43]

Adolf Hitler, the subject of several of Kershaw's books Bundesarchiv Bild 183-S33882, Adolf Hitler retouched.jpg
Adolf Hitler, the subject of several of Kershaw's books

For Kershaw, the real significance of Hitler lies not in him, but rather in the German people's perception of him. [44] In his biography of Hitler, Kershaw presented him as the ultimate "unperson"; a boring, pedestrian man devoid of even the "negative greatness" attributed to him by Joachim Fest. [45] Kershaw rejects the great man theory of history and has criticised those who seek to explain everything that happened in Nazi Germany as the result of Hitler's will and intentions. [46] Kershaw has argued that it is absurd to seek to explain German history in the Nazi era solely through Hitler, as Germany had sixty-eight million people and to seek to explain the fate of sixty-eight million people solely through the prism of one man is in Kershaw's opinion a flawed position. [47]

Kershaw wrote about the problems of an excessive focus on Hitler that "even the best biographies have seemed at times in danger of elevating Hitler's personal power to a level where the history of Germany between 1933 and 1945 becomes reduced to little more than an expression of the dictator's will". [47] Kershaw has a low opinion of those who seek to provide "personalized" theories about the Holocaust and/or World War II as due to some defect, medical or otherwise, in Hitler. [48] In his 2000 edition of The Nazi Dictatorship, Kershaw quoted with approval the dismissive remarks made by the German historian Hans-Ulrich Wehler in 1980 about such theories. Wehler wrote

Does our understanding of National Socialist policies really depend on whether Hitler had only one testicle? ... Perhaps the Führer had three, which made things difficult for him, who knows? ... Even if Hitler could be regarded irrefutably as a sadomasochist, which scientific interest does that further? ... Does the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" thus become more easily understandable or the "twisted road to Auschwitz" become the one-way street of a psychopath in power? [48]

Kershaw shares Wehler's opinion, that, besides the problem that such theories about Hitler's medical condition were extremely difficult to prove, they had the effect of personalising the phenomena of Nazi Germany by more or less attributing everything that happened in Nazi Germany to one flawed individual. [48]

Kershaw's biography of Hitler is an examination of Hitler's power; how he obtained it and how he maintained it. [49] Following up on ideas that he had first introduced in a 1991 book about Hitler, Kershaw has argued that Hitler's leadership is a model example of Max Weber's theory of charismatic leadership. [18] [50] Kershaw's 1991 book Hitler: A Profile in Power marked a change for him from writing about how people viewed Hitler to writing about Hitler. [18] In his two-volume biography of Hitler published in 1998 and 2000, Kershaw stated, "What I tried to do was to embed Hitler into the social and political context that I had already studied." [18] Kershaw finds the picture of Hitler as a "mountebank" (opportunistic adventurer) in Alan Bullock's biography unsatisfactory, and Joachim Fest's quest to determine how "great" Hitler was senseless. [51] In a wider sense, Kershaw sees the Nazi regime as part of a broader crisis that afflicted European society from 1914 to 1945. [52] Though in disagreement with many of their claims (especially Nolte's), Kershaw's concept of a "Second Thirty Years' War" reflects many similarities with Ernst Nolte, A. J. P. Taylor and Arno J. Mayer who have also advanced the concept of a "Thirty Years' Crisis" to explain European history between 1914 and 1945. [52]

Functionalism–intentionalism debate

In the functionalism versus intentionalism debate, Kershaw has argued for a synthesis of the two schools, though leaning towards the functionalist school. Despite some disagreements, Kershaw has called Mommsen a "good personal friend" and an "important further vital stimulus to my own work on Nazism". [2] Kershaw has argued in his two-volume biography of Hitler that Hitler did play a decisive role in the development of policies of genocide, but also argued that many of the measures that led to the Holocaust were undertaken by many lower-ranking officials without direct orders from Hitler in the expectation that such steps would win them favour. [53] Though Kershaw does not deny the radical antisemitism of the Nazis, he favours Mommsen's view of the Holocaust being caused by the "cumulative radicalization" of Nazi Germany caused by the endless bureaucratic power struggles and a turn towards increasingly radical antisemitism within the Nazi elite.

