Viertes Reich“

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Viertes Reich“ 5. EXKURS Nationalsozialisten im Nahost-Exil bei Born und Koeppen Negativer Kulturtransfer und „Viertes Reich“ I Eines der vielversprechenden Gebiete gegenwärtiger interkultureller und interdis- ziplinärer Arbeit ist die Forschung zur Verflechtung der Kulturen. Kulturtransfers zwischen Regionen und Kontinenten vollziehen sich seit Menschengedenken, aber in der Ära der Globalisierung haben sie zeitlich eine Beschleunigung und räumlich eine Expansion erfahren. In den Forschungen zum Kulturtransfer ist bisher durchweg die Rede von zivilisatorisch bedeutsamen Diskursübernahmen.1 Weniger geht es um den Blick auf die sinistren Seiten der Kultur, etwa um den Transfer nationalsozialistischer Ideologie und Aktivität in nicht-europäische Weltregionen. Der aktuelle Gedächtnisdiskurs in Deutschland vergegenwärtigt die Verbre- chen des Nationalsozialismus während des Kriegs und im Holocaust. Die Diskus- sion um die Gestaltung von Denkmälern und Erinnerungsorten ist international und beschäftigt Schriftsteller, Wissenschaftler aller geistes- und sozialwissen- schaftlichen Fächer, Städteplaner, Architekten und nicht zuletzt die Politiker.2 Dabei ruft man jedoch fast ausschließlich jene zwölf Jahre zwischen 1933 und 1945 in Erinnerung, als der Nationalsozialismus in rascher Folge seine Phasen vom rauschhaften Aufstieg über den kurzen Triumph bis zum totalen Niedergang durchlief. Vergessen wird, dass führende Nationalsozialisten zu Tausenden nach Kriegsende in die unterschiedlichsten Länder entkamen und im Dienst anderer Staaten tätig wurden, ohne dass sie ihre politische Einstellung hätten revidieren müssen. Über diese nationalsozialistische Kontinuität über das Kriegsende hinaus 01 Michael Werner, „Maßstab und Untersuchungsebene. Zu einem Grundproblem der vergleichen- den Kulturtransfer-Forschung“. In: Nationale Grenzen und internationaler Austausch. Studien zum Kultur- und Wissenschaftstransfer in Europa, hg. v. Lothar Jordan und Bernd Kortländer (Tübin- gen: Niemeyer, 1995), S. 21-33. Im gleichen Band: Bernd Kortländer, „Kultur- und Wissen- schaftstransfer in Europa“, S. 1-19. Vgl. ebenfalls: Michael Werner (Hg.), De la comparaison à l’histoire croisée (Paris: Seuil, 2004); Peter Burke, Kultureller Austausch (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2000); Ortrud Gutjahr, „Interkulturalität: zur Konjunktur und Bedeutungsvielfalt eines Begriffs“. In: Germanistik als Kulturwissenschaft. Eine Einführung in neue Theoriekonzepte, hg. v. Claudia Benthien und Hans Rudolf Velten (Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 2002), S. 345-369. 02 James Young, Formen des Erinnerns. Gedächtnisstätten des Holocaust . Wien: Passagen, 1997). 222 III. VON DEN 1970ER ZU DEN 1990ER JAHREN hat es keine zusammenhängende öffentliche Debatte gegeben und die histori- schen Recherchen dazu sind spärlich. Zahllose Nationalsozialisten – besonders Angehörige der SS – begannen seit Ende 1944, sich nach Südamerika, Afrika3 und in arabische Staaten abzusetzen, in Länder, die man zur Zeit des Kalten Krieges der sogenannten Dritten Welt zu- rechnete.4 Die meisten der Alt-Nazis änderten ihre Identität und wanderten mit gefälschten Pässen aus. In den Nachkriegsjahren gab es sowohl im Vatikan wie in englischen und amerikanischen