Wehler was ferocious in his criticism of Nolte and wrote several articles and books, which Wehler himself admitted to be polemical attacks on Nolte. In his 1988 book on the "Historikerstreit", "Entsorgung der deutschen Vergangenheit?: ein polemischer Essay zum "Historikerstreit"" ("Exoneration of the German Past?: A Polemical Essay about the 'Historikerstreit), Wehler criticised every aspect of Nolte's views and called the "Historikerstreit" a "political struggle" for the historical understanding of the German past between "a cartel devoted to repressing and excusing" the memory of the Nazi years, of which Nolte was the chief member, against "the representatives of a liberal-democratic politics, of an enlightened, self-critical position, of a rationality which is critical of ideology".