Despite his background in the functionalist historiography, Kershaw admits that his account of Hitler in World War II owes much to intentionalist historians like Gerhard Weinberg, Hugh Trevor-Roper, Lucy Dawidowicz and Eberhard Jäckel. [18] Kershaw accepts the picture of Hitler drawn by intentionalist historians as a fanatical ideologue who was obsessed with social Darwinism, völkisch antisemitism (in which the Jewish people were viewed as a "race" biologically different from the rest of humanity rather than a religion), militarism and the perceived need for Lebensraum . [18]

In a 1992 essay, "Improvised genocide?", in which Kershaw traces how the ethnic cleansing campaign of Gauleiter Arthur Greiser in the Warthegau [a] region annexed to Germany from Poland in 1939 led to a campaign of genocide by 1941, Kershaw argued that the process was indeed "improvised genocide" rather than the fulfilment of a master plan. [54] Kershaw views the Holocaust not as a plan, as argued by the intentionalists, but rather a process caused by the "cumulative radicalization" of the Nazi state as articulated by the functionalists. Citing the work of the American historian Christopher Browning in his biography of Hitler, Kershaw argues that in the period 1939–1941 the phrase "Final Solution to the Jewish Question" was a "territorial solution", that such plans as the Nisko Plan and Madagascar Plan were serious and only in the latter half of 1941 did the phrase "Final Solution" come to refer to genocide. [55] This view of the Holocaust as a process rather than a plan is the antithesis of the extreme intentionalist approach as advocated by Lucy Dawidowicz, who argues that Hitler had decided upon genocide as early as November 1918, and that everything he did was directed towards that goal. [56]

"Working Towards the Führer" concept

Kershaw disagrees with Mommsen's "Weak Dictator" thesis: the idea that Hitler was a relatively unimportant player in Nazi Germany. He has agreed with his idea that Hitler did not play much of a role in the day-to-day administration of the government of Nazi Germany. Kershaw's way of explaining this paradox is his theory of "Working Towards the Führer", the phrase being taken from a 1934 speech by the Prussian civil servant Werner Willikens: [57]

Everyone who has the opportunity to observe it knows that the Fuhrer can hardly dictate from above everything which he intends to realize sooner or later. On the contrary, up till now, everyone with a post in the new Germany has worked best when he has, so to speak, worked towards the Fuhrer. Very often and in many spheres, it has been the case—in previous years as well—that individuals have simply waited for orders and instructions. Unfortunately, the same will be true in the future; but in fact, it is the duty of everybody to try to work towards the Fuhrer along the lines he would wish. Anyone who makes mistakes will notice it soon enough. But anyone who really works towards the Fuhrer along his lines and towards his goal will certainly both now and in the future, one day have the finest reward in the form of the sudden legal confirmation of his work. [58]

Kershaw has argued that in Nazi Germany officials of the German state and Party bureaucracy usually took the initiative in initiating policy to meet Hitler's perceived wishes, or alternatively attempted to turn into policy Hitler's often loosely and indistinctly phrased wishes. [57] Though Kershaw does agree that Hitler possessed the powers that the "Master of the Third Reich" thesis championed by Norman Rich and Karl Dietrich Bracher would suggest, he has argued that Hitler was a "lazy dictator", an indifferent dictator who was really not interested in involving himself much in the daily running of Nazi Germany. [59] The only exceptions were the areas of foreign policy and military decisions, both areas that Hitler increasingly involved himself in from the late 1930s. [59]

In a 1993 essay "Working Towards the Führer", Kershaw argued that the German and Soviet dictatorships had more differences than similarities. [24] Kershaw argued that Hitler was a very unbureaucratic leader who was highly averse to paperwork, in marked contrast to Joseph Stalin. [24] Kershaw argued that Stalin was highly involved in the running of the Soviet Union, in contrast to Hitler whose involvement in day-to-day decision making was limited, infrequent and capricious. [60] Kershaw argued that the Soviet regime, despite its extreme brutality and ruthlessness, was basically rational in its goal of seeking to modernise a backward country and had no equivalent of the "cumulative radicalization" towards increasingly irrational goals that Kershaw sees as characteristic of Nazi Germany. [61] In Kershaw's opinion, Stalin's power corresponded to Max Weber's category of bureaucratic authority, whereas Hitler's power corresponded to Weber's category of charismatic authority. [62]

In Kershaw's view, what happened in Germany after 1933 was the imposition of Hitler's charismatic authority on top of the "legal-rational" authority system that had existed prior to 1933, leading to a gradual breakdown of any system of ordered authority in Germany. [63] Kershaw argues that by 1938 the German state had been reduced to a hopeless, polycratic shambles of rival agencies all competing with each other for Hitler's favour, which by that time had become the only source of political legitimacy. [64] Kershaw sees this rivalry as causing the "cumulative radicalization" of Germany, and argues that though Hitler always favoured the most radical solution to any problem, it was German officials who, for the most part, in attempting to win the Führer's approval, carried out on their initiative, increasingly "radical" solutions to perceived problems like the "Jewish Question", as opposed to being ordered to do so by Hitler. [65] In this, Kershaw largely agrees with Mommsen's portrait of Hitler as a distant and remote leader standing in many ways above his system, whose charisma and ideas served to set the general tone of politics. [65]

