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Martina Steber
Herbert Butterfield, National Socialism und German Historiography
Keywords: Butterfield und der Nationalsozialismus, Rezeption Butterfields in der Bundesrepublik, Das wissenschaftliche Werk Butterfields
For all of his life, the British historian Herbert Butterfield saw himself as the advocate of German historiography in Great Britain. It was precisely the examination of the German historiographical tradition as well as German contemporary history and politics that shaped Butterfield′s theoretical thinking on history. Ultimately, this formed Butterfield′s Christian-conservative philosophy of history of the late 1940s and 1950s, which lead him to deliberations on the theory of totalitarianism. In the young Federal Republic, Butterfield′s theses were received eagerly and also outside of the field of historiography, as their apologetic tendency fit into the climate of the politics of memory in the 1950s. This paper focusses on this German-British “dialog of historians” and thereby points towards the European dimension of the history of the historiography of the 20th Century.
Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag
Print ISSN: 0042-5702
Volume: 55, 02/2007
Pages: 269 - 307