A historical comparison of two violent regimes: Curator Stephan Malinowski on the upcoming exhibition “Controversial Kinship. Colonial and National Socialist Violence”

Controversial Kinship

A historical comparison of two violent regimes: Curator Stephan Malinowski on the upcoming exhibition “Controversial Kinship. Colonial and National Socialist Violence”

17 August 2026 Editors, Stephan Malinowski 8 Min.

What do colonial and Nazi violence have in common? How do they differ? And why has the question of a possible connection between the two remained controversial to this day? Since the 1930s, questions such as these have been debated by anti-colonial thinkers, journalists, politicians, historians, and Holocaust survivors. The exhibition "Controversial Kinship: Colonial and National Socialist Violence", opening on 16 October 2026, examines a historical comparison that has been debated for nearly a century and extends far beyond the discipline of history. As the first exhibition in the world devoted to this subject, "Controversial Kinship" traces the debate over similarities, differences, and equivalence back to its historical origins. The exhibition also examines the problems and limitations of comparisons.

In the video interview, curator Stephan Malinowski talks about the exhibition’s concept and the attempt to contribute to a nuanced discussion based on historical facts:

“The exhibition sets out” he explains in the film, “to relate certain forms of violence that occurred in both cases.” Across all the thematic rooms of the exhibition, an attempt is being made to “identify” the differences and similarities between the two phenomena of violence – “or at least to indicate them” – and to explain why one might consider “placing these very different forms of violence and systems of rule in relation to one another.” The hope, says the historian, is that visitors can learn something from the exhibition at the level of facts and knowledge. “This is linked to the hope that the ideological charge surrounding this debate, which has intensified greatly over the past twenty years, can be brought back, in a more sober form, to factuality – that is, to the facts and realities that can meaningfully be discussed and that one should know before taking part in these debates.”

[Translate to English:] Portrait Stephan Malinowski

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Dr. Stephan Malinowski is Professor Emeritus of Modern European History at the University of Edinburgh and a historian. In 2022, he was awarded the German Non-Fiction Prize for his book “The Hohenzollerns and the Nazis. A History of Collaboration”. He has been teaching again at Freie Universität Berlin since 2025.

Conversation Partner

Editors

Stephan Malinowski

Dr. Stephan Malinowski is the curator of the exhibition “Controversial Kinship. Colonial and National Socialist Violence” at the Deutsches Historisches Museum.

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Controversial Kinship