As an example of how Hitler's power functioned, Kershaw used Hitler's directive to the Gauleiters Albert Forster and Arthur Greiser to "Germanize" the part of north-western Poland annexed to Germany in 1939 within the next 10 years with his promise that "no questions would be asked" about how this would be done. [66] [67] As Kershaw notes, the different ways Forster and Greiser sought to "Germanize" their Gaue with Forster simply having the local Polish population in his Gau signing forms saying they had "German blood", and Greiser carrying out a program of brutal ethnic cleansing of Poles in his Gau showed both how Hitler set events in motion, and how his Gauleiters could use different methods in pursuit of what they believed to be Hitler's wishes. [66] [67] In Kershaw's opinion, Hitler's vision of a racially cleansed Volksgemeinschaft provided the impetus for German officials to carry out increasingly extreme measures to win his approval, which ended with the Holocaust. [68]

The Israeli historian Otto Dov Kulka has praised the concept of "working towards the Führer" as the best way of understanding how the Holocaust occurred, combining the best features and avoiding the weaknesses of both the "functionalist" and "intentionalist" theories. [69]

For Kershaw, Hitler held absolute power in Nazi Germany due to the "erosion of collective government in Germany", but his power over domestic politics became more challenging to exercise due to his preoccupation with military affairs, and the rival fiefdoms of the Nazi state fought each other and attempted to carry out Hitler's vaguely worded wishes and dimly defined orders by "Working Towards the Führer". [70]

Later career

Kershaw retired from full-time teaching in 2008. [71] In the 2010s, he wrote two books on the wider history of Europe for The Penguin History of Europe series: To Hell and Back: Europe, 1914–1949 and Rollercoaster: Europe, 1950–2017.

