The post-Nazi society. The »group experiment« of the Institute for Social Research: indexing, scholarly editing, research

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Stephan Lessenich; Dr.-Ing. Thomas Risse; Professor Dr. Patrick Sahle
• Subject Area: Sociological Theory ; Empirical Social Research
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 559304518

The »group experiment« of the Institute for Social Research (IfS) at the beginning of the 1950s was one of the most elaborate empirical studies in German sociology and demonstrated the fundamental way in which National Socialism – as political ideology as well as everyday practice of individuals – had survived its collapse. This pioneering study, both for further research into the understanding of post-Nazi society and for the development of qualitative methods of empirical social research in general, investigated the spread of democratic attitudes, racism and anti-Semitism. Initially undertaken during the early phase of the transition from Nazi rule to the Federal Republic of Germany it is still enormously topical today. The material on the group experiment has been preserved as project documentation in the IfS archive, but the extensive data, evaluation and publication material on 129 group discussions (20.000 pages) and hundreds of follow-up interviews has not yet been indexed, published or systematically analyzed because serious concerns were expressed about the shocking effects of a complete evaluation and publication of the findings. The project proposed here, is designed as an indexing, scholarly editing and research project lasting a total of twelve years. It pursues two integrated main objectives: 1) The largely unknown content of the group experiment will be made freely digitally accessible in different forms of presentation as a fully and deeply indexed research resource, thus creating a reliable basis for further interdisciplinary research. 2) In dealing with the material and based on the data and technical infrastructure created, interdisciplinary, topic-related research, and publication activities (e.g. in social sciences, political science, linguistics, history and psychology) will be carried out in the project itself. The planned project thus enables research beyond narrow disciplinary boundaries for the first time on the basis of the documents made accessible in the project and also contributes to new findings through its own substantial research. The material made available in the form of a powerful online portal and the supplementary publication of previously unpublished writings represents a decisive expansion of an understanding of post-Nazi society. As a central result of the first of four project phases, a digital edition will provide all materials in facsimile form as well as the discussion transcripts in a conspective presentation.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants