ABSTRACT
In order for historians to reappear in court as experts, their field of expertise had to become an undisputed matter of legal interest. This development was cryptically anticipated by Friedrich Nietzsche in his 1873 book On the Use and Abuse of History for Life: “A person must have the power and from time to time use it to break a past and to dissolve it, in order to be able to live. He manages to do this by dragging the past before the court of justice, investigating it meticulously, and finally condemning it.” Nietzsche’s concept materialized in the aftermath of the Second World War in ways the author would probably have found much too literal. At least since Nuremberg, quite substantial elements of the past have been “dragged before the court of justice,” as courtrooms are being increasingly perceived as the places to right the wrongs of the past by addressing historical injustices.
