Heinrich Brüning Erinnerungen. Historisch-kritische Neuausgabe der »Memoiren 1918–1934« / Heinrich Brüning Memoirs. Historical-critical new edition of the »Memoirs 1918–1934«

Heinrich Brüning’s »Memoirs 1918-1934« were published by Deutsche Verlagsanstalt in 1970, just a few months after his death. The eagerly awaited memoirs of the Reich Chancellor from 1930 to 1932 and last chairman of the German Centre Party triggered a huge response in the media and among historical scholars. The outstanding significance of the memoirs on the Weimar Republic period lay (and still lies) in the depiction of the rapid developments at the beginning of the 1930s, in the interpretation of the decline of the first German democracy and the rise of the National Socialists and their seizure of power by a member of the political elite.

The content of the memoirs, which was perceived as sensational by contemporary witnesses, companions and friends of Brüning as well as historians, soon gave rise to doubts about their authenticity as a source. Since the 1970s, historians have repeatedly called for a new historical-critical edition of the memoirs. After indispensable sources from Brüning’s estate were returned to the Harvard University Archives, this new historical-critical edition of the »Memoirs 1918-1934« was begun and completed with this publication.