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Voices & Positions Controversial Kinship

Perspectives and Positions. Interview with Stefanie Middendorf on the comparison between colonialism and national socialism

9 October 2026 7 Min.

Debates about the similarities and differences between colonial violence and Nazi rule have carried on since the 1930s and continue to the present day. Rooted in the fields of history, the social sciences, and cultural studies, these debates shape political discourse, media coverage, art, and the cultures of remembrance. The discussion focuses on questions of continuity, discontinuity, and comparability.

The interviews with experts as part of the exhibition “Controversial Kinship. Colonial and National Socialist Violence” present a range of perspectives and positions in the debate. Historian Stefanie Middendorf, Humboldt University of Berlin, talks about her perspective on the comparison in a video interview: 

“I believe that, beyond the public interest in this comparison and beyond the public debate, from a historical and academic perspective, the most important reason, in my view, for comparing these two systems of violence is the historical, epochal context in which they are situated, that is, the history of European colonialism, its colonial expansion, its conflicts, its crises, and also, in a way, its ultimate failure in the 20th century. And National Socialism, the National Socialist regime of violence, is part of this epochal context.”

[Translate to English:] Portrait Stefanie Middendorf
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Conversation Partner

Portrait Stephan Malinowski
Stephan Malinowski

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

Stefanie Middendorf

Stefanie Middendorf is a historian at the Humboldt University in Berlin.

References

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