In my dissertation, I analysed the implementation of social history in the early Federal Republic in terms of the sociology of science and the unreflected political content of historiography. The aim is to show that a new perspective on the past does not simply assert itself by virtue of scientific quality or rational discussion by scientists, but that painstaking strategic work is necessary to bring it "into the true" (M. Foucault). At the same time, it becomes clear how much the historians' view of history is characterised by specific styles of thinking (L. Fleck). They do not depict the past, but rather images of the present formatted by social dispositions (discourse, thinking style, habitus) in the form of the "past".

Most important publications:

• Etzemüller, Thomas: Social History as Political History. Werner Conze and the reorientation of West German historiography after 1945, Munich 2001
  
• Etzemüller, Thomas: Are we looking for guilt or do we want to analyse society? Eine Anmerkung zur aktuellen Debatte um Hans Rothfels, in: Borgmann, Karsten (ed.): Hans Rothfels und die Zeitgeschichte, Berlin 2004, pp. 27-33 (Clio-Online Nr. 2, Historisches Forum, vol. 1), URL: <http://edoc.hu-berlin.de/e_ histfor/1/PHP/Beitraege_1-2004.php#284>