\n<\/p>\n
What Kuehne has not explained is why he won\u2019t release the study that sources say he commissioned.<\/p>\n
In early 2014 Kuehne commissioned Handelsblatt Research Institute, the independent research arm of German newspaper Handelsblatt,<\/em> to conduct a study of his family firm\u2019s entire history for Kuehne + Nagel\u2019s 125th anniversary in July 2015. Researchers were even given access to the company archive in Hamburg and a guarantee of academic freedom and independence, according to people familiar with the matter. But when the final result was sent to Kuehne in early 2015, including a chapter on the activities of his father, uncle, and firm during the Third Reich, he refused to have the study published. Kuehne rejected the study by saying \u201cmy father wasn\u2019t a Nazi\u201d during a phone conference, according to people familiar with the conversation. When the researchers refused to change the chapter, according to these sources, Kuehne said the study wouldn\u2019t be published and ended the call. The 180-page study, contractually owned by Kuehne + Nagel, remains unpublished and inaccessible. Jan Kleibrink, the managing director of Handelsblatt Research Institute, would neither confirm nor deny Kuehne\u2019s commissioning and shelving of the study.<\/p>\n Kuehne declined to be interviewed for this article. Dominique Nadelhofer, the spokesperson for the billionaire, his holding company, his foundation, and Kuehne + Nagel, declined to answer detailed questions sent by VF.<\/em> \u201cMr. Kuehne was seven years old at the end of World War II and therefore had nothing to do with the war,\u201d Nadelhofer wrote in an emailed statement. \u201cHe is now 87 years old and, again, these historical events are beyond his control.\u201d<\/p>\n For decades Germany\u2019s<\/strong> political leaders have accepted moral responsibility and acknowledged the sins of the Nazi past, centering remembrance as a component of German society. But recently the country has seemed to regress. As the last witnesses to the Nazi era die and the cultural memory of the Third Reich fades, the right wing, increasingly mainstream, has attacked Germany\u2019s progressive ideals. For much of 2023, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) polled as the largest party, hitting an all-time high of 23 percent in the polls in December. In June 2024 the AfD won a record number of votes in the European parliament elections. The party captured 16 percent of the German vote and came in second in the elections as concerns about immigration and the economy fanned voter discontent.<\/p>\nII. THE POLITICS OF MEMORY<\/strong><\/h2>\n