On 14 December 2021 we met with Frank Nonnenmacher. In our interview we talked about his campaign for people who were persecuted as »asocials« and »career criminals« to be officially recognised as victims of National Socialism, and also about the life of his uncle, Ernst Nonnenmacher, who was persecuted as an »asocial«.
Frank Nonnenmacher, social scientist and professor emeritus at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, founded an initiative with four other German and Austrian academics that provided the impetus for the Bundestag resolution that was passed in 2020. In 2014 he also published a dual biography of his father Gustav and Gustav’s brother Ernst.
Even before the interview we anticipated that it would cover a wide range of topics because Frank Nonnenmacher was talking to us in his various roles: as a political activist and an academic, but equally as a relative. At the end of the interview, which lasted several hours, we asked Frank Nonnenmacher to pick up the photo of his uncle Ernst and to take a look at it. This was initially only intended to produce additional film sequences which might be required at a later stage in the editing process. However, his lengthy contemplation of the photo created an unexpectedly emotional moment, a moment in which he was above all a relative.
In our interview Frank Nonnenmacher talked to us in detail about the efforts of the initiative to secure official recognition for this category of victims. What forms of resistance did the initiative encounter? How did the public and politicians responds to the demands set out in the petition? He also reported on his family’s interaction with his uncle and memories of him.
To watch the edited interview together with an interview with Dagmar Lieske, another member of the group that initiated the resolution, go to Timeline, »Disavowal 1945-2020«, and click on the section »From a petition to a Bundestag resolution«.
Merle Stöver