Resistance

GERMAR RUDOLF, RESISTANCE IS OBLIGATORYno trouble to teach himself autodidactically the formal criteria essentialfor the exploration of contemporary history. 2For the chemist Rudolf the term “scientific” means: “A result mustbe exact, logical, supported by evidence and free of contradictions”(Vorlesungen, p. 52). Rudolf applies these criteria to his own historiographicworks as well, as far as this is possible. Statements which cannotbe backed up unequivocally he marks as such and keeps a distanceto them, even if they were capable of supporting his line of reasoning(Vorlesungen, p. 54 (Zündel); p. 104, note 168 (Walendy); p. 118 withreference to the entire revisionism). He does not stray from this maximto support factual allegations with verifiable or comprehensible evidence.Assumptions and probabilities are always marked as such; missingsource and the like render an argument incapable of proving anythingin his eyes.Rudolf’s works are labeled as “revisionist” by official historiographyand federal German politics. Interpreted non-pejoratively but instead asa hallmark for an orientation in historical science which wants to reviseestablished positions with new or differently interpreted facts, the defendantconsiders himself to be a “revisionist”; as such he first has todescribe and assess the viewpoint of the “opposite side,” before he triesto refute it with arguments. Rudolf always complies with this minimalrequirement of controversial historical research. In this context counterargumentsare presented without abbreviations distorting their meaning,they are discussed, and in every case verified by me properly referencedbibliographically, so that the reader can check whether arguments havebeen misrepresented or taken out of context (see Vorlesungen, pp. 32-49). In his book Grundlagen Rudolf even went so far as to not onlyquote (or let be quoted) his historical “opponents,” but he sent a preliminarytypescript of this work prior to its printing to a number of Germanhistorians (the then president of the Institute for Contemporary History[Munich] Prof. Dr. Hellmuth Auerbach, Prof. Dr. Michael Wolffsohnand others), politicians (German Chancellor Dr. Kohl, the President ofthe Central Council of Jews Ignaz Bubis) and jurists (General AttorneyKai v. Nehm) with the request to review and assess it, and, where applicable,to submit objections and a legal evaluation (Grundlagen, pp.407–410). Even the feedback can be read there.Both the book Grundlagen and the book Vorlesungen are structuredsystematically and logically. This is true both for the table of contents258