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German Historians on Frontlines of Politics

Jamie Dettmer

   Historian Jens-Christian Wagner was stunned when he received a
   telephone call this month from the public prosecutor's office in the
   northern German town of Göttingen: He was being investigated for
   defaming the Wehrmacht, Nazi Germany's army.

   The prosecutor told Wagner he had received a 27-page complaint against
   him and was taking the defamation allegations seriously. The complaint
   was about a book Wagner published last year to accompany an exhibition
   at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp detailing the role of the
   Wehrmacht in the Holocaust and how Nazi Germany's armed forces had
   committed crimes against humanity during World War II.'¯

   "He said he was starting an investigation against me for alleging
   'dishonorable facts to the detriment of the Wehrmacht soldiers.' I
   could only think he had no knowledge of German history. The prosecutor
   seemed oblivious to the ridiculousness of the complaint," Wagner told
   VOA. '¯

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