Honours and memberships

Works

Notes

  1. Apparently, Kershaw misspelled this as Morgenthau.

References

  1. Sir Ian Kershaw: Dissecting Hitler Archived 30 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine ; BBC News; 14 June 2002.
  2. 1 2 3 Kershaw, Ian (February 2004). "Beware the Moral High Ground". H-Soz-u-Kult. Archived from the original on 29 May 2004. Retrieved 5 May 2009.
  3. Arana, Marie (19 October 2008). "Ian Kershaw: Casting light on the shadows". The Washington Post Book World. p. 11.
  4. Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood (107 ed.). Burke's Peerage & Gentry. p. 2146. ISBN   0-9711966-2-1.
  5. See Contemporary Authors, Vol. 137, p. 246f.
  6. "Ian Kershaw: 'My inspiration' Archived 19 May 2017 at the Wayback Machine , theguardian.com; retrieved 21 January 2015.
  7. 1 2 3 Snowman, Daniel "Ian Kershaw" pp. 18–20 from History Today Volume 51, Issue 7, July 2001 p. 18
  8. "Hitler 1889-1936 by Ian Kershaw". Baillie Gifford Prize. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
  9. Marrus, Michael The Holocaust in History, Toronto: KeyPorter, 2000, p. 89. ISBN   0874514258
  10. Marrus, Michael. The Holocaust in History, Toronto: KeyPorter, 2000, p. 90. ISBN   0874514258
  11. Marrus, Michael The Holocaust in History, Toronto: KeyPorter, 2000 pp. 89–90. ISBN   0874514258
  12. 1 2 Marrus, Michael The Holocaust in History, Toronto: KeyPorter, 2000, pp. 90–91. ISBN   0874514258
  13. 1 2 3 4 Marrus, Michael. The Holocaust in History, Toronto: KeyPorter, 2000, p. 90.
  14. Evans, Richard In Hitler's Shadow, New York: Pantheon, 1989 p. 71
  15. Marrus, Michael The Holocaust in History, Toronto: KeyPorter, 2000, p. 91.
  16. Marrus, Michael. The Holocaust in History, Toronto: KeyPorter, 2000, p. 92.
  17. Marrus, Michael The Holocaust in History, Toronto: KeyPorter, 2000 p. 93.
  18. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Snowman, Daniel. "Ian Kershaw", pp. 18–20, from History Today Volume 51, Issue 7, July 2001, p. 19
  19. 1 2 Snowman, Daniel "Ian Kershaw", pp. 18–20, from History Today Volume 51, Issue 7, July 2001, pp. 18–19<!—ISSN/ISBN needed—>
  20. Kershaw, Ian (2015). The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation (5th ed.). London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic (Bloomsbury Publishing Plc). pp. 43, 42–43.
  21. 1 2 "Interview with Ian Kershaw". The Institute of Historical Research. 14 May 2008. Archived from the original on 2 June 2017. Retrieved 9 June 2009.
  22. Kershaw, Ian, The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems & Perspectives of Interpretation, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, pp. 88–89<!—ISSN/ISBN needed—>
  23. Kerhsaw, Ian The Nazi Dictatorship Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation, London: Arnold Press, 2000, pp. 45–46.
  24. 1 2 3 Kershaw, Ian "'Working Towards the Führer' Reflections on the Nature of the Hitler Dictatorship" pp. 231–252 from The Third Reich edited by Christian Leitz, London: Blackwill, 1999, p. 234
  25. 1 2 Kershaw, Ian The Nazi Dictatorship Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation, London: Arnold Press, 2000 pp. 7–8
  26. Kershaw, Ian The Nazi Dictatorship Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation, London: Arnold Press, 2000, pp. 246–247
  27. Kershaw, Ian The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems & Perspectives of Interpretation, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000 pp. 134–137
  28. Kershaw, Ian The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems & Perspectives of Interpretation, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, pp. 154–159
  29. Roman, Thomas (24 October 2002). "Interview with Ian Kershaw". Eurozine. Archived from the original on 22 February 2012. Retrieved 21 June 2007.
  30. Kershaw, Ian The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems & Perspectives of Interpretation, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, pp. 137–139
  31. Kershaw, Ian The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation, London: Arnold Press, 2000, p. 198
  32. Kershaw, Ian The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation, London: Arnold Press, 2000 pp. 198–199
  33. Kershaw, Ian The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation, London: Arnold Press, 2000, pp. 206–207.
  34. Kershaw, Ian The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation, London: Arnold Press, 2000 p. 207.
  35. Kershaw, Ian The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation, London: Arnold Press, 2000, p. 204.
  36. Kershaw, Ian The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation, London: Arnold Press, 2000, pp. 207–216.
  37. Kershaw, Ian The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation, London: Arnold Press, 2000, pp. 215–217.
  38. 1 2 Kershaw, Ian, The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 235
  39. Kershaw, Ian, The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000 p. 254
  40. Kershaw, Ian, The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 255
  41. Kershaw, Ian, The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 258
  42. Kershaw, Ian The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation, London: Arnold Press, 2000 p. 58
  43. Kerhsaw, Ian The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation, London: Arnold Press, 2000, p. 61
