9 January 2023// Stephan Malinowski (Edinburgh): A quarrel about the emperor’s beard? On the pros and cons of the Hohenzollern debate
The material demands placed on the public purse by the “head of the House of Hohenzollern” since the start of the 1990s initially developed into an abstruse controversy between experts. Since 2019, overlapping historical, legal, political and journalistic angles have fueled a heated debate. The legal point of departure – whether and to what effect a certain Prussian prince had supported National Socialism – quickly flared up into an emotionally charged dispute that was fought out in comedy shows, specialist publications, historical seminars, high-school exams, on CNN and in the New York Review of Books. It has since even caught the attention of film makers. This lecture highlights various players and periods in a dispute that goes back over a hundred years and is far from over.What part does modern historical scholarship play in explaining the world? This is the key question addressed by the Munich History Lectures.
This series of lectures seeks to highlight exactly what historical teaching does to help us understand the pressing problems of today and tomorrow and make use of this information. It probes the historical pathway of pivotal developments in the emergence of the modern world. Examples include the foundations of modern Europe and globalization, changes in the forms taken by war and peace, the conditions surrounding prosperity and economic crises, the causes of mass crimes and genocides, and the formation of mulilateral regimes and orders. Pre-eminent and internationally renowned historians from Germany and abroad will stake out their position on these issues.
Introduction: Professor Andreas Wirsching
For more information about this event (in German only), please visit LMU’s Historical Seminar website.