The Hannah Arendt Institute for Totalitarianism Studies (
German: Hannah-Arendt-Institut für Totalitarismusforschung, abbreviated HAIT) is a
research institute hosted by
Dresden University of Technology and devoted to the
comparative analysis of
dictatorships. The institute focusses particularly on the structures of
Nazism and
Communism as well as on the presuppositions and consequences of the two
ideological dictatorships. The institute is named after the German-American philosopher and political scientist
Hannah Arendt, whose magnum opus The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951) is considered across disciplines as one of the most influential works of the 20th century and continues to shape in particular scholarly discussions of
totalitarian systems of political domination.[2][3]
The initiative for establishing the HAIT originated in the nearly 60-year, double dictatorship experience of
Eastern Germany and in the Enlightenment-driven
Peaceful Revolution of 1989/90, and goes back to former
civil rights activists who, as members of the
Saxon State Parliament, brought about an Act of Parliament setting up the institute in November 1991. The institute began operation on June 17, 1993, under the direction of the historian of Eastern Europe
Alexander Fischer [
de].[4]
Research profile
In keeping with the entirety of Hannah Arendt's work, research activities[5] of the institute named after her – the HAIT – focus on the
comparative analysis of
dictatorships while also reflecting on the historical and political conditions of
liberal-democratic polities. In accordance with the institute's statutes, the systematic study of political, social and cultural developments during the
Nazi and
SED dictatorships lies at the heart of its work. Particular attention is devoted to the analysis of
opposition and
resistance to these two German dictatorships of the 20th century. In addition, international as well as intertemporal comparative perspectives on other
fascist and
state-socialist regimes belong to the research programme, as does analysis of the political, economic and social transformations in the
post-Communist countries after 1989. The institute also devotes research to current challenges and dangers faced by
democracy, in particular from
autocratic and
fundamentalist regimes as well as
extremist,
racist and
anti-Semitic attitudes and movements.
In line with these perspectives, work at the HAIT currently breaks down into five fields of research:
A central part of activities at the HAIT lies in conveying, in accordance with the institute's statutes, its own research results to the general public. In keeping with this endeavour, continual collaboration occurs with various
memorial sites, organisations supporting
historical and political education,
teacher training institutions, schools and players from
civil society, who regularly avail themselves of the institute's range of services in
consulting,
continuing education and
lectures.
Publications
In the classical
print media segment, the range of publications from the HAIT comprises an
academic journal[6] as well as four
academic book series,[7] in part published in collaboration with co-operation partners. In March 2020 HAIT has started curating his own
science blogDenken ohne Geländer [″Thinking Without a Banister″],[8] and in September 2020 it has launched its own
Twitter channel@HAIT_TUD. In addition, the institute makes available several
databases focussing on contemporary history to the academic research community.
The series Schriften des Hannah-Arendt-Instituts [″Writings from the Hannah Arendt Institute″] has appeared since 1995 – originally at
Böhlau Verlag, and since 2004 at Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht – and serves the publication of comprehensive research results in the history of
Nazism,
Communism and the
transformation after 1989, as well as research on the manifestations of political
extremism throughout history and in the present day. The 66 volumes published to date (status: December 2020) comprise both
monographs and
conference documentation.
The series Berichte und Studien [″Reports and Studies″] appearing since 1995 – originally published by the institute, and starting in 2004 by
V&R unipress – contains studies of narrower scope tied to the institute's programme and devoted to
German and
(Eastern) European regional history and political extremism in Saxony. The series currently comprises 84 monographs and
anthologies (status: December 2020).
The series Wege der Totalitarismusforschung [″Pathways of Totalitarianism Research″] has been published since 2009 by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht and disseminates foundational works in
totalitarianism studies which, either out of print or forgotten, have in part also remained neglected. The five volumes published so far (status: December 2020) are devoted to pertinent work by
Richard Löwenthal,
Jacob Talmon,
Aleksander Hertz,
Aurel Kolnai and
Luigi Sturzo.
