ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a somewhat new perspective on the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG's) criminalisation of negationism. The first landmark that has to be addressed is an amendment that created the crime 'incitement of the people' as §130 of the criminal code, and which became effective on 4 August 1960. Despite the intentions of both coalition and opposition to create a separate Holocaust negation offence in the criminal code, eventually an amendment was approved that modified the legal situation on a procedural level only, becoming effective on 1 August 1985. Now, prosecution would be initiated not only in cases of negation of the Holocaust and Nazi crimes, but also when crimes of another 'violent and arbitrary dominance' were negated. The chapter analyses the instances in context in order to identify constants, similarities and differences between them, and in the significance that was attributed to the Holocaust and its negation in respective times.
