Contemporary History Podium 2017: Research into the Nazi Era and the Cultural Turn

With the “Contemporary History Podium”, the Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte introduces a new format for discourse. It is designed to host discussions on fundamental questions of contemporary historiography from multiple points of view. The first Podium is dedicated to the topic “Research into the Nazi Era and the Cultural Turn”. Four recognised experts from three countries, namely Frank Bajohr (Head of the Center for Holocaust Studies at the Institute for Contemporary History Munich – Berlin), Neil Gregor (Professor of Modern European History, University of Southampton), Johann Chapoutot (Professor of German History at the Université Paris-Sorbonne – Paris IV) and Stefan Hördler (Director of the Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp Memorial Site) analyse the influence of one of the most important and diverse methodological trends in the humanities on a core area of contemporary history, research into the Nazi era. The debate focuses on the question which new horizons of understanding, but also which limitations culturalism offers in a research field, in which terror, war, and mass murder are of central importance. The debate will be continued with a discussion event at the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich and at the VfZ-Forum of the journal’s homepage.