 However, Friedländer conceded that Broszat was not an apologist for Nazi Germany like Nolte and Hillgruber.Friedländer noted that though the concept of "historicization" was highly awkward, partly because it opened the door to the type of arguments that Nolte and Hillgruber advanced during the "Historikerstreit", Broszat's motives in calling for the "historicization" were honourable.Friedländer used the example of a "longue durée" view of Italian history had allowed historians like Renzo De Felice to seek to rehabilitate Mussolini as a modernizing dictator trying to pull Italy up from underdevelopment; and argued that a similar approach to German history would have the same effect with Hitler.