Braunbuch
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{{about|the 1965 book|the 1933 book|The Brown Book of the Reichstag Fire and Hitler Terror}}
{{Infobox book
| name = Braunbuch – Kriegs- und Naziverbrecher in der Bundesrepublik
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| image = Braunbuch.jpg
| caption = Braunbuch
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| editor = Albert Norden
| country = Germany
| language = German
| subject = War and Nazi Criminals in West Germany
| genre = Non-fiction
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| media_type = Print
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Braunbuch – Kriegs- und Nazi-verbrecher in der Bundesrepublik: Staat – Wirtschaft – Verwaltung – Armee – Justiz – Wissenschaft (English title: Brown Book – War and Nazi Criminals in the Federal Republic: State, Economy, Administration, Army, Justice, Science) is a book edited by Albert Norden in 1965. In this book Norden claimed that 1,800 politicians and other prominents in West Germany held prominent positions in Germany prior to 1945.{{cite book | url=https://digisam.ub.uni-giessen.de/urn/urn:nbn:de:hebis:26-digisam-106758 | editor-first=Albert | editor-last=Norden | title=Braunbuch – Kriegs und Nazi-verbrecher in der Bundesrepublik | location=Berlin | publisher=Staatsverlag der DDR | edition=1st | year=1965 | language = German }}{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/brownbook1965 | editor-first=Albert | editor-last=Norden | title=Brown Book – War and Nazi Criminals in West Germany | location=Dresden | publisher=Verlag Zeit im Bild | year=1965 | language = English}}{{cite web | last=Nees | first=Verena | title = The Nazi past of Germany’s post-war political elite | website=World Socialist Web Site | date= 7 Jul 2015 | url=https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/07/07/nazi-j07.html }}
Altogether 1,800 West German persons and their past were covered: especially 21 Ministers and state secretaries, 100 admirals and generals, 828 judges or state lawyers and high law officers, 245 officials of the Foreign Office and of embassies and consulates in leading position, 297 high police officers and officers of the Verfassungsschutz. The first brown book was seized in West Germany – on Frankfurt Book Fair – by judicial resolution.{{Cite book| last = Ditfurth | first = Jutta | title = Ulrike Meinhof: Die Biography | publisher = Ullstein | year = 2007 | isbn = 978-3-550-08728-8 }} pp. 274–275 (Greek version){{cite news| author= | title=Was möglich ist | work=Der Spiegel | location=Hamburg | issue=44/1967 | url=https://www.spiegel.de/politik/was-moeglich-ist-a-be5d2aa8-0002-0001-0000-000046197076?context=issue | date=1967-10-22 | language=German}}
The contents of this book received substantial attention in West Germany and other countries. The West German government stated, at that time, that it was "all falsification".{{cite book | first=Dieter |last=Schenk |title=Auf dem rechten Auge blind. Die braunen Wurzeln des BKA | publisher =Kiepenheuer & Witsch |location= Köln |date=2001 | language=German}} {{page needed|date=May 2024}} Later on, however, it became clear that the data of the book were largely correct. Hanns Martin Schleyer, for example, really had been a member of the SS. The book was translated into 10 languages. Amongst the reactions to it was also a similar West German book of the same name, covering the topic of Nazis re-emerging in high-level positions in the GDR.Olaf Kappelt: Braunbuch DDR. Nazis in der DDR. Reichmann Verlag, Berlin (West) 1981. {{ISBN|3-923137-00-1}}
In addition to the Braunbuch the educational booklet Das ganze System ist braun (The whole system is brown) was published in the GDR.{{Cite book |last=Tillack-Graf |first=Anne-Kathleen |title=Erinnerungspolitik der DDR. Dargestellt an der Berichterstattung der Tageszeitung "Neues Deutschland" über die Nationalen Mahn- und Gedenkstätten Buchenwald, Ravensbrück und Sachsenhausen. |publisher=Peter Lang |year=2012 |isbn=978-3-631-63678-7 |location=Frankfurt am Main |page=48}}