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Das Elend der Industriearbeiter im 19. Jahrhundert verstärkte den Ruf nach sozialer Gerechtigkeit und schürte die Angst vor einer Revolution. Preußen führte daraufhin als erste europäische Großmacht eine progressive Einkommensteuer ein. Mit ihr begann die Revolution der Gleichheit und der Übergang zur sozialliberalen Gouvernementalität, die auch Erfolge zeitigte. So nahm die seit Jahrhunderten wachsende Ungleichheit nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg erstmals ab. In seiner großen Studie zeichnet Marc Buggeln die spannende Geschichte der Steuerpolitik nach und zeigt, dass die progressiven Steuern stets umstritten geblieben sind. Mit dem Siegeszug des Neoliberalismus stehen sie erneut im Zentrum gesellschaftlicher Verteilungskämpfe.

AbstractGötz Aly's bookHitler's Beneficiariesconsiders the Nazi regime an "accommodating dictatorship." According to Aly, the majority of the population benefited from the Nazis' war. He sums up Nazi tax policy under the headings "Tax Breaks for the Masses" and "Tax Rigor for the Bourgeoisie." This perspective represented progress in that, until then, tax policy had not featured in any of the major historical overviews of National Socialism. For a more in-depth assessment of Nazi tax policy, however, it must be compared against the tax policies of Germany's wartime enemies. I compare tax policies in Germany, Britain, and the United States and show that Aly's theories do not hold. They are neither consistent with the declared intentions of those who imposed these policies nor with the results as reflected in the relevant statistics.

Walter Scheidel: Nach dem Krieg sind alle gleich: Eine Geschichte der Ungleichheit. Darmstadt: wbg Theiss in Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft (WBG) 2018. 978-3806238198

Heide Gerstenberger: Markt und Gewalt: Die Funktionsweise des historischen Kapitalismus. Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot 2017. 978-3-89691-125-4

In 1944 most concentration camp prisoners were not interned in the main camps but in subcamps. These subcamps were erected near important armament production sites, where the work power of the prisoners was needed. The conditions in these subcamps were sometimes even more terrible than in the main camps. In historiography, the phrase 'extermination through work' is often used in order to describe the subcamps. However, newer studies show that conditions differed enormously between camps. For this reason it is necessary to compare the conditions in the different subcamps systematically. My article discusses the reasons for the differences that have been put forward so far. Afterwards I show that an exploration of the subcamps of Neuengamme leads to somewhat different results, and I argue that, therefore, the phrase 'extermination through work' should be used more cautiously.

The author discusses the question of whether concentration camp prisoners can be characterized as slaves during the period of their intensified exploitation as forced labourers in the German war economy after 1942. Recent research has negated this question. This finding rests, however, primarily on the fact that the form of slavery practised in the southern United States was chosen as a reference system and that certain differences are posited as too absolute. The author analyses differences and similarities in selected subject areas between slavery as it was practised in the American South and the forced labour demanded of concentration camp prisoners. Subsequently, an attempt is made to explain the apparent differences and similarities from a global-historical perspective, and hypotheses towards a history of slavery in the age of globalization are elaborated. The goal here is to criticize the central positioning of slavery in the American South as the normative slavery system and to raise once again the question of the various forms of unfree labour under capitalism.