Current Research
My main interest is inter- and transnational political and cultural history with a focus on Germany, Britain and the United States, reflecting general European perspectives from the 19th century to the present.
My most actual book project is:
"Mastering Hitler. Discourse on the Third Reich in transnational Cultural Memory 1945 to the present"
I am also preparing a biographical study of Albert Speer.
I have just edited a book on "Life Writing and Political Memoir" which reflects the discourse on topics related to memory construction & analysis. The book is at the press and will be published with V & R Unipress publishers (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht) in Göttingen in spring 2012. My introduction reflects on the changing influence of Political Memoir on historiography in the past decades and I contribute an article on "Albert Speer and the historians" which portrays Speer's influence on public opinion way beyond his death.
Related to this is my research on Joachim Fest and his role as a "public historian". An article on Fest will be published later this year.
So far I have published seven books (three monographs, four edited volumes), ca. forty academic articles and ca. fifty individual book reviews. I have assessed another ca. 250 academic books in specific review articles.
My most important books are:
1. Scharnierzeit 1895-1907. Persönlichkeitsnetze und internationale Politik in den deutsch-britisch-amerikanischen Beziehungen vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg, Mainz: Verlag Philipp von Zabern 2006 (Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Europäische Geschichte Mainz 195), 454pp. ISBN 3-8053-3397-8
2. Politische Memoiren in deutscher und britischer Perspektive - Political Memoirs in Anglo-German Context, München: K.G. Saur 2005 (= Prince-Albert-Studies vol. 23, ed. with Franz Bosbach), 195pp. ISBN 3-59821-423-5
3. Die nationalsozialistische Herrschaft 1933-1939, Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft 2004, 166pp. ISBN 3-534-15157-7
The second revised edition will be published in summer 2012.
4. "Madagaskar für die Juden". Antisemitische Idee und politische Praxis 1885-1945, München: R. Oldenbourg 1997 (= Studien zur Zeitgeschichte 53), 2nd ed. 1998, 336pp. ISBN 3-486-56240-1 (1997); ISBN 3-486-56384-X (1998) [see the Words of the World video: http://www.youtube.com/wordsoftheworld#p/u/1/46pwZyTC3yg]
You will find more details on my research publications and specific articles further down. All my publications should be available in academic libraries or via interlibrary loan. If you would like a copy of a specific text, please contact me.
Besides my strict research interests, I regularly write journalistic articles on history, politics, culture and economy. Since School days I have a persistent interest in economic and investment matters and I have been writing on topics as different as "British mentality", Foreign Policy, the impact of property ownership and the housing market on society, German domestic politics, British and German politicians or comparisons of higher education and universities.
Since this shall be a profile to give you an adequate understanding of my academic background and interests the following description may be helpful to make my journey as a researcher and lecturer transparent.
My University life started in 1983 with a direct PhD course combining History, Politics and Philosophy at the University of Münster. The German University system until recently was characterized by its aim for research education and scholarly independence. It focussed on research education from the very beginning. One started off with "basic studies" ("Grundstudium") for two years, training through lectures and special seminars for independent research. My course included all areas from ancient to modern history, domestic and international political sciences and theoretical and practical philosophy, including compulsory language examinations in English, French and Latin. A lot of reading, assessed homework and seminar discussions gave an inspirational idea of "Academia". In these years I was very much interested in the overlapping areas of history, politics and philosophy (reflected in seminars on Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Boethius, Kant, Heidegger, Arendt, Feyerabend). I also did a lot on medieval religious-political topics (Papacy and Power in Middle Europe) and environmental history (e.g. a Hauptseminar on "Forest in the middle ages", rather a novel topic in 1984).
After these "basic studies" I followed the German tradition (vanishing now in the wake of Bologna) of moving to another University with different Professors to enhance my experience. I had a close look at Bielefeld, Bochum and Bonn which all had excellent reputations for my subjects. The relatively new and modern Universities of Bielefeld with e.g. Hans-Ulrich Wehler and Jürgen Kocka, Bochum with e.g. Hans Mommsen and Jörn Rüsen were tempting intellectual environments. But in the end I went to Bonn.
