Norbert Elias et l'Allemagne nazie
In: Studia politica: Romanian political science review ; revista română de ştiinţă politică, Band 5, Heft 4, S. 903-915
In one of his latter works, Stüdien über die Deutschen (Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am
Main, 1989), Norbert Elias, the famous sociologist of Jewish-German origin
(b. Breslau 1897, d. Amsterdam 1990), defends the thesis that it is both possible
and necessary to understand and explain Nazism and the extermination of
Jews. Whether it is by Elias's own theory of social exclusion, or by his modified
version of historical sociology that examines the German habitus and collective
identity (or lack thereof), the author agrees that "to understand and explain"
would in fact summarize the mission of sociology, which must thus contribute
to avoiding other Nazisms and other genocides. Or this preventive task cannot
be achieved by the mere recollection and condemnation of history.
