Martin Sabrow
Der Antifaschismus der “veteran communists” am Beispiel Erich Honeckers
[The Anti-Fascism of the “Veteran Communists”: The Case of Erich Honecker]
In my talk, I attempt a biographical longitudinal study of Erich Honecker, spanning from the Saar struggle and the period of illegality in the 1930s, through his time in prison before 1945, and throughout the period of existence of the GDR, up to his final statements after 1989. The title of my contribution could also have been: “Honecker’s Anti-Fascism: Reflections on the Unity of Conviction and Ritual.”
Martin Sabrow was director of the Leibniz Center for Contemporary History in Potsdam (ZZF) and professor of modern and contemporary history at Humboldt University in Berlin. In February 1993, Sabrow received his doctorate from the University of Freiburg with a dissertation on the 1922 assassination of the German Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau. In 2000, he earned his habilitation with a dissertation on historical scholarship in the GDR from 1949 to 1969. In December 2004, he was appointed professor of modern and contemporary history at the University of Potsdam and director of the ZZF. In May 2009, Sabrow accepted a position at Humboldt University in Berlin, where he taught until his retirement in 2021. From 2013 to 2021, Sabrow served as spokesperson for the Leibniz Research Alliance on Historical Authenticity, and since 2021 he has been spokesperson for its successor alliance, The Value of the Past. Since 2022, he has been a Senior Fellow at the ZZF.