I choose Bonn for two reasons. For one I wanted to do more on international history and politics with links to philosophy. Bonn had a high reputation for this. In 1959 Karl-Dietrich Bracher's chair for "Politics and Contemporary History" had been established, promoting a challenge to traditional German historiographical approaches. Bracher and fellow scholars published groundbreaking research on the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich. Bracher was offered a chair for History by Harvard University (and several other leading Universities) which he declined. In the History Department there was Klaus Hildebrand who was a leading scholar on German Foreign Policy, the Third Reich, British history, and international relations in general. Hildebrand too had been offered a History chair by Harvard University which he had declined. By all international standards, this was an excellent place to study history and politics.
There were quite a few more distinguished scholars. In the philosophy department Hans-Michael Baumgartner was the leading scholar on "Geschichtsphilosophie" ("philosophy of history"). There were other scholars in related subjects like international law and economy. Students were free to choose according to their interests. There were virtually no obstacles to attend any lecture which one was interested in. I made wide use of this. This atmosphere of academic freedom and curiosity was supported through the huge University Library. In addition, each department had an excellent research library, more than 70 000 vols in the history dept. alone. One could indulge in whatever research one liked to pursue.
There was another reason for Bonn: It was the centre of the German Federal Government. Given that Berlin was as divided as Germany, Bonn in all but name was the Capital. Despite being dubbed by John LeCarre as 'federal village' (half the size of Chicago's central cemetery but twice as dead), there were in walking distance all the ministries and high offices, related governmental institutions, embassies, journalists, lobbyists and, last not least, loads of politicians. These ranged from 'normal' parliamentarians to visiting Heads of State who often accepted the University's invitation. Presidents François Mitterrand and Alberto Cossiga gave lectures, Michail Gorbatschew came to the Town Hall next door. Throughout the semester politicians of all parties participated in regular panel discussions, organised by University Departments, on German and international politics. A constant discourse with open access, no security required.
Bonn's political life offered loads of opportunities. Embassies invited for visits and discussion, politics-related institutions were approachable for research support, high level internships were just around the corner. As a student hall tutor for three years I organised contacts of this kind for fellow students. In 1987 I learned for two months about communicating politics in the German Government's Press and Information Bureau (Bundespresseamt). Then I moved on to work for IBM for another two months. Some fifty students from all academic subject areas had been recruited to present an exhibition on the latest developments in computer technology for which IBM had chosen a purpose-build ship on the Rhine as location. Knowledge transfer at its best in all but name.
By this time I had all seminar certificates ("Scheine") to start seriously on my PhD topic. Discussing this with Klaus Hildebrand I choose the "Madagascar Plan" which was regarded as a neglected aspect of the Third Reich. Some weeks of research made clear that this subject had a much wider horizon which had not been comprehensively addressed.
In the long history of international anti-semitism since the 19th century the demand for "compulsory segregation" of the Jewish people on an island had become a recurring proposition. Since 1885 Madagascar became the prominent target. There were actually quite a few Madagascar Plans whose history I researched. I identified an "Antisemitic International" which in the 1920s and 1930s held propaganda meetings proposing "Madagascar for the Jews" all over Europe. I also learned about plans of the Polish government since to acquire Madagascar as a colony from France for Jewish emigration and Polish settlements. Relevant documents were in Paris, Aix-en-Provence and Warsaw. Polish was none of my languages, so I decided to learn it. I spend most of 1990 in France and Poland plus two months in London for research. Parallel to the exciting developments in Germany, this was a marvellous experience which to describe would create an extra report. Having collected the material I started writing in 1991 and finished the PhD in April 1993.
It seems worth mentioning to present day students that I enjoyed complete freedom and self-responsibility in every sense. Of course, all institutions who provided fellowships and responded favourably to scholarship applications like the German Academic Exchange Service, the Polish Academy of Science and the German Historical Institute in Paris, expected that one would succeed and deliver results. But one was left to do the research as oneself assumed most effective. My Doktorvater Klaus Hildebrand, who had another forty or so PhD students parallel at the time, was not expected to read the dissertation text before the thesis was finished. One gave a paper or two in the research seminar to report on the progress, handed in the one and final version, and that was that. Freedom and trust in the student's intrinsic motivation and self-responsibility were prime. It worked.
