Federal Minister Joschka Fischer has appointed an independent commission of historians with a remit to examine the role of the Foreign Service during the National Socialist era, how its members perceived and portrayed this role after the reestablishment of the Foreign Office in 1951 and how much continuity or otherwise existed with the pre-1945 Foreign Service.
The following historians have been appointed to serve on the commission:
Professor Eckart Conze, Marburg University
Professor Norbert Frei, Jena University
Professor Klaus Hildebrand, Bonn University
Professor Henry A. Turner, Yale University
Professor Moshe Zimmermann, Hebrew University Jerusalem.
The Commission will start by evaluating relevant research and formulating the issues to be explored. This will take place in the form of a colloquium, to which additional recognized experts in the field are to be invited.
The Commission, which includes both internationally renowned German academics and two distinguished historians from abroad, will enjoy full independence and act on its own authority. Its findings are to be published.
