Assistant Professor of Government and Social Studies Daniel J. Goldhagen has won a prestigious prize from Germany's largest political periodical for his controversial book, Hitler's Willing Executioners.

The Journal of German and International Politics, a leftist magazine based in Bonn, yesterday announced that it is awarding its 1997 Democracy Prize to Goldhagen, who is 36.

The prize, given periodically to an individual or group that has provided a service to German democracy, has been awarded just three times in the journal's history. The last recipients were the members of the democratic movement in East Germany, in 1990.

The thesis of Goldhagen's book--that ordinary Germans, and not just Nazis, were responsible for the Holocaust--has sparked a furious debate in Germany and around the world since it was published last March. The work has spent seven weeks as the best-selling book in Germany, and has topped sales charts in Austria, Switzerland and Belgium as well.

In a statement, the editorial board said Goldhagen has helped Germans come to terms with their past.

"With this book, Daniel Goldhagen has disturbed German attempts at unchecked 'normalization' whose advocates see the past only as a burden," the editors wrote.

Goldhagen said in an interview last night that the book's reception in Germany demonstrates the evolution of the country's national character.

"The fact that many are interested and willing to look at the issues...openly and honestly, tells us a great deal about how much Germany has changed," he said. "That's clear independent of this prize, and I think one should add that this says something very favorable about contemporary Germany, because this is a very difficult subject."

Goldhagen will personally accept the prize during a March 10 ceremony in Bonn, according to a statement from the journal, which has a monthly circulation of approximately 8,500.

This report was compiled with the help of Associated Press wire dispatches.