Wolfgang Mommsen, 73; German Historian Debated Nazi Crimes

Wolfgang Mommsen, 73, a historian who chronicled Germany’s imperial past and took part in “historians’ battle” over whether the Nazis’ crimes were unique, died Wednesday of a heart attack while swimming in the Baltic Sea off the northeastern German island of Usedom.

His role in a dispute among German academics in the 1980s about the historical context of Nazism and the Holocaust stemmed from publications by several historians who challenged what they portrayed as excessive German guilt about the Holocaust. These historians argued that the death of 6 million Jews at the hands of the Nazis was comparable to mass killings under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

Mommsen and his twin brother, Hans, also a well-known historian, were in a rival camp of academics who criticized what they saw as historical revisionism.

A native of Marburg, Germany, Mommsen taught at the University of Duesseldorf. He led the German Historical Institute in London from 1977 to 1985 and chaired the German Assn. of Historians from 1988 to 1992. Over the last year, he was a fellow at the University of Erfurt in eastern Germany.