Eberhard Jäckel (; 29 June 1929 – 15 August 2017) was a German historian. In the 1980s, he was a principal protagonist in the Historians' Dispute (Historikerstreit) over how to incorporate Nazi Germany and the Holocaust into German historiography and over Hitler's intentions.
Career Born in Wesermünde, Hanover, Jäckel studied history at Göttingen, Tübingen, Freiburg, Gainesville, and Paris after World War II. After serving as an assistant and docent at Kiel until 1966, he taught from 1967 and followed Golo Mann as Professor for Modern History at the University of Stuttgart, a position that Jäckel retained until retirement in 1997.
Jäckel's PhD dissertation was turned into his first book around 1966's Frankreich in Hitlers Europa ("France In Hitler's Europe"), a study of German policy towards France from 1933 to 1945. Jäckel first rose to fame through his 1969 book Hitlers Weltanschauung ("Hitler's Worldview"), which was an examination of Hitler's worldview and beliefs. Jäckel argued that far from being an opportunist with no beliefs, as had been argued by Alan Bullock, Hitler held to a rigid set of fixed beliefs and consistently acted from his "race and space" philosophy throughout his career.Lukacs, John The Hitler of History, New York: Alfred Knopf, 1997 page 18 In Jäckel's opinion, the core of Hitler's worldview was his belief in what he saw as the merciless struggle for survival between the "Aryan race" and the "Jewish race" and in his belief that stronger "races" possessed large amounts of Lebensraum (living space).Marrus, Michael The Holocaust In History, Toronto: KeyPorter, 2000 pages 14-15. In Jäckel's view, everything that Hitler did throughout his life stemmed from the beliefs he had adopted in the 1920s.Lukacs, John The Hitler of History, New York: Alfred Knopf, 1997 page 18
Jäckel argued that Hitler felt there were three factors that determined a people's "racial value": its awareness of itself, the type of leadership that it had and its ability to make war.Marrus, Michael The Holocaust In History, Toronto: KeyPorter, 2000 pages 14-15. According to Jäckel, those for Germany meant ultranationalism, the Führerprinzip (Führer Principle) and militarism, and all three were the constants of Hitler's beliefs throughout his life.Marrus, Michael The Holocaust In History, Toronto: KeyPorter, 2000 page 15. In Jäckel's opinion, Mein Kampf is a long rant against the three principles that Hitler saw as the antithesis of his three sacred principles: internationalism, democracy and pacifism.Marrus, Michael The Holocaust In History, Toronto: KeyPorter, 2000 page 15. Jäckel asserted that for Hitler "the originators and bearers of all three counterpositions [were] the Jews".Michael Marrus, The Holocaust In History, Toronto: KeyPorter, 2000 page 15. In Jäckel's view, Hitler in the Zweites Buch of 1928
established for the first time a logical link between his foreign policy conception and his antisemitism. They were synthesized in his view of history. With this, Hitler's Weltanschauung had finally achieved the kind of consistency for which he had groped for a long time.Marrus, Michael The Holocaust In History, Toronto: KeyPorter, 2000 page 15.
In that way, Jäckel argued that Mein Kampf was a "blueprint" not only for power but also for genocide.Marrus, Michael The Holocaust In History, Toronto: KeyPorter, 2000 page 15. Jäckel considered
He [Hitler] had to annihilate the Jews, thus restoring the meaning of history, and with the thus restored, nature-intended struggle for existence, he at the same time had to conquer new living space for the German people. Each of these tasks was inextricably linked to the other. Unless the Jews were annihilated there would very soon no longer be any struggle for living space, nor therefore any culture and consequently nations would die out; not just the German nation, but ultimately all nations. But if, on the other hand, the German people failed to conquer new living space, it would die out because of that and the Jews would triumph.Marrus, Michael The Holocaust In History, Toronto: KeyPorter, 2000 page 15.
