Summary of the impact

Through his research on Nazi Germany and on the causes of the Holocaust Professor Peter Longerich has made a substantial contribution to CULTURE and to PUBLIC DISCOURSE internationally. He addresses globally important and controversial questions, including the relationship between anti-Semitism and the commission of mass murder, and the degree of responsibility born by Germany as a nation for the Holocaust. His work has been debated in high profile media forums, such as Der Spiegel and Die Zeit.

Longerich's research has also led to impacts on both CIVIL SOCIETY and POLICY MAKING in Germany, for example through his appointment as the chair of the Independent Expert Committee on Anti-Semitism, an advisory group established by the German government, and on EDUCATION: in 2011 he was commissioned to help design a public `document centre' focused on the history of National Socialism in Munich.

Underpinning research

Peter Longerich is an historian of world renown. He was appointed as a member of academic staff in Royal Holloway's German Department, now part of the School of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures, in 1993. His research focus on the history of National Socialism and the Holocaust is of unique importance, and the significance of his work is acknowledged both by historians and the wider public in Europe and beyond. His research is distinguished through a particular depth of knowledge, evident in the evaluation of an extraordinary range of primary sources, and through Longerich's ability to synthesize these into a highly readable form, with clearly drawn and often provocative conclusions. His landmark study Politik der Vernichtung (1998), now comprehensively revised in an English edition (Holocaust (2010)), attempts to do justice to a complex phenomenon and challenge simplifications, for example the assumption that the Holocaust was an inevitability once the Nazis had attained power and the expectation that a definitive single `moment', in which Hitler's genocidal `final solution' was decided upon, could and should be identified by historians. His most recent work, such as his biographical studies Himmler (2008) and Goebbels (2010), has further developed this approach, making extensive use of little- known primary sources, such as the minutes recorded at the daily meetings of high-ranking officials, the documentation held by the numerous offices of the Nazi Party, reports from contemporary media, letters and diaries.

Longerich's work offers a consistent and persuasive line of argument in which anti-Semitism is interpreted as an ideology that was of central, underpinning importance to National Socialism, and which was fundamental to the formation and delivery of politics and policy (Politik) under Hitler, including the decision to go to war, the attempt to drive Germany (and the spurious notion of `Germandom' (Deutschtum)) eastwards, and the eventual emergence of a practice of mass-murder as a `solution' to the `problem' of a Jewish population for which there was no place in the `utopian' vision of a future German empire. The range of issues explored in his work, which also relates to questions of `guilt', complicity and knowledge, and national identity, themes that are most directly addressed in his `Davon haben wir nichts gewußt' (2006), is of ongoing and vital relevance in an age of continued social tensions and political conflict. Longerich's wide-ranging and prolific scholarship has produced a body of research that has addressed all of these and more, meticulously and in depth. It is original both in its uncovering of uncomfortable truths relating to forms of collective guilt and responsibility, and in the precision of its scrutiny of the lives, personalities and careers of high-ranking Nazis such as Himmler and Goebbels, the historical reality of whom has sometimes become obscured by their notoriety and by myths.

References to the research

Key Single-authored monographs by Longerich:

The above outputs are with internationally known publishers with the highest reputation for scholarly excellence. Rigorous peer review is naturally an essential part of their publication procedures. Siedler, a subsidiary of Random House, is a specialist publisher of non-fiction. OUP is amongst the world's leading academic publishers. Piper is a long-established publisher of both popular and scholarly books.

Details of the impact

Professor Longerich is co-chair (together with Dr. Juliane Wetzel, TU Berlin) of the Unabhängiger Expertenkreis Antisemitismus (Independent Expert Committee on Anti-Semitism), commisioned by the German Parliament in 2008 to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht. The Committee was commissioned to produce an unprecedented, detailed account of the extent, nature and effects of anti-Semitism in German society today, and to advise on possible strategies for combating it and for further promoting Jewish life in Germany. This report (more than 200 pages in length) was completed in October 2011 and discussed at a cabinet meeting of the German government on 2 November 2011. It was presented and recommended to the German Parliament (Bundestag) on 23 January 2012. Its findings include the claim that `latently' anti- Semitic attitudes, discernible in different ways in as much as 20% of the German population, remain deeply ingrained in mainstream German society. The report argues that previous strategies have failed in part because they lacked co-ordination and a clear understanding of what constitutes `anti-Semitism' and recommends that a co-ordinated strategy for dealing with anti-Semitism be introduced and put into practice across a spectrum of social strata, including the justice system, the police, the education system, politics, and sport. It was the subject of a full parliamentary debate on 17 October 2012. The report includes at its conclusion a detailed account of suggested measures to prevent anti-Semitism, a number of which, in areas such as education and sport, are now being acted upon. In this way Longerich's body of research, which demonstrates the ways in which an ideological position such as anti-Semitism, if left unchallenged, can come to exercise a malign influence, often indirectly, throughout a society, has led to a very concrete impact on a crucial area of policy making and on civil society in one of Europe's major nations.

Longerich has acted as an external advisor (member of the Wissenschaftlicher Beirat) to the City of Munich in the planning of a `Document Centre on Nazism in Munich'. Longerich's work on National Socialism is underpinned by his particular expertise in the administrative documents that the Nazis were often meticulous about. A particular achievement of his authoritative studies of the subject, evident in their bibliographies, has been their use of relevant primary sources that are often scattered widely across Europe and the USA, and held in many different public and private collections. He has thus been very well placed to advise on the design concept of a major, publicly funded, specialised archival resource in Germany. The Centre is currently being built by the City, to the recommendations made by Longerich and his fellow advisors, in conjunction with the State of Bavaria und the Federal Republic of Germany, and is scheduled to open in 2014. The finalized plan to which Longerich and the advisory team have contributed is binding for the work of the Centre, which will include a permanent exhibition, learning facilities and a pedagogical service.

This is an example of Longerich's body of research leading to an impact on the commissioning, design and realisation of a major educational project designed to improve the wider public's understanding of historical and political issues.

Longerich's major publications have been translated into several languages and have been very widely reviewed in popular (non-academic) media around the world. In the German-speaking world, his publications have prompted major features in high-circulation publication such as Die Zeit and Der Spiegel. This degree of public awareness of his research forms the basis for his frequent invitations to comment on matters relating to history and society, to deliver public lectures, to appear on radio and television programmes, to act in advisory roles for television documentaries, and to give interviews in newspapers and other public contributions. These activities amount to a significant form of cultural impact. An example of this type of activity saw Longerich as an invited keynote speaker, alongside the European Commissar for Science and Israel's Minister for Education, at the launch of the EHRI project (European Holocaust Research Institutes Network), November 2010. The event was attended and reported on by representatives of the European news media.

Sources to corroborate the impact

1. Online source corroborating the existence of the report produced by the Unabhängiger Expertenkreis Antisemitismus for, and then published by the German parliament: http://dipbt.bundestag.de/dip21/btd/17/077/1707700.pdf
2. Online source corroborating the impact on policy making in Germany: Official announcement, on the website of the Bundestag, of the parliamentary debate on 24 October 2012: http://www.bundestag.de/dokumente/textarchiv/2012/40935282_kw42_sp_antisemitismusbericht/
3. Online source corroborating the impact of Longerich's research on the design and concept of the planned NS-Dokumentationszentrum in Munich: http://www.ns-dokumentationszentrum-muenchen.de/zentrum?set_language=de
4. The website of EHRI: http://www.ehri-project.eu/events. This page provides full details of speakers at the launch event alongside the full text of Professor Longerich's keynote address.

Media Coverage:

The web pages listed below provide a representative range of examples of the range of the impact of Longerich's work in the public sphere:

5. Media coverage in Germany of Professor Longerich's work for the work of the Expert Committee on Anti-Semitism, including an article in the daily newspaper Tageszeitung on 9/11/2011: http://www.taz.de/Expertenbericht-zum-Antisemitismus/!81527/
6. The Journal The Atlantic named Holocaust as one of the best 20 books published in the year 2010: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/12/books-of-the-year/8323/#
7. The Journal Le Point named Himmler (French edition 2010) as one of the best 20 books published in 2010: http://www.lepoint.fr/livres/heinrich-himmler-de-peter-longerich-24-11-2010-1266606_37.php
8. Prompted by the publication of Himmler, the leading political and cultural magazine Der Spiegel published an extensive feature on Himmler (the cover story with accompanying DVD) on 3 November 2008. The DVD included an interview with Professor Longerich. The weekly circulation of this edition of Der Spiegel was 1.2 million. See: http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-61822072.html
9. Prompted by the publication of Goebbels, Der Spiegel published an extensive feature on Goebbels (the cover story with accompanying DVD) on 22 November 2010. The DVD included an interview with Professor Longerich. The weekly circulation of this edition was 1.3 million. See: http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-75261467.html
10. On 28/7/2011 Germany's leading weekly news, politics, and cultural newspaper Die Zeit published an interview with Professor Longerich in which he reflected (in an impact arising from Davon haben wir...) on the public knowledge of the Holocaust during the Third Reich: http://www.zeit.de/2011/31/Peter-Longerich-Interview.