  44. Kershaw, Ian Hitler 1889–1936: Hubris, W. W. Norton, New York, 1998 pp. xii–xiii
  45. Kershaw, Ian Hitler 1889–1936: Hubris, W. W. Norton, New York, 1998, pp. xxiii–xxv
  46. Kershaw, Ian Hitler 1889–1936: Hubris, W. W. Norton, New York, 1998, p. xx
  47. 1 2 Lukacs, John The Hitler of History, New York: Vintage Books, 1997, 1998 p. 32
  48. 1 2 3 Kershaw, Ian The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation, London: Arnold 2000 p. 72.
  49. Kershaw, Ian Hitler 1889–1936: Hubris, W. W. Norton, New York, 1998 p. xxvi
  50. Kershaw, Ian Hitler 1889–1936: Hubris, W. W. Norton, New York, 1998 p. xiii
  51. Snowman, Daniel "Ian Kershaw" pp. 18–20 from History Today Volume 51, Issue 7, July 2001 pp. 19–20
  52. 1 2 "Europe's Second Thirty Years War" pp. 10–17 from History Today, Volume 55, Issue # 9, September 2005
  53. Kershaw, Ian Hitler 1889–1936: Hubris, W. W. Norton, New York, 1998 pp. 530–531
  54. "'Improvised genocide?' The Emergence of the 'Final Solution' in the 'Morgenthau" pp. 51–78 from Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Volume 2, December 1992
  55. Kershaw, Ian Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis, New York: W. W. Norton, 2001 p. 927
  56. Kershaw, Ian The Nazi Dictatorship London: Edward Arnold 2000 p. 97
  57. 1 2 Kershaw, Ian Hitler 1889–1936: Hubris, W. W. Norton, New York, 1998 pp. 529–531
  58. Werner Willikens quoted in Kershaw, Ian "'Working Towards the Führer.' Reflections on the Nature of the Hitler Dictatorship."—Contemporary European History (1993): 103–118.
  59. 1 2 Kershaw, Ian Hitler 1889–1936: Hubris, W. W. Norton, New York, 1998 pp. 531–533
  60. Kershaw, Ian "'Working Towards the Führer' Reflections on the Nature of the Hitler Dictatorship" pp. 231–252 from The Third Reich edited by Christian Leitz, London: Blackwill, 1999 pp. 235–236
  61. Kershaw, Ian "'Working Towards the Führer' Reflections on the Nature of the Hitler Dictatorship" pp. 231–252 from The Third Reich edited by Christian Leitz, London: Blackwill, 1999 p. 240
  62. Kershaw, Ian "'Working Towards the Führer' Reflections on the Nature of the Hitler Dictatorship" pp. 231–252 from The Third Reich edited by Christian Leitz, London: Blackwill, 1999 p. 243
  63. Kershaw, Ian "'Working Towards the Führer' Reflections on the Nature of the Hitler Dictatorship" pp. 231–252 from The Third Reich edited by Christian Leitz, London: Blackwill, 1999 p. 244
  64. Kershaw, Ian "'Working Towards the Führer' Reflections on the Nature of the Hitler Dictatorship" pp. 231–252 from The Third Reich edited by Christian Leitz, London: Blackwill, 1999 p. 245
  65. 1 2 Kershaw, Ian "'Working Towards the Führer' Reflections on the Nature of the Hitler Dictatorship" pp. 231–252 from The Third Reich edited by Christian Leitz, London: Blackwill, 1999 p. 246
  66. 1 2 Kershaw, Ian "'Working Towards the Führer' Reflections on the Nature of the Hitler Dictatorship" pp. 231–252 from The Third Reich edited by Christian Leitz, London: Blackwill, 1999 p. 248
  67. 1 2 Rees, Laurence The Nazis: A Warning From History, New York: New Press, 1997 pp. 141–142
  68. Kershaw, Ian "'Working Towards the Führer' Reflections on the Nature of the Hitler Dictatorship" pp. 231–252 from The Third Reich edited by Christian Leitz, London: Blackwill, 1999 pp. 246–247
  69. Kulka, Otto Dov (February 2000). "The Role of Hitler in the 'Final Solution'". Yad Vashem. Archived from the original on 5 June 2011. Retrieved 5 May 2009.
  70. Kershaw, Ian (2001). Hitler, 1936-45: Nemesis. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN   978-0-393-32252-1.
  71. "A life in writing: Ian Kershaw". The Guardian . 11 August 2011. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
  72. Livingstone, Helen (29 April 2013). "70. Geburtstag des Historikers – Ian Kershaw bleibt bei Europas Zukunft skeptisch". Stern (in German). Archived from the original on 9 March 2017. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  73. "British Academy: The British Academy Book Prize – Result of the 2001 Competition". Britac.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 20 June 2007. Retrieved 4 May 2012.
  74. "Professor Sir Ian Kershaw, B.A. (Liv.), D.Phil. (Oxon.), F.B.A." Archived from the original on 24 December 2007. Retrieved 21 April 2008.
  75. "No. 56595". The London Gazette (Supplement). 15 June 2002. p. 1.
  76. "Working Towards the Fuhrer: Essays in Honour of Sir Ian Kershaw", edited Anthony McElligott, Tim Kirk, Manchester University Press, 2004, ISBN   0-7190-6732-4
  77. "Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding". City of Leipzig. Archived from the original on 28 December 2019. Retrieved 18 April 2020.
  78. "Sir Ian Kershaw (2018)" . Retrieved 18 October 2022.

Further reading

On Kershaw

Kershaw interviewed

By Kershaw

Sir Ian Kershaw
Ian Kershaw 2012 crop.jpg
Kershaw at the 2012 Leipzig Book Fair
Born (1943-04-29) 29 April 1943 (age 82)
Oldham, Lancashire, England
Spouse Betty Kershaw
Children2
Parent(s)Joseph Kershaw, Alice (Robinson) Kershaw
Academic background
Alma mater
Thesis Bolton Priory, 1286–1325: An Economic Study  (1969)
Influences
Awards
Preceded by Wolfson History Prize
2001
With: Mark Mazower and Roy Porter
Succeeded by
Preceded bySucceeded by
Preceded by Medlicott Medal
2004
Succeeded by
Preceded by Leipzig Book Award for
European Understanding

2012
Succeeded by