The database on the Saxon
NSDAPdaily newspaperDer Freiheitskampf [
de] [″The Struggle for Freedom″],[9] under development at the HAIT since 2017 as part of the joint project Virtual Archive for Research in the Humanities,[10] itself coordinated by the
Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities, allows
open access searching of data and events pertaining to the regional history of National Socialism in the newspaper collection comprising around 66,000 pages. Subject and person indexing is based on the
Integrated Authority File and place identification based on the
Index of Places in Saxony [
de]. So far the period of 1930 through 1937 has been released (status: December 2020), with further years through 1945 to become successively available following processing. In co-operation with the
Saxon State and University Library Dresden (SLUB) work is currently in progress on providing greater open access (in the past full text digital copies were viewable merely via
user access at workstations of the SLUB or Institute library) as well as further digital options.
The database for Film Censorship in East and West,[11] work on which began at the institute in 2016 in co-operation with the
DEFA Foundation [
de], contains standardized information on all approximately 630 East German films from
DEFA and
Deutscher Fernsehfunk examined between 1954 and 1966 by the
Interministerial Committee on East-West Film Issues [
de] by order of the
(West) German Federal Government. The freely accessible online search tool offers, among other things, access to the individual investigatory decisions along with argumentation.
The databases on Judgements of the Soviet Military Tribunals, developed at the HAIT as part of a research project[12][13] supported as of 1998 by the
Federal Ministry of the Interior and by the
German-Russian Historians' Commission [
de], are based on both Russian and German sources pertaining to the altogether over 55,000 recorded
proceedings against German civilians and members of the military. The standardised information on SMT activities comprises, among other things, names of the persons concerned, grounds for judgements, sentences and release dates, and if necessary can be individually requested or even researched at a workstation in the institute library.
Earlier research projects[14][15][16][17] on the Peaceful Revolution in Saxony led at the institute to the creation of a database containing around 1,400 files, each with multiple scanned archived documents and documenting, in chronological order, the
1989–90 political developments of all groups of the population in the former GDR districts
Dresden,
Leipzig and
Karl-Marx-Stadt. Access is available locally on request at a workstation of the institute library.
Institute library
The HAIT maintains its own
special library,[18] with currently around 53,800 volumes (status: January 2024) available to both the academic community and the general public for
use on site. The collection areas are largely geared to the institute's research specialisations. Priority is accordingly given to literature on the history of
National Socialism, the history of the
Soviet Occupation Zone/
GDR, the history of the
transformation after 1989 and on
dictatorships and political
extremism in Europe. Comprehensive holdings of around 550 pertinent
journals and
newspapers are also available.
Evaluation
In March 2019 an expert committee appointed by the
German Council of Science and Humanities and headed by
Caspar Hirschi [
de] conducted an
evaluation that found the institute to be an ″important driving force for research in contemporary history and political science″ that has made ″valuable and indispensable contributions to both academic support of the
remembrance of
victims of the Nazi dictatorship and the SED regime and of
political education in Saxony in general″.[19][20]
Committees and people
The HAIT has the legal form of a
registered association, with
juridical persons governed by private or public law – such as the
Free State of Saxony, represented by the Saxon State Ministry for Science, Culture and Tourism – serving as members with
voting power. According to its
statutes,[21] management of the association falls to a chairperson officially designated as the ″director”, who conducts ongoing business and is assisted by his or her two deputies. The director is appointed by the board of trustees in consultation with the Academic advisory council for a term of five years after having been proposed by a joint search committee of
Dresden University of Technology and HAIT. He or she is also holding a regular
professorship at Dresden University of Technology. The
Board of trustees supervises the fulfilment of association's duties in conformity with the statutes. It consists of seven members with voting power, who as representatives of various institutions designated in the statutes are elected or appointed for a term of five years. The
Academic advisory council advises the board of trustees and the director on all significant academic matters. It has between five and nine members with voting power, each of whom is appointed for a term of five years by Dresden University of Technology,
Leipzig University or by the board of trustees in consultation with the director.
