Abstract

The article examines the current state of the historiography on National Socialism, reviewing recent literature in three fields of research: first, the scholarship - especially the studies published by Michael Wildt - that uses the concept of "Volksgemeinschaft" as an analytical tool for understanding political and social mobilization in National Socialism; second, the so-called «research on the perpetrators» ("Täterforschung"), which examines the dynamics of violence through a biographical approach; thirdly, the scholarship that applies the concept of New Statehood ("Neue Staatlichkeit") to interpret the function of administrative structures in the Third Reich. Lastly, the article shows what features these research fields have in common, and places them under critical scrutiny.