The Historikerstreit (Historians' dispute) was an intellectual and political controversy in West Germany about the way the Holocaust should be interpreted in history. It took place between 1986-1989, and pitted left-wing intellectuals against right-wing intellectuals. Its embers flared up again briefly in 2000 when one of the leading figures, Ernst Nolte, was awarded a literary prize. "Die Vergangenheit, die nicht vergehen will" proposed by Ernst Nolte, had to be rejected as inadequate due to their lack of sufficient empirical substance.