Standing Still Double-Time
The Fate of the Rathenau Archive
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
For almost five decades after the Second World War, the archive of former German Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau was considered lost. Then, in 1992, it was discovered in a Moscow archive. Ever since, the German government has been trying to get it back. To this day, it has not been possible to bring Russia to return the archive. Furthermore, for some time, negotiations over the return of other kinds of looted art have amounted to nothing more than marking time. At least one of the causes for this standstill is to be found in the German side’s refusal to negotiate realistically with Russia and, instead, to insist on principles.
(Osteuropa 1-2/2006, pp. 131–140)