Leon Stein, a research associate at the SEAL Research and Documentation Center, has reviewed the volume edited by Thomas Köhler et al., “Polizei und Holocaust. Eine Generation nach Christopher Brownings Ordinary Men" (Paderborn: Brill / Ferdinand Schöningh 2023, XIX + 305 S., 11 s/w-Abb., ISBN 978-3-506-79282-2, EUR 24,90)  the current issue of sehepunkte [26 (2026), Nr. 7/8 [15.07.2026], URL: https://www.sehepunkte.de/2026/07/41006.html].

“Vor mehr als drei Jahrzehnten löste die Hinwendung zu den ‘ganz normalen Männern’ [Christopher R. Browning: Ordinary Men. Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland, New York 1993] und die Frage, was diese zu Massenmördern hatte werden lassen, einen Paradigmenwechsel in der Perzeption deutscher Täterschaft im Holocaust aus - sowohl in der historischen Forschung als auch im kollektiven Gedächtnis. Der Sammelband Polizei und Holocaust ordnet in insgesamt 16 Einzelbeiträgen das einflussreiche Werk des US-amerikanischen Historikers Christopher Browning retrospektiv ein und stellt zudem kontroverse Fragen nach dem gegenwärtigen Stand des Holocaust als moralische Referenz in multiethnischen Gesellschaften.”
[…]
"Mit dem Sammelband "Polizei und Holocaust" liegt eine gelungene Bestandsaufnahme zur Holocaust- und Täterforschung eine Generation nach Ordinary Men vor, die mit ihrer inhaltlichen Breite und Beiträgen von Historikern (und einer Historikerin) aus Deutschland, den USA, Kanada und Israel aktuelle internationale Tendenzen der Forschung auslotet und dem deutschsprachigen Büchermarkt zugänglich macht. Dabei bildet Brownings Forschung einen stetigen Referenzpunkt, die zwar entsprechend gewürdigt wird, jedoch eine substanzielle kritische Auseinandersetzung vermissen lässt."

Leon Stein: Review of: Thomas Köhler et al. (eds.): Polizei und Holocaust. Eine Generation nach Christopher Brownings Ordinary Men, Paderborn: Brill / Ferdinand Schöningh 2023, in: sehepunkte 26 (2026), No. 7/8 [15.07.2026], URL: https://www.sehepunkte.de/2026/07/41006.html

Editorial 

In July 1936, army officers staged a coup against the elected government of the Spanish Republic and brought several cities in the west of the country under their control. The ensuing conflict between the Republican government and the right-wing coup plotters quickly escalated into a civil war, which soon became the subject of foreign interests and massive military intervention by Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union. 

Research into the Spanish Civil War was long dominated by interpretations of the conflict as a ‘war of ideologies’ but has more recently drawn on concepts and perspectives from contemporary interdisciplinary violence studies, as well as on cultural-historical approaches to military and war history. This has led to increasing attention being paid to the violence perpetrated during the Spanish Civil War itself, its internal dynamics and patterns of escalation, and, furthermore, to questions concerning its symbolic and communicative connotations.[KT1]  In contrast, insights from the sociology of conflict or from recent research into the specific dynamics of civil wars – not least the dynamics of radicalisation and escalation rooted in the irreconcilability of the self-positioning of actor groups within the political arena, and the violence perpetrated against the respective ‘political enemies’ – have only been tentatively incorporated into research on the Spanish Civil War. This is particularly surprising given that in the 2000s Brian D. Bunk’s study *Ghosts of Passion. Martyrdom, Gender, and the Origins of the Spanish Civil War (Durham/London 2007) suggested that unresolved issues in Spanish society (the social question, religion, gender roles) had been relevant since the ‘October Revolution of 1934’ (the Asturian miners’ strike/Asturian Commune) and were recognisable in a ‘grammar of violence’ enacted against collective bodies, which was continued in a radicalised and explicit form during the years of the Civil War (and subsequently during the Franco era). The new issue of the Journal of Genocide Studies aims to mark the 90th anniversary of the nationalist coup against the Spanish Republic as an opportunity to stimulate a critical examination of the practices and semantics of violence in the Spanish Civil War, building on current research perspectives. The special issue, curated by Christin Hansen (Trier) and Julia Quast (Paderborn), brings together contributions from recognised experts who critically reflect on the current state of research and knowledge, broadening perspectives on the history of this key event of the 20th century by discussing new aspects of the structures and functions of violence directed against collectives, as well as collectively perpetrated violence, during the Spanish Civil War.

Ariadne June 2026, Issue 82

Of stormy and calm times

On the ‘waves’ in women’s movements

In November 2024, the Archive of the German Women’s Movement (AddF), in collaboration with the Working Group on Historical Women’s and Gender Studies (AKHFG), organised a conference entitled: ‘First, second, third wave? Recent Research on the History of the Women’s Movement in the 19th and 20th Centuries’. By using the ‘wave’ metaphor, which had been evoked in the title, we referred to a very well-known but also controversial concept that Ute Gerhard introduced into German scholarship in the 1990s and which has since become an integral part of the field. Although we had not intended this when announcing the conference – and had merely sought to use the image of waves to highlight different historical periods – the very well-attended event nevertheless sparked an in-depth examination of the ‘wave’ metaphor. It therefore made sense to use this conference as the starting point for this issue of Ariadne, so as to make the topics accessible to those who were unable to attend the event. Thus, waves play a role in all the articles – whether as a frame of reference for situating the activist or topic described, or as an analytical tool for capturing the various time periods under examination. We are particularly delighted that we were able to secure Ute Gerhard’s contribution to take another look at the wave model today. In her article, several decades on, she analyses why it ‘still makes sense to speak of the “waves” of the women’s movement’. The result is an issue of Ariadne that encompasses highly multifaceted and diverse analyses and examples of waves in the women’s movement. No matter whether the wave model was adopted or rejected by the authors, the longevity of the women’s movement, with its demands, methods and analyses, is once again evident here.

In her contribution, Kristin Hansen examines the women’s peace organisation WILPF and challenges the transition from a ‘first’ to a ‘second’ wave, which is often not precisely defined in research. This is because it is considered difficult to apply the wave model of periodisation to the time when the WILPF became active.

Christin Hansen: The Problem with the Waves. A contribution to the discussion on the ‘wave’ metaphor using the example of WILPF in the 1920s and 1930s, in: Ariadne. Forum for Women’s and Gender History (2026), Issue 82, pp. 88–109.

The issue of “abuse” has been at the centre of public debate in Germany for almost two decades now, with the Catholic Church being the main focus of attention. Some important questions – such as how the issue of abuse fits into the broader history of violence in post-1945 German society – have been overlooked. In fact, the abuse of minors and vulnerable individuals, as well as adults, is a widespread phenomenon that cannot be viewed as being confined to the Catholic Church, whether in terms of the accused or the victims. The fact that other sectors of society and institutions – such as the Protestant churches or the world of sport – are also affected raises the question: what is specifically Catholic about the issue of abuse?

In the anthology edited by Nicole Priesching and Frank Kleinehagenbrock, Lena Haase examines the limits of typology (from a historical perspective).

Lena Haase: The Limits of Typology. A critical objection from a historical perspective, in: Nicole Priesching/Frank Kleinehagenbrock (eds.): The Question of Catholic Specificity. Contemporary Historical Studies on Sexualised Violence (Publication of the Commission for Contemporary History, Series C, Vol. 5), Paderborn 2016, pp. 79–104.

The historian Thomas Grotum, a research fellow at the Chair of Modern History and managing director of the SEAL Research and Documentation Centre, has once again been appointed (until the fourth quarter of 2028) as a member of the Advisory Board on Remembrance Work in Rhineland-Palatinate, of which he has been a member since 2019. To provide advice on matters relating to academia, art, culture and education, the Rhineland-Palatinate State Agency for Political Education has, since 2001, appointed the Advisory Board every three years; its role is to advise on the organisation of remembrance work in Rhineland-Palatinate on an academic and memorial-specific basis. It usually meets twice a year.

On behalf of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate, the State Agency for Political Education in Rhineland-Palatinate carries out educational work on National Socialism at the three state-owned memorial sites:

1. At the Rhineland-Palatinate Documentation Centre on National Socialism / Osthofen Concentration Camp Memorial
2. At the SS Special Camp/Hinzert Concentration Camp Memorial
3. At the Gestapo Neustadt Learning Centre

Historians Lena Haase and Lutz Raphael in conversation with Laurens Schlicht

In October 2025, Laurens Schlicht travelled to Trier to speak with Lena Haase and Lutz Raphael. Both are historians currently working on a study into the past of the Diocese of Trier, as part of the diocese’s Independent Review Commission (Unabhängigen Aufarbeitungskommission). As part of their work, Lena Haase and Lutz Raphael have spoken to many people, but above all they have studied numerous files. They are in the rare position of having unrestricted access to all the files of the Diocese of Trier that relate to sexualised violence.

What can be done with such data, how is it found and how can it be analysed? Laurens Schlicht discusses this with Lena Haase and Lutz Raphael. They also explore what the reappraisal of sexual violence might mean from the perspective of historians, but also for society as a whole; how historians proceed when conducting such reappraisals; and what the future of reappraising sexual violence should look like in both national and international contexts.

