Profiteers of Nazism after 1945: A Comparison of Property Control and Material Denazification in Hamburg and Munich

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Kirsten Heinsohn
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: from 2018 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 411804355

We request the extension of the current DFG project by 9 months. The project is researching the handling of private and corporate assets of functionary elites incriminated by the Nazis from May 1945 to the end of the 1950s. Due to their responsible position in the Nazi system of rule, the former functionary elites belonged to the group of people for whom the Allies ordered asset control immediately after the end of the war. All political leaders of the NSDAP from the local group leader upwards, leading functionaries of the subsidiary organisations and branches, as well as all members of the Gestapo and security police, but also senior civil servants, supervisory board and executive board members of industrial companies and banks were affected. The project examines the extent to which Nazi burdens and legacies had a material impact on the post-war biographies of the persons concerned in politics, administration and business. Since the period from 1945 to 1949 is considered to be of "crucial importance" for the distribution of wealth in the Federal Republic of Germany, the study will focus primarily on the post-war period. However, due to ongoing disputes over property law aspects, the period under investigation extends to the end of the 1950s. The aim is to draw conclusions for the dynamics of the socio-economic transformation of local elites in the transition from National Socialism to democracy from the course and effects of property control and material denazification.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. Frank Bajohr