National Socialism and Latin America

This project was concerned with the history of the IAI between 1933 and 1945 and with the question of whether and how leading staff cooperated with the National Socialist Party and governmental officials. It also examined relations with Latin America in the Nazi era, viewing them in the context of both intellectual history and the academic exchange between Germany and Latin America in the first half of the twentieth century. Further, project participants studied the reverberations of these relations beyond this period. 

One outcome of the project was the publication in 2003 of the collection Ein Institut und sein General: Wilhelm Faupel und das Ibero-Amerikanische Institut in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus (An Institute and Its General: Wilhelm Faupel and the Ibero-American Institute in the Age of National Socialism). In May 2004 the institute held a conference entitled "Der Nationalsozialismus und Lateinamerika: Institutionen, Repräsentationen, Wissenskonstrukte” ("National Socialism and Latin America: Institutions, Representations, Knowledge Constructs"). The findings were published in the Ibero-Online (external link, opens in a new window) series. In June 2005 the IAI co-organized the international symposium “Urbane Erinnerungskulturen: Berlin und Buenos Aires” (“Urban Cultures of Remembering: Berlin and Buenos Aires”). Numerous events at the IAI were devoted to describing and analyzing various facets of the relationship between Latin America and National Socialism. (Project coordinator: Dr. Sandra Carreras)