Resistance

GERMAR RUDOLF, RESISTANCE IS OBLIGATORYSince only such historians who have proven by a doctoral dissertationthat they are capable of conducting scientific research in historiographyare able to comment competently on the issue of whether mybook satisfies the criteria of scholarship prevalent in historiography, yetthe prosecution cannot claim to have such competence – or rather: sofar they have not produced such evidence, but maybe they will still tryit – the court must concede according to the legal principle in dubio proreo (benefit of the doubt) that my book is scientific in nature unlessproven otherwise.Apparently the prosecution opines that arguments which “cannot berefuted easily” and hence sow “doubts” (p. 29) are for these reasonsparticularly reprehensible, all the more so because I do not argue clumsilyand blusteringly yet “cunningly and subtly.” With reference to myremarks in chapter B.I. (pp. 51f.), I point out that it is exactly the abilityto doubt which sets humans apart from animals and which is thereforethe foundation of our special dignity. Doubt is the beginning of all rationalscience. Penalizing the sowing of doubt, though, is the beginningof the end of all human dignity and of all sciences. It is moreover a decisivecharacteristic of scientific works that they do not argue clumsilyand blusteringly, but skillfully (= cunningly) and by way of differentiating(= subtly). By using decidedly negative adjectives to describe thesescientific characteristics of my book, the prosecution tries to make eventhese features look reprehensible.I may furthermore point out that the indictment contains an internalcontradiction. At the beginning it claims generally and without proofthat my writings “affect the senses and the passions of the reader in anenhanced and intense way” (p. 4). Yet here, by way of a specific example,it says that I would argue “cunningly and subtly.” Both cannot betrue at once, because the one excludes the other.2. QuotesRetroactive Preliminary RemarkOn 10 August 2007, barely five months after the end of my trial, theDistrict Court Mannheim issued a search warrant for my Mannheimprison cell in search of documents proving that I was about to publishthe present defense speech. Hence, on 25 September 2007 I was visitedby several officials from the Mannheim police who confiscated all mytrial documents.153