»Start Podcast (German)

The following abbreviations are used:

• CC – Codex Iuris Canonici, Code of Canon Law = the Church’s code of law.
• UBSKM – Independent Commissioner for Issues Relating to Child Sexual Abuse (Unabhängige Beauftragte für Fragen des sexuellen Kindesmissbrauchs).
• UAK – Independent Review Commission  (Unabhängige Aufarbeitungskommission) − the independent commission established by the Diocese of Trier to work through issues of sexual abuse.

The following institutions and procedures are mentioned:

• Plausibility check – The procedure used by churches to quickly verify the statements of those affected; what is checked is not the truth, but the “plausibility”, i.e. whether the acts described could have happened in that way.

The following studies are mentioned:

• Study on sexualised violence in the Diocese of Münster (started in 2019): Bernhard Frings, Thomas Großbölting, Klaus Große Kracht, Natalie Powroznik. Macht und sexueller Missbrauch in der katholischen Kirche: Betroffene, Beschuldigte und Vertuscher im Bistum Münster seit 1945 (Power and sexual abuse in the Catholic Church: Victims, accused persons and enablers in the Diocese of Münster since 1945). Herder, 2022.
• ForuM study by the Protestant Church “ForuM – Forschung zur Aufarbeitung von sexualisierter Gewalt und anderen Missbrauchsformen in der Evangelischen Kirche und Diakonie in Deutschland” (“ForuM – Research into the investigation of sexualised violence and other forms of abuse in the Protestant Church and Diakonie in Germany” (started in 2020, publication of the final report in 2024).

The following texts are cited:

1. Hockerts, Hans Günter. Die Sittlichkeitsprozesse gegen katholische Ordensangehörige und Priester 1936/1937: Eine Studie zur nationalsozialistischen Herrschaftstechnik und zum Kirchenkampf (The Morality Trials against Catholic Religious and Priests 1936/1937: A Study of Nazi Techniques of Domination and the Church Struggle). Matthias-Grunewald-Verlag, 1971.

The following historical events are mentioned:

• Kirchenkampf − Church struggle: Intensified efforts by the National Socialist regime against the ideological dominance of the churches, 1936/1937; one method was the prosecution of priests on charges of so-called “moral offences”.

Source: cure.uni-saarland.de/2026/03/06/im-archiv-der-sexualisierten-gewalt-gegen-kinder-und-jugendliche/

On 9 March 2026, the 11th presentation of the findings from the research project on the history of the Gestapo in Trier took place at the SS Special Camp/Hinzert Concentration Camp Memorial. The well-attended event focused on biographical approaches to the Nazi era in what is now Rhineland-Palatinate. The event, organised jointly by the Rhineland-Palatinate State Agency for Political Education and the SEAL Research and Documentation Centre at the University of Trier, was attended by representatives of the judiciary (Trier Public Prosecutor’s Office) and the police, as well as colleagues from the Saarland, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Belgium and Rhineland-Palatinate. The biographies of Theodor Eicke (who later became commander of Dachau concentration camp and inspector of concentration camps, and who was involved in the Pirmasens bomb affair prior to 1933), Wilhelm Mäurer (the first head of the Trier State Police Station) and Eugen Wipf (the Swiss camp elder at Hinzert) were presented in lectures during the morning, to be explored in greater depth at three thematic round tables after the lunch break. They focused on the themes “Theodor Eicke – A Life’s Journey into National Socialism”, “The Saar Region under Surveillance (1933/34)” and “Functional Prisoners”. Nils Rath, Ulli Backes and Alisa Alić (represented by Thomas Grotum due to illness) presented a multifaceted picture. The Nazi careers of a “failed individual” (Eicke) and an outstanding lawyer (Mäurer) were contrasted, whilst the grey area between perpetrators and victims (Wipf) was examined.

[Conference programme]

On the occasion of the vernissage of the travelling exhibition "Die Rosenburg", Federal Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection Dr. Stefanie Hubig visited the Palatinate Court of Appeal in Zweibrücken. The travelling exhibition is part of the effort to come to terms with the National Socialist prehistory of the Federal Ministry of Justice. It has been touring the world since 2017 and, after stops in the USA, Israel, and Poland among others, is now visiting Rhineland-Palatinate for the first time.

