Keynote address on the occasion of the opening of the thirty-sixth conference of German historians in Trier, October 8, 1986

Discusses the meaning of the dispute about the relationship to the past, especially to the years 1933-1945. The farther we get from these events, the more the gap opens up: with every passing day the number of people who want to have nothing to do with these crimes grows, as does the number of people who do not understand why they are members of a marked people.