Victims Organizations and Dynamics of Recognition in West Germany, 1945-1975

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Within the overall approach of the research group this project makes a genuinely historical contribution. Concentrating on post-1945 West Germany and focussing on victims' organizations as actors, it addresses the dynamics of the social, political and cultural recognition of victimhood (related to victims of the Nazi regime and its crimes). The aim of the project is a historical monograph going beyond a mere narration of well known and thoroughly analyzed developments in the realm of compensation and reparation of Nazi crimes and Nazi persecution (now from a victims¿ perspective). Instead, against the background of current developments and research in the field of Transitional Justice in general and of the role of victims in coming to terms with macro criminality, the project is interested in the dynamics of recognition of victimhood. Using West Germany after 1945 as a reference case, it will systematically analyze the dynamics of rivalry between various groups of victims. But concentrating on the role of victims' organizations it will also look at the historicity and the social construction of the concept "victim", the definition and ascription of victimhood. By this token, it will try to further develop our analytical possibilities in this research context.