Following a musical introduction, the President of the Palatinate Court of Appeal, Bernhard Thurn, welcomed those present and emphasised in his address that "we are living in a time in which our democratic foundations are increasingly under pressure". The Justice Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, Philipp Fernis, shared this assessment, stating "that the Basic Law defines democracy as a militant democracy, and that this 'Never Again' enshrined in law must be lived and defended by everyone". In her opening speech, Federal Minister of Justice Dr. Stefanie Hubig warned: "Democracy and the rule of law are under pressure worldwide. Extremist and authoritarian forces are deliberately working to sabotage and discredit the judiciary, parliament, and public administration. In view of these dangers, engaging with German history remains particularly important. With the Rosenburg travelling exhibition, we are making a statement − against forgetting and in favour of the continuous remembrance of National Socialist injustice in the judicial system and of continuities in legal personnel from the Nazi dictatorship to the early Federal Republic." Guests then heard further performances by the trio "Les Musiciens du duc Christian" from the Zweibrücken Music School, featuring music by the composer Hans Gál, who himself suffered under the unlawful rule of the National Socialists. In addition, a lecture by Dr. Thomas Grotum on the topic of "Heinrich Welsch − The Career of the Former Attorney General at the Zweibrücken Court of Appeal" provided an opportunity to reflect on the attitudes and actions of leading figures in the Zweibrücken judiciary at the Herzogschloss during the Nazi era.

Further information:
Following a musical introduction, the President of the Palatinate Court of Appeal, Bernhard Thurn, welcomed those present and emphasised in his address that "we are living in a time in which our democratic foundations are increasingly under pressure". The Justice Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, Philipp Fernis, shared this assessment, stating "that the Basic Law defines democracy as a militant democracy, and that this 'Never Again' enshrined in law must be lived and defended by everyone". In her opening speech, Federal Minister of Justice Dr. Stefanie Hubig warned: "Democracy and the rule of law are under pressure worldwide. Extremist and authoritarian forces are deliberately working to sabotage and discredit the judiciary, parliament, and public administration. In view of these dangers, engaging with German history remains particularly important. With the Rosenburg travelling exhibition, we are making a statement − against forgetting and in favour of the continuous remembrance of National Socialist injustice in the judicial system and of continuities in legal personnel from the Nazi dictatorship to the early Federal Republic." Guests then heard further performances by the trio "Les Musiciens du duc Christian" from the Zweibrücken Music School, featuring music by the composer Hans Gál, who himself suffered under the unlawful rule of the National Socialists. In addition, a lecture by Dr. Thomas Grotum on the topic of "Heinrich Welsch − The Career of the Former Attorney General at the Zweibrücken Court of Appeal" provided an opportunity to reflect on the attitudes and actions of leading figures in the Zweibrücken judiciary at the Herzogschloss during the Nazi era.

Opening hours for visiting the travelling exhibition:
Monday to Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Friday, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Additional dates:
9–10 January 2026
6–7 February 2026
6–7 March 2026
Fridays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Links:
Travelling Exhibition: www.bmjv.de/rosenburg
Flyer Rosenburg Zweibrücken

Text: https://olgzw.justiz.rlp.de/presse-aktuelles/detail/die-bundesministerin-der-justiz-und-fuer-verbraucherschutz-dr-stefanie-hubig-zu-gast-beim-pfaelzischen-oberlandesgericht-zweibruecken

Commemorating the victims of National Socialism

Interview: Why Women Experienced the Holocaust Differently from Men

Hunger, humiliation, and violence had to be endured by all those imprisoned in concentration and labour camps. Yet women experienced the horror differently from men.

SWR-Aktuell | 27.1.2026 | 16:14 Uhr | 10:04 Min.

By: Jeanette Schindler

The Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament commemorates the victims of National Socialism every year on 27 January. And this year, for the first time, the focus is on the women who were persecuted and murdered. SWR Aktuell spoke about this with historian Dr. Lena Haase from the University of Trier. She has been researching the Nazi women's camp in Flußbach in the southern Eifel for more than ten years.

SWR Aktuell: Dr. Haase, for a long time the persecution of women during the Nazi era received hardly any attention. It was not until the women's movement in the 1980s that the public began to ask: what was it actually like for persecuted women, what did they experience? You have researched more than 1,800 women's fates — was there a common thread, an experience shared equally by all these women? 

Dr. Lena Haase: It is difficult to identify one single common thread. But I would pick up on what you just mentioned in your introduction − namely that women were simply not a focus for a very long time, neither in research nor in public discourse. It is very typical that after 1945, regardless of what roles women previously played during the Nazi era, they largely returned to their original roles, often as housewives and mothers. They stepped back behind the men once again.

[Read more in German]

Listen to the radio report

Korinna Schönhärl and Caren Sureth-Sloane 

Taxation and Tax Justice — A Conversation

LINK» https://ethik-und-gesellschaft.de/ojs/index.php/eug/article/view/3760

in: ethik und gesellschaft. ökumenische zeitschrift für sozialethik Nr. 2 (2025): Die andere Seite der sozialen Gerechtigkeit: Eine gerechtere Finanzierung steigender öffentlicher Ausgaben 

From the perspectives of business economics and history, the two scholars discuss why it is so difficult to define what constitutes fairness in taxation. Together they consider where the problems of the German tax system lie and how these problems might be addressed with regard to the system's fairness. In doing so, both the differing starting points and the areas of overlap − where solutions can be sought and found − become apparent.