Unwanted: West German Democracy and the Victims of the Nazi Regime

Stefanie Schüler-Springorum’s new study, Unerwünscht: Die westdeutsche Demokratie und die Verfolgten des NS-Regimes, reveals the alarming extent to which anti-Semitism, racism, and hatred toward homosexuals persisted in West German society after 1945.

In her lecture, she describes the experiences of Jewish survivors, Sinti and Roma, former forced laborers, and homosexuals in West Germany during the postwar period. These stories of exclusion cast a shadow on the common perception of the Federal Republic’s successful democratization. The experiences of those formerly persecuted show that the hatred and resentment directed against them were deeply rooted in people’s minds and, in some cases, remain so to this day.

Following her lecture, Stefanie Schüler-Springorum will discuss the findings of her study with Hanno Balz.

Stefanie Schüler-Springorum is a professor at the Technical University of Berlin and director of its Center for Research on Anti-Semitism. Her publications include Krieg und Fliegen. Die Legion Condor im Spanischen Bürgerkrieg 1936–1939 (2010), Perspektiven deutsch-jüdischer Geschichte: Geschlecht und Differenz (2014) and Hans Litten – Anwalt gegen Hitler. Eine Biographie (2022).

Hanno Balz is a historian and cultural studies scholar and has been working as a DAAD visiting scholar at the Duitsland Instituut Amsterdam since September 2025. Prior to that, he taught at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and at the University of Cambridge on behalf of the DAAD.

This event is a collaboration with the Duitsland Instituut Amsterdam.

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Host or Publisher Goethe-Institut Niederlande