Historical science and politics during the Century of Intellectuals. Karl Dietrich Erdmann and the liberal-conservative modernisaton of West Germany

该研究项目的目的是研究西德历史学家卡尔·迪特里希·埃德曼（Karl Dietrich Erdmann）的知识分子传记，他的出版物自20世纪90年代以来一直处于史学争议的中心。就20世纪50年代至80年代这一时期而言，埃德曼可以被列为西德最重要的历史学家之一。在这一阶段，他的公开干预引起了广泛的反响，在西德史学重建的过程中，他也处于重要地位。由于他在国际历史科学委员会中的崇高地位，也由于他的临时主席，他建立了广泛的国际学术网络。他在国外受到很高的尊敬，在他那一代人中，这是相当不寻常的。在他的学术工作的基础上，也由于他的多方面的政治和宗教活动，埃德曼设法施加了相当大的影响，西德的政治文化超过三十年。该研究项目旨在通过将其嵌入到更广泛的知识，社会和代际背景在西德国分析埃德曼的职业和个人生涯。为了实现这一目标，传记将集中在三个主要领域：科学，政治和公众。一方面，这将导致调查的连续性和变化，埃德曼的思想和写作的职业生涯跨越了所有的政治制度，从帝国德国的联邦共和国。另一方面，重点将引导人们关注历史解释与不断变化的政治和社会环境之间的相互作用。针对这种纠结，本研究将探讨作为公共知识分子的埃德曼如何以及为何能够在如此长的时间内引起公众的广泛反响。对该项目的第一轮评估得出的结论是，这项工作应被列为具有高度学术重要性的工作之一，它有助于满足许多学术兴趣。它是基于广泛的来源，将采取诉诸思想史和世代研究的概念进行分析。

The aim of the research project is to study the intellectual biography of the West-German historian Karl Dietrich Erdmann whose publications have stood at the center of a historiographical controversy since the 1990s. With regard to the period between the 1950s and 1980s, Erdmann can be ranked as one of West-Germanys foremost historians. In this phase, his public interventions met with a wide echo, and he was also in a prominent position when the reconstruction of West German historical sciences came underway. Due to his elevated position in the Comité International des Sciences Historiques and also due to his temporary chairman he established a wide reaching international academic network. He was held in high esteem abroad to an extent which was rather unusual for the members of his generation. On the basis of his academic work, but also in consequence of his manifold political and confessional activities, Erdmann managed to exert a considerable influence on West Germanys political culture over three decades. The research projects aims to analyze Erdmans professional and personal career by embedding it into wider intellectual, social and generational contexts in West Germany. To achieve this, the biography will focus on three major fields: science, politics and the public. On the hand this will lead to an inquiry into continuities and changes in Erdmann's thinking and writing whose professional career spanned all political systems form Imperial Germany to the Federal Republic. On the other hand, the focus will direct the attention on the interplay between historical interpretations and a constantly changing political and social environment. With regard to this entanglement, the study will probe into the question how and why Erdmann as public intellectual managed to evoke a considerable public echo for such a long time. The first-round evaluation of the project came to the conclusion that this undertaking should be ranked as one of high academic importance and that it serves to satisfy many academic interests. It is based a broad range of sources which will be analyzed by taking recourse to concepts of intellectual history and generational research.