Der Sonderweg vor Gericht.

The article discusses the so-called Sonderweg, or unique path of German history from aristocracy to democracy, as reflected in the Nuremberg war-crimes trial held by the allied powers to prosecute Nazi war criminals following the send of the Second World War. Using the example of the Krupp trial of 1947/1948, the author argues that the trials were employed by the allied powers to break the national socialist hold of the German legal system, and also to bring recent German history to light, arguing that prosecutors used a business history approach to the affair, which precluded true historical debate.