Hans Vorländer – deputy chairperson, Dresden University of Technology (since 2014)
References
^"Jahresbericht 2019"(PDF; 2.3 MB). hait.tu-dresden.de (in German). Retrieved 2021-01-12.
^Backes, Uwe (2007). "Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism…". In
Kailitz, Steffen (ed.). Schlüsselwerke der Politikwissenschaft (in German). Wiesbaden: VS Verlag. pp. 8–12.
ISBN978-3-531-14005-6.
^Rensmann, Lars (2016). "Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism…". In Salzborn, Samuel (ed.). Klassiker der Sozialwissenschaften: 100 Schlüsselwerke im Portrait (in German). Wiesbaden: Springer VS. pp. 187–192.
ISBN978-3-658-13212-5.
^Henke, Klaus-Dietmar (1999). "Hannah-Arendt-Institut für Totalitarismusforschung e. V. an der TU Dresden". In Mählert, Ulrich (ed.). Vademekum DDR-Forschung: Ein Leitfaden zu Archiven, Forschungseinrichtungen, Bibliotheken, Einrichtungen der politischen Bildung, Vereinen, Museen und Gedenkstätten (in German) (2 ed.). Opladen: Leske + Budrich. pp. 359–360.
ISBN3-8100-2326-4.
^Hilger, Andreas; Schmidt, Ute; Wagenlehner, Günther, eds. (2001). Sowjetische Militärtribunale. Volume 1: Die Verurteilung deutscher Kriegsgefangener 1941–1953 (in German). Cologne/Weimar/Vienna: Böhlau.
ISBN3-412-06701-6.
^Hilger, Andreas;
Schmeitzner, Mike; Schmidt, Ute, eds. (2003). Sowjetische Militärtribunale. Volume 2: Die Verurteilung deutscher Zivilisten 1945–1955 (in German). Cologne/Weimar/Vienna: Böhlau.
ISBN3-412-06801-2.
^Richter, Michael; Sobeslavsky, Erich (1999). Die Gruppe der 20: Gesellschaftlicher Aufbruch und politische Opposition in Dresden 1989/90 (in German). Cologne/Weimar/Vienna: Böhlau.
ISBN3-412-06499-8.
^Urich, Karin (2001). Die Bürgerbewegung in Dresden 1989/90 (in German). Cologne/Weimar/Vienna: Böhlau.
ISBN3-412-06801-2.
^Richter, Michael (2004). Die Bildung des Freistaates Sachsen: Friedliche Revolution, Föderalisierung, deutsche Einheit 1989/90 (in German). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
ISBN3-525-36900-X.
^Richter, Michael (2009). Die Friedliche Revolution: Aufbruch zur Demokratie in Sachsen 1989/90 (in German). Vol. 2 Volumes. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
ISBN978-3-525-36914-2.
Ansprachen zur Eröffnung des Hannah-Arendt-Institutes am 17. Juni 1993 (in German). Dresden: Self-publishing. 1993.
OCLC1050551780.
Richter, Michael (1996). "Das Hannah-Arendt-Institut für Totalitarismusforschung. Ein Kind der 'Wende'". In Timmermann, Heiner (ed.). Diktaturen in Europa im 20. Jahrhundert – der Fall DDR (in German). Berlin: Duncker & Humblot. pp. 721–730.
ISBN3-428-08957-X.
Barkleit, Gerhard; Richter, Michael (1999). "Das Hannah-Arendt-Institut für Totalitarismusforschung an der TU Dresden". In Timmermann, Heiner (ed.). Die DDR – Politik und Ideologie als Instrument (in German). Berlin: Duncker & Humblot. pp. 37–48.
ISBN3-428-09553-7.
Zehn Jahre Hannah-Arendt-Institut für Totalitarismusforschung e. V. an der Technischen Universität Dresden (in German). Dresden: Self-publishing. 2003.
ISBN3-931648-44-3.
Schneider, Horst (2004). Das Hannah-Arendt-Institut im Widerstreit politischer Interessen (in German). Berlin: Spotless.
ISBN3-933544-96-3.