Dictatorships have deeply affected the lives of many people and continue to shape the history of many countries. The Ettersberg Foundation is dedicated to the reappraisal of European dictatorships. The foundation, which was established in 1999 and is based in Thuringia, builds bridges between two worlds that often exist in parallel to each other: the research world with its generalizable conclusions and the everyday world of people with individual stories and lived realities. In short, it means that the Foundation presents research findings in a public-facing way through a range of educational opportunities that speak directly to the widest audience possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Almost all countries in Europe have experienced dictatorship in the recent past \u2014 even if many have forgotten about or supressed it. This is especially true in Germany, where both the history of National Socialism and the SED dictatorship have left an indelible mark. The Ettersberg, near Weimar, which gives the Foundation its name, stands for this dual experience of dictatorship: Under the Nazi dictatorship, the Buchenwald concentration camp was located on the Ettersberg; immediately after the war, it became \u201cSoviet Special Camp No. 2.\u201d This was one of a total of ten special camps in the Soviet occupation zone. In these camps, the Soviet occupiers not only imprisoned Nazi functionaries and war criminals, but also the real and imagined opponents of Soviet occupation rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n