Fascism’s Lingering: Regime Change and Moral Reckoning

In this talk, historian Dagmar Herzog discusses her project examining transcripts of 121 focus-group conversations conducted by the Institute of Social Research in Frankfurt/Main in 1950-51. Participants—Germans who had lived through the Third Reich—were prompted to discuss their opinions on Jews, Hitler, and democracy. This material has remained largely overlooked since the 1950s, when Theodor Adorno and his team were astonished by the lasting impact of Nazi ideologies on the German psyche. They were struck by how strongly participants held onto extreme claims and how, often creatively, they deflected any sense of guilt for Jewish suffering. Through her study, Herzog aims to recover theories developed by Institute staff as they sought to interpret the profound moral damage caused by twelve years of fascism—theories that remain strikingly relevant today.