Regierungskreisen Gruppen, die NS-Kriegsver- brechern die Flucht aus Deutschland ermöglichten. Das hatte mit der Situation des Kalten Krieges zu tun, in der man glaubte, bei antikommunistischen National- sozialisten Verbündete in der Abwehr des Stalinismus und der sowjetischen Ex- pansionspolitik zu finden. In den Zufluchtsländern war man meistens über die Herkunft der Flüchtlinge informiert, doch hatten sie durchweg keine Verfolgung zu gewärtigen, weil der nationalsozialistischen Herrschaft und ihrer Ideologie schon während des Krieges Sympathien bezeugt worden waren. Das „Großdeut- sche Reich“ hatte eine aktive Infiltrationspolitik in den lateinamerikanischen und arabischen Ländern betrieben. Über die deutschen Botschaften und Konsulate hatten Joachim von Ribbentrop und Joseph Goebbels große Teile der politischen Eliten jener Länder für die NS-Ideologie und die Politik Hitlers gewinnen kön- nen. Man erhoffte sich in den südamerikanischen Staaten nach einem Sieg Hit- lers eine Schwächung des US-amerikanischen Einflusses, und die arabischen Län- der glaubten, sich mit Hife der Deutschen der kolonialen Dominanz Englands und Frankreichs entziehen zu können. So wurden die „alten Nazis“ – die zum Teil noch recht jung waren – als Gleichgesinnte willkommen geheißen. Man ver- 03 Über den ehemaligen SS-Arzt Horst Schumann in Ghana gibt es einen nicht-fiktionalen auto- biographischen Bericht von Hans Werner Richter, „Die Auslieferung“, in: H.W.R.: Reisen durch meine Zeit. Lebensgeschichten (München: Hanser, 1989), S. 87-114. Schumann war in Auschwitz als Mediziner an sogenannten „Menschenversuchen“ beteiligt gewesen. Richter beschreibt hier, wie er 1961 von Simon Wiesenthal gebeten wurde, sich bei einem Besuch in Ghana für die Aus- lieferung Horst Schumanns an Deutschland einzusetzen. Richter besuchte damals in Accra, der Hauptstadt Ghanas, eine internationale Anti-Atom-Konferenz. Bei einer Audienz mit dem Gha- nischen Staatspräsidenten Kwame Nkrumah brachte Richter sein Anliegen vor, und Nkruhma versprach, Schuhmann in wenigen Wochen an die Bundesrepublik Deutschland ausuzliefern. Das geschah aber nicht, im Gegenteil wurde Schumann mit einer wichtigen Verwaltungsfunkti- on im medizinischen Bereich Ghanas betraut. Erst als Nkrumah 1966 gestürzt wurde, musste Schumann das Land verlassen. In Deutschland wurde er inhaftiert und ein Gerichtsverfahren ge- gen ihn eröffnet, das aber wegen seiner Hinfälligkeit unterbrochen wurde. 1972 wurde er wegen seiner Krankheit aus dem Untersuchungsgefängnis entlassen. Er starb 1983 in Frankfurt am Main. Offenbar hatte Nkrumah eine Schwäche für Altnazis, denn er stellte Hanna Reitsch als seine Pilotin ein und ließ sie eine Segelflugschule aufbauen. Vgl. Hanna Reitsch, Ich flog für Kwame Nkrumah (München: J.F. Lehmanns Verlag, 1968). 04 Ignacio Klich, „Nazis in der dritten Welt. Ein unbeendeter Krieg“. In: taz (Magazin). 19.3.1984, S. 10-11. Der Beitrag erschien erstmals im Juli 1983 auf Französisch in Le Monde Diplomatique. Zum allgemeinen Kontext des hier behandelten Themas siehe Marcel Atze: „Unser Hitler“. Der Hitler-Mythos im Spiegel der deutschsprachigen Literatur nach 1945 (Göttingen: Wallstein, 2003). Vgl. dazu auch die Rezension dieses Buches von Paul Michael Lützeler. In: Gegenwartsliteratur 3 (2004): 306-309..
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