Norbert Frei
Norbert Frei (born March 3, 1955 in Frankfurt) is a German historian. He holds the Chair of Modern and Contemporary History at the University of Jena, Germany, and leads the Jena Center of 20th Century History. Frei's research work investigates how German society came to terms with Nazism and the Third Reich in the aftermath of World War II. Frei is a member of numerous scientific advisory boards and commissions: From 1996 to 2003 and again from 2018 to the present, he has served on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Fritz Bauer Institute in Frankfurt. From 1999 to 2021 he was Chairman of the Scientific Board of Trustees of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation. From 2000 to 2016, Frei was a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Institute for German History at the University of Tel Aviv. From 2005 to 2017, he was chairman of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Koebner Minerva Center for German History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. From 1999 to 2002, he was a member of the Independent Historical Commission for the Study of the History of Bertelsmann in the Third Reich. Frei was elected as a full member of the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig in 2011.
Two types of challenges. On the past and present of the German culture of remembrance
The development of a self-critical approach to the treatment of the National Socialist past in the Federal Republic of Germany was a difficult, decades-long process repeatedly plagued by scandal, and, at the same time, essential to the development of our liberal democracy. For the past few years, though, this ethic of remembrance, once thought of as firmly established, has once again come increasingly under attack: initially, attacks primarily from right, but more recently from postcolonial critics as well. Are we in danger of forgetting, writ large?
Norbert Frei
Norbert Frei (born March 3, 1955 in Frankfurt) is a German historian. He holds the Chair of Modern and Contemporary History at the University of Jena, Germany, and leads the Jena Center of 20th Century History. Frei's research work investigates how German society came to terms with Nazism and the Third Reich in the aftermath of World War II. Frei is a member of numerous scientific advisory boards and commissions: From 1996 to 2003 and again from 2018 to the present, he has served on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Fritz Bauer Institute in Frankfurt. From 1999 to 2021 he was Chairman of the Scientific Board of Trustees of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation. From 2000 to 2016, Frei was a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Institute for German History at the University of Tel Aviv. From 2005 to 2017, he was chairman of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Koebner Minerva Center for German History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. From 1999 to 2002, he was a member of the Independent Historical Commission for the Study of the History of Bertelsmann in the Third Reich. Frei was elected as a full member of the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig in 2011.
Two types of challenges. On the past and present of the German culture of remembrance
The development of a self-critical approach to the treatment of the National Socialist past in the Federal Republic of Germany was a difficult, decades-long process repeatedly plagued by scandal, and, at the same time, essential to the development of our liberal democracy. For the past few years, though, this ethic of remembrance, once thought of as firmly established, has once again come increasingly under attack: initially, attacks primarily from right, but more recently from postcolonial critics as well. Are we in danger of forgetting, writ large?