Jäckel took the view that Hitler's ideology developed in stages in the 1920s. Jäckel wrote: "It is an important fact that the final completion [of Hitler's ideology], contrary to Hitler's own statements, in 1919 had only begun".John Lukacs, The Hitler of History, New York: Alfred Knopf, 1997 page 18 In addition, Jäckel's book can be seen noteworthy as the first account of Hitler's beliefs written in Germany by someone from the left. (Jäckel joined the SPD in 1967.)Lukacs, John The Hitler of History, New York: Alfred Knopf, 1997 page 18
In regard to the foreign policy debates, Jäckel was a leading "continentalist" and argued that Nazi foreign policy aimed only at the conquest of Eastern Europe, as opposed to the "globalists", who argued that Hitler wanted world conquest.Kershaw, Sir Ian The Nazi dictatorship : problems and perspectives of interpretation London : Arnold 2000 page 137.
Genesis of the Final Solution Jäckel was one of the leading intentionalists in regard to the functionalism versus intentionalism debates. Since the 1960s, he argued on that there was a long-range plan on the part of Hitler to exterminate the Jewish people from about 1924. Those views led to intense debates with functionalist historians such as Hans Mommsen and Martin Broszat. Jäckel dismissed the argument made by Broszat in his 1977 essay "Hitler and the Genesis of the Final Solution" that local officials began the Holocaust on their own initiative under the grounds that there was a
great deal of evidence that some [local officials] were shocked or even appalled when the Final Solution came into effect. To be sure, they did not disagree with it. But they agreed only reluctantly, referring again to an order given by Hitler. This is a strong indication that the idea did not originate with them.Marrus, Michael The Holocaust In History, Toronto: KeyPorter, 2000 pages 44-45.
In the late 1970s, Jäckel was a leading critic of the British author David Irving and his book Hitler’s War, which argued that Hitler was unaware of the Holocaust. Jäckel, in turn, wrote a series of newspaper articles that was later turned into the book David Irving's Hitler : A Faulty History Dissected. It attacked Irving and maintained that Hitler was very much aware of and approved of the Holocaust. Jäckel attacked Irving for claiming that an entry in Heinrich Himmler's notebook saying "Jewish transport from Berlin, not to be liquidated", on 30 November 1941 proved that Hitler did not want to see the Holocaust happen.Jäckel, Eberhard David Irving's Hitler, Port Angeles, Wash.; Brentwood Bay, B.C. : Ben-Simon Publications, 1993 page 21 Jäckel maintained that the order referred only to that train and argued that if Hitler had ordered the people on that train to be spared, it must stand to reason that he was aware of the Holocaust.Jäckel, Eberhard David Irving's Hitler, Port Angeles, Wash.; Brentwood Bay, B.C. : Ben-Simon Publications, 1993 page 21 Jäckel went on to argue that because the "Final Solution" was secret, it is not surprising that Hitler's servants who were ignorant of the Holocaust, and anyhow, five of Hitler's servants interviewed by Irving later claimed that they believed that Hitler was aware of the Holocaust.Jäckel, Eberhard David Irving's Hitler, Port Angeles, Wash.; Brentwood Bay, B.C. : Ben-Simon Publications, 1993 page 22 Jäckel argued that on the basis of Hitler's statements in Mein Kampf, the Führer was always committed to genocide of the Jews and that because Hitler later attempted to execute the foreign policy that he outlined in Mein Kampf, it is a reasonable assumption that Hitler was always committed to genocide.Jäckel, Eberhard David Irving's Hitler, Port Angeles, Wash.; Brentwood Bay, B.C. : Ben-Simon Publications, 1993 page 23 As a sign of Hitler's intentions, Jäckel used Hitler's tendency to involve himself in minutiae to argue that it is inconceivable that Hitler was unaware of the Holocaust.Jäckel, Eberhard David Irving's Hitler, Port Angeles, Wash.; Brentwood Bay, B.C. : Ben-Simon Publications, 1993 page 24 Jäckel used Hitler's "Prophecy Speech" of January 30, 1939 in which Hitler declared:
I shall once again be your prophet: if international Jewry with its financial power in and outside of Europe should manage once more to draw the peoples of the world into world war, then the result will not be the Bolshevization of the world, and thus the victory of Jewry, but rather the total destruction of the Jewish race in EuropeJäckel, Eberhard David Irving's Hitler, Port Angeles, Wash.; Brentwood Bay, B.C. : Ben-Simon Publications, 1993 page 24
Likewise, Jäckel used Himmler's Posen speeches of 1943 and certain other statements on his part in 1944 referring to an "order" from an unnamed higher authority as proof that Hitler had ordered the Holocaust.Jäckel, Eberhard David Irving's Hitler, Port Angeles, Wash.; Brentwood Bay, B.C. : Ben-Simon Publications, 1993 pages 26-27 In the same way, Jäckel noted Hitler's order of 13 March 1941 for the Einsatzgruppen to be re-established for Operation Barbarossa as proof of the Führer's involvement in the Holocaust.Jäckel, Eberhard David Irving's Hitler, Port Angeles, Wash.; Brentwood Bay, B.C. : Ben-Simon Publications, 1993 page 28 Jäckel also argued that the entry in Joseph Goebbels's diary on 27 March 1942 mentioning the Führer's "Prophecy" was coming true was a sign that Hitler had ordered the Holocaust. Jäckel accused Irving of dishonesty in claiming that there was no sign in the Goebbels diary that Hitler knew of the Holocaust.Jäckel, Eberhard David Irving's Hitler, Port Angeles, Wash.; Brentwood Bay, B.C. : Ben-Simon Publications, 1993 pages 30-31 Finally, Jäckel noted the frequent references to the "Prophecy Speech" in Hitler's wartime speeches as a sign that Hitler had ordered the Holocaust.Jäckel, Eberhard David Irving's Hitler, Port Angeles, Wash.; Brentwood Bay, B.C. : Ben-Simon Publications, 1993 pages 31-32
In response to Jäckel's first article, Irving announced that he had seen a document from 1942 proving that Hitler had ordered the Holocaust not to occur but that the document was now lost.Jäckel, Eberhard David Irving's Hitler, Port Angeles, Wash.; Brentwood Bay, B.C. : Ben-Simon Publications, 1993 page 34 Jäckel wrote that he had "easily" discovered the "lost" document in which the head of the Reich Chancellery, Hans Lammers, had written to Justice Minister Franz Schlegelberger that Hitler ordered him to put the "Jewish Question" on the "back burner" until after the war.Jäckel, Eberhard David Irving's Hitler, Port Angeles, Wash.; Brentwood Bay, B.C. : Ben-Simon Publications, 1993 page 34 Jäckel noted that the document concerned was the result of a meeting between Lammers and Schlegelberger on 10 April 1942 concerning amendments to the divorce law concerning German Jews and Mischlinge.Jäckel, Eberhard David Irving's Hitler, Port Angeles, Wash.; Brentwood Bay, B.C. : Ben-Simon Publications, 1993 page 36 Jäckel noted that in 1942, there was a division of labour between the representatives of the Rechtsstaat (law state) and the Polizeistaat (police state) in Nazi Germany.Jäckel, Eberhard David Irving's Hitler, Port Angeles, Wash.; Brentwood Bay, B.C. : Ben-Simon Publications, 1993 page 37 Jäckel argued that for the representatives of the Rechtsstaat like the Ministry of Justice, the "Final Solution" was a bureaucratic process to deprive Jews of their civil rights and to isolate them, and for representatives of Polizeistaat like the SS, the "Final Solution" was genocide.Jäckel, Eberhard David Irving's Hitler, Port Angeles, Wash.; Brentwood Bay, B.C. : Ben-Simon Publications, 1993 page 37