Ian Kershaw

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Professor Sir Ian Kershaw (born April 29 1943 in Oldham, England) is a British historian, noted for his biographies of Adolf Hitler. Originally trained as a medievalist, Kershaw turned to studying German history in the 1970s. He is a professor at the University of Sheffield where his wife Dame Betty Kershaw also works, and is the leading disciple of the late West German historian Martin Broszat, whose theories have had much influence on Kershaw. He currently teaches the courses on the Nazi State and another module entitled 'Germans against Hitler'.

Contents

1 Bavaria Project
2 Structuralist views
3 Opposition to Weak Dictator Thesis
4 Work
5 References
6 External links
7 See also

Bavaria Project

In the 1970s, Kershaw worked on Martin Broszat's "Bavaria Project", which resulted in his first book on the Third Reich, The 'Hitler Myth'. Image and Reality in the Third Reich which was first published in German in 1980 as Der Hitler-Mythos : Volksmeinung und Propaganda im Dritten Reich. This book examined the "Hitler cult" in Germany, how it was developed by Joseph Goebbels, what social groups the "Hitler cult" appealed to, and how the "Hitler cult" rose and fell.

Also resulting from the "Bavaria Project" was Popular Opinion and Political Dissent in the Third Reich. In this 1983 book, Kershaw examined the experience of the Third Reich at the grass-roots level in Bavaria. In this book, Kershaw scrutinized how ordinary people reacted to the Nazi dictatorship, looking at how people conformed to the regime and to the extent and limits of dissent. In this book, Kershaw concluded that the majority of Bavarians were anti-Semitic and had no sympathy for the Jews. However, Kershaw also concluded that there was a quantum difference between the anti-Semitism of the majority of ordinary people, who merely disliked Jews and the radical anti-Semitism of the Nazi Party, who hated Jews. Kershaw documented numerous campaigns on the part of the Nazi Party to increase the level of anti-semitic hatred. Overall, Kershaw noted that the general popular mood towards the Jews was one of indifference to their fate. Kershaw made the notable claim that "...the road to Auschwitz" was paved with indifference, not hatred.

Structuralist views

Like Broszat, Kershaw is a 'structuralist' and sees the structures of the Nazi state as being far more important than the personality of Hitler, or any other individual for that matter, as explanation for the way Nazi Germany developed. In particular, Kershaw subscribes to the view argued by Broszat and Hans Mommsen that Nazi Germany was a chaotic collection of rival bureaucracies locked into perpetual power struggles with each other. For Kershaw, the real significance of Hitler lies not in himself, but rather in how the German people saw him. Indeed, in his biography of Hitler, Kershaw presented him as the ultimate “unperson”, a boring, pedestrian man devoid of even the “negative greatness” attributed to him by Joachim Fest. Kershaw has no time for the Great Man theory of history, and has criticized those who seek to explain everything that happened in the Third Reich as the result of Hitler’s will and intentions. Kershaw’s biography of Hitler is an examination of Hitler’s power, namely how he obtained it and how he maintained it. Kershaw has argued that Hitler's leadership is a model example of Max Weber's theory of Charismatic leadership.

Opposition to Weak Dictator Thesis

Kershaw has expressed disagreement with Broszat's "Weak Dictator" thesis, namely the idea that Hitler was a relatively unimportant player in the Third Reich, but has agreed with his idea that Hitler did not play much of a role in the day-to-day administration of Nazi Germany. Kershaw's way of explaining this paradox is his theory of "Working Towards the Führer", the phrase being taken from a 1934 speech by a Prussian civil servant. Kershaw has argued that in Nazi Germany, officials of both the German state and Nazi Party bureaucracy usually took the initiative in beginning policy to meet Hitler's perceived wishes. Though Kershaw does agree that Hitler did possess the powers that the "Master of the Third Reich" thesis championed by Karl Dietrich Bracher would suggest, Kershaw has argued that Hitler was a "Lazy Dictator" who really did not have the interest to involve himself much in the daily running of Nazi Germany. The only exceptions were the areas of foreign policy and military decisions, both areas that Hitler increasing involved himself in from the late 1930s on. All other areas of policy-making Hitler had little interest in. In Kershaw's view, Hitler largely left policy-making outside of foreign policy and military matters to his subordinates.

Thus, for Kershaw Nazi Germany was both a monocracy (rule of one) and polycracy (rule of many). Hitler held absolute power, but did not choose to exercise it very much; on a daily basis, the rival fiefdoms of the Nazi state fought each other and attempted to carry out Hitler's vaguely worded wishes and dimly defined orders by "Working Towards the Führer".

Work

His books include:

Bolton Priory Rentals and Ministers; Accounts, 1473-1539, (ed.) (Leeds, 1969)
Bolton Priory. The Economy of a Northern Monastery, (Oxford, 1973)
Popular Opinion and Political Dissent in the Third Reich. Bavaria, 1933-45, (Oxford, 1983, rev. 2002)
The Nazi Dictatorship. Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation, (London, 1985, 4th ed., 2000) ISBN 0340760281
The 'Hitler Myth'. Image and Reality in the Third Reich (Oxford, 1987, rev. 2001). ISBN 0192802062
Weimar. Why did German Democracy Fail?, (ed.) (London, 1990) ISBN 0312044704
Hitler: A Profile in Power, (London, 1991, rev. 2001)
Stalinism and Nazism: Dictatorships in Comparison, (ed. with Moshe Lewin) (Cambridge, 1997) ISBN 0521565219
Hitler, 1889-1936: Hubris, (London, 1998) ISBN 0393320359
Hitler, 1936-1945: Nemesis, (London, 2000) ISBN 0393322521
The Bolton Priory Compotus, 1286-1325, (ed. with David Smith) (London, 2001)
Making Friends with Hitler: Lord Londonderry and the British Road to War, (London, 2004) ISBN 0713997176

References

Working Towards the Führer Essays in Honour of Sir Ian Kershaw, edited by Anthony McElligott and Tim Kirk, Manchester University Press, 2003.
Marrus, Michael The Holocaust in History, Toronto : Lester & Orpen Dennys, 1987.
Snowman, Daniel "Ian Kershaw" pages 18-20 from History Today Volume 51, Issue 7, July 2001.

External links

[Sir Ian Kershaw: Dissecting Hitler]

[Review of Hitler, 1889-1936: Hubris]

[Review of MAKING FRIENDS WITH HITLER Lord Londonderry and Britain’s Road to War]