The project builds on the the increasing interest in the topic of how the highest federal and state authorities dealt with people’s Nazi pasts. The project is not, however, limited to one particular institution, as is usually the case: For the first time, the overall context of a state government, both functionally and in terms of personnel, will be taken into account from the heads of ministries down to the level of policy implementation. As the only sizable German state able to maintain its territorial and administrative continuity after 1945, Bavaria is a particularly suitable area of investigation to that end. The study will first analyze career paths, individual influences, and personnel policy. It will, secondly, look into administrative practice, guiding ideas, and routine procedures. And thirdly, it will investigate how the different groups of actors interpreted their past(s) and what internal as well as public reckonings were connected to this. This approach systematically interlinks perspectives involving actors, actions, and perceptions. This makes it possible to rethink what a “Nazi past” indeed entails, prying the category away from a mere reduction to formal criteria such as membership in National Socialist organizations. The selection of areas for closer examination has generally fallen on subjects in which the individual German states (Länder) had jurisdiction. In this way, the research project meets the requirements of the sociopolitical need for academically sound answers, while also entering new territory with a potential for innovation in the field of contemporary history.