The Demons of History. Friedrich Meinecke's Reflexion on the Rise of Nazism.

Aim of this speech is to analyze the concept of "demonic personality", that the historian Friedrich Meinecke presents in his renowned book The German Catastrophe. Such an analysis should bring forth the peculiar aspects of Meinecke's proposal. The paper will then discuss the position of those, like Alexander Abusch, who opposed the concept of "demonic personality". Eventually, it will be shown how the idea of a certain "demonology" of Germany nazi past is present in other historiographical and anthropological works.