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Born	(1929-06-29)29 June 1929 Wesermünde, Hanover, Free State of Prussia
Died	15 August 2017(2017-08-15) (aged 88) Stuttgart, Germany
Nationality	German
Alma mater	University of Freiburg University of Florida
Awards	Awarded the Geschwister-Scholl-Preis
Scientific career
Fields	Historian
Institutions	University of Kiel University of Stuttgart

Eberhard Jäckel (born June 29, 1929 – died August 15, 2017) was an important German historian. In the 1980s, he was a key figure in the Historikerstreit (Historians' Dispute). This was a big debate about how to understand and write about Nazi Germany and the Holocaust in German history. He also studied what Adolf Hitler's true plans were.

Studying History
Selected Works
See also

Studying History

Eberhard Jäckel was born in Wesermünde, Germany. After World War II, he studied history at several universities. These included Göttingen, Tübingen, Freiburg, Gainesville in the U.S., and Paris in France.

After working as an assistant at the Kiel until 1966, he became a professor. From 1967, he taught Modern History at the University of Stuttgart. He stayed in this job until he retired in 1997.

Hitler's Ideas

Jäckel's first book, "France In Hitler's Europe" (1966), looked at Germany's policy towards France from 1933 to 1945. He became well-known for his 1969 book, "Hitler's Worldview." In this book, Jäckel explored Hitler's beliefs and ideas.

Some historians thought Hitler was just an opportunist, meaning he changed his beliefs to gain power. But Jäckel argued that Hitler had very strong, fixed beliefs. He believed Hitler always acted based on his "race and space" philosophy. This meant he thought the "Aryan race" needed more Lebensraum (living space) and was in a constant fight for survival against the "Jewish race." Jäckel believed everything Hitler did came from these ideas he formed in the 1920s.

Jäckel also suggested that Hitler believed three things made a people "racially valuable":

Knowing who they were (self-awareness).
The kind of leaders they had.
Their ability to fight wars.

For Germany, Hitler thought this meant extreme nationalism, the Führerprinzip (leader principle), and a strong military. Jäckel saw these as Hitler's core beliefs throughout his life. He also believed that Hitler's book, Mein Kampf, was a "blueprint" not just for gaining power but also for mass murder.

Jäckel thought Hitler's ideas grew over time in the 1920s. He noted that Hitler's writings before 1919 were less political. But after 1919, they showed a growing focus on antisemitism (hatred of Jewish people).

The Holocaust: Hitler's Plan

Eberhard Jäckel was a leading "intentionalist" historian. This means he believed that Hitler had a clear, long-term plan to kill Jewish people. He thought this plan existed from about 1924. These ideas led to big debates with other historians who thought the Holocaust happened more due to changing situations during the war.

In the late 1970s, Jäckel strongly criticized the British author David Irving. Irving's book, Hitler’s War, claimed that Hitler did not know about the Holocaust. Jäckel wrote many articles and a book, David Irving's Hitler: A Faulty History Dissected, to challenge Irving. Jäckel argued that Hitler was very much aware of and approved of the Holocaust.

Jäckel pointed to several pieces of evidence:

He argued that if Hitler ordered some Jewish people to be spared, it meant he knew about the larger plan to kill others.
He said that because the "Final Solution" (the plan to kill all Jews) was secret, it was not surprising that some of Hitler's staff might not have known.
He used Hitler's statements in Mein Kampf to show that Hitler always intended to commit genocide.
He noted that Hitler often got involved in small details, so it was unlikely he would not know about something as big as the Holocaust.
Jäckel also used Heinrich Himmler's speeches and Hitler's orders for the Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing squads) as proof of Hitler's involvement.
He highlighted an entry in Joseph Goebbels's diary that seemed to confirm Hitler's "Prophecy" about the Jews coming true.

Irving claimed he had a "lost document" from 1942 that proved Hitler did not want the Holocaust to happen. Jäckel found this document. It was a letter from Hans Lammers (head of Hitler's office) to the Justice Minister, saying Hitler wanted the "Jewish Question" put aside until after the war. Jäckel explained that this document was about divorce laws for Jewish people, not about the mass killings. He argued that Hitler was simply telling the Justice Minister to wait on these specific legal issues, not stopping the overall genocide.

In 1980, Jäckel and Axel Kuhn published a collection of Hitler's writings and speeches from 1905 to 1924. They found that Hitler's personality changed in 1919. Before that, his writings were less political. But from 1919, they showed a growing focus on antisemitism.

