Limits of integration - The CSU (Christian-Democratic-Union) and the question of dealing with the National Socialist past - The case of Dr. Max Frauendorfer

The fact that innumerable National Socialists in elite positions were able to pursue their careers after 1945 has been continually criticised. Till no w relatively little about the course of integration has been understood and even the question of its limits has hardly been posed, even though answers to it could help to come to terms with a central problem of German postwar history. How could democracy take root in a society strongly shaped by Nat ional Socialism? Such questions are at the very heart of this documentation which aims to show that the democratic state's readiness for integration c ame to an end when representatives of the NS elite became politically ambit ious and dared to seek elective public office. When they did, the mechanism which up to then had made possible their social and professional rehabilit ation frequently lost its protective character. How this complex process wo rked in an individual case is shown by the political ambition of Dr. Frauen dorfer who had made a dubious career in the Third Reich as "Reichsschulungs leiter" of the NSDAP, as the president of the "Hauptabteilung Arbeit" in th e so-called "Generalgouvernement" and as "Obersturmbannfuhrer" of the SS, a nd who had, between 1957 and 1963, repeatedly sought a seat in parliament a s a member of the CSU. From this case study, one can see not only how the c onfrontation with the NS past in the second decade of the postwar period ch anged, but also can discern what motives were decisive in the leading circl es of a conservative party for supporting or fundamentally rejecting someon e with a questionable political past.