The Historians' Dispute

In the Historikerstreit (Historians' Dispute) of 1986-1988, Jäckel was a strong critic of Ernst Nolte. Nolte suggested that Nazi crimes were a reaction to Soviet crimes. Jäckel disagreed, saying Hitler looked down on the Soviet Union and would not have felt threatened by them in the way Nolte suggested. Jäckel argued that Nolte was trying to make a false connection between different historical events.

Later, Jäckel changed his view slightly. He still believed Hitler started the Holocaust, but he thought it was more a series of quick decisions rather than one big master plan from the start. He argued that Hitler began the Holocaust in mid-1941 by playing Himmler against another Nazi leader, Heydrich.

Jäckel believed that while Himmler hated Jewish people, Heydrich was more eager for genocide. He saw it as a way to gain more power from Hitler. Jäckel also pointed out that antisemitism had existed in Europe for centuries without leading to genocide. This meant that hatred alone was not enough to cause the Holocaust; Hitler's specific actions were also needed.

Unlike some historians who saw Hitler as a "weak dictator," Jäckel believed Hitler had "sole rule" and was truly the "master of the Third Reich."

The Holocaust's Uniqueness

A main idea for Jäckel was that the Holocaust was unique. He believed it was different from any other genocide in history. In a 1991 article, he argued against those who said the East German dictatorship was just as bad as the Nazi one.

In 1996, during the Goldhagen Controversy, Jäckel criticized Daniel Goldhagen's book, Hitler's Willing Executioners. Jäckel called it "simply a bad book." Goldhagen's book argued that many "ordinary Germans" were willing participants in the Holocaust. Jäckel, as a historian focused on Hitler's personal role, believed that focusing too much on others might lessen Hitler's unique guilt.

Later Years

In 1988, Jäckel began working with Lea Rosh. Together, they created a four-part TV documentary called Der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland (Death is a Master from Germany). They also wrote a popular book with the same title and received the Geschwister-Scholl-Preis in 1990.

Jäckel and Rosh also led the effort to build a memorial in Berlin for the Jewish people murdered in Europe. This memorial, the Holocaust-Mahnmal, opened in 2005.

In 2006, Jäckel reviewed a book about the 1915 Armenian Massacres. He agreed with the book's idea that massacres happened but not a genocide of Armenians. Some critics disagreed with Jäckel, pointing out that Ottoman troops killed Armenians outside their empire as well.

Selected Works

Frankreich in Hitlers Europa (France in Hitler's Europe), 1966.
Hitlers Weltanschauung (Hitler's Worldview), 1969.
Deutsche Parlamentsdebatten (German Parliamentary Debates), 1970.
Die Funktion der Geschichte in unserer Zeit (The Function of History in Our Time), 1975.
"Litaraturbericht: Rückblick auf die sogenanngte Hitler-Welle" (A Look at the So-Called Hitler Wave), 1977.
Hitler Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen 1905-1924 (Hitler: All Records 1905-1924), 1980.
"Wie kam Hitler an die Macht?" (How Did Hitler Come to Power?), 1980.
Kriegswende Dezember 1941 (Turning Point of the War December 1941), co-edited with Jürgen Rohwer, 1984.
Der Mord an den Juden im Zweiten Weltkrieg (The Murder of the Jews in the Second World War), co-written with Jürgen Rohwer, 1985.
Hitler in History, 1984.
Hitlers Herrschaft. Vollzug einer Weltanschauung (Hitler's Rule: Execution of a Worldview), 1986.
Der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland (Death is a Master from Germany), co-written with Lea Rosh, 1990.
"Une querelle d'Allemands? La misérable pratique des sous-entendus" (A German Quarrel? The Miserable Practice of Insinuations), 1987.
"Die doppelte Vergangenheit" (The Double Past), 1991.
David Irving's Hitler: a faulty history dissected, 1993.
"The Impoverished Practice of Insinuation: The Singular Aspect of National-Socialist Crimes Cannot Be Denied", 1993.
"L'arrivé d"Hitler au pouvoir: un Tschernobly de l'histoire" (Hitler's Arrival to Power: A Chernobyl of History), 1994.
Das Deutsche Jahrhundert Eine historische Bilanze (The German Century: A Historical Balance), 1996.
"The Holocaust: Where We Are, Where We Need to Go", 1998.