Between handing in the PhD in April 1993 and the oral exams more than half a year later, I was offered a three months fellowship at the Bavarian Academy of Science to go on another research trip to Poland. My task was to investigate collections of German documents and books from before 1945. I visited about fifty archives and libraries and found an astonishing variety of material which to describe would require another report (my original report is available at the Bavarian Academy of Science).
The Rigorosum, i.e. the oral exams, in medieval, early modern and modern history, political sciences and philosophy in February 1994 formally concluded my course. Karl-Dietrich Bracher, although emeritus since 1987, had kept interest in my research and acted as examiner in political sciences. As a member of the advisory board of the Institut für Zeitgeschichte [Institute for Contemporary History] in Munich he, together with Klaus Hildebrand, supported the publication of my thesis in its highly competitive series Studien zur Zeitgeschichte. The book came out in 1997. It received excellent resonance in more than fourty international reviews and was sold out quickly. A second edition was published in 1998.
Meanwhile, again supported by Klaus Hildebrand, I had been offered to become Assistant Professor of Modern History at the University of Bayreuth at the chair of Adolf M. Birke. I started in March 1994. Just one year later I moved in the same position to the University of Munich, where Birke became successor on Thomas Nipperdey's chair of Modern History.
The path through several Universities and Research institutions provided much experience with the peculiarities of Germany's University system which still upheld Humboldt's idea of a community of scholars but creaked under an ever-growing student population. One should point out that while the number of students more than doubled from the 1970s to the 1980s, there was no such rise in professorships. At the big Universities like Münster (45.000 students), Bonn (40.000) and Munich (63.000) mass seminars where an everyday reality. Nonetheless the ideal of an academic collegiate of researchers prevailed.
Traditionally the idea of an Assistant Professorship is to prepare the Habilitation, a German specialty of higher education, which until recently was the required qualification to become full professor. The Habilitation thesis should be like a second PhD on an even higher level. The expectation is to write a second comprehensive book on a subject unrelated to the PhD topic to reflect one's scholarly scope as a researcher.
Since my PhD had concentrated on 20th century German, French and Polish history, Anti-Semitism and the Third Reich, I embarked on another field which had long interested me: the international relations of the Great Powers before 1914.
I was interested in the question how the international system in the second half of the 19th century had changed under the influence of constant industrialisation, advanced communication and globalisation. By the end of the century the last spots of the earth were divided among the European powers, the United States and Japan. I wanted to understand why Britain as the leading, but declining world power of this period reacted so differently to the challenge from its two most successful competitors: the United States and the German Empire. Why did the British leaders give up the policy of isolation to confront the German Foreign Policy and, at the same time, appease US-expansionism against British interests in Alaska, Middle and South America and the Far East? Besides material in Germany I researched archival sources between 1996 and 2001 in Washington, London, Oxford and Edinburgh.
Throughout these years I again received manifold support through fellowships and scholarships, e.g. by the British Council, the German-American Centre for Visiting Scholars in Washington, the German Historical Institute in London, the European Union and the Fritz Thyssen Foundation. As a Fellow of the Institute for European History in Mainz from May 2000 to February 2001 I wrote most of the text. The formalities of the Habilitation process ended with a public lecture in January 2002 and I became Privatdozent. This again is a German peculiarity, awarded by the collegiate of fellow professors with the Habilitation entitling to all professorial rights (e.g. examination on all levels) and obligations (e.g. regular lectures or seminars) - but no salary. Many Privatdozenten live from some form of external funding for research projects with limited timeframes. This requires a constant flow of applications which absorbs energy which ideally could be applied more effectively. It is no exaggeration to say that if all Privatdozenten at German Universities, who now work for free, would stop their teaching and examinations, the whole system would probably collapse.
When in the summer of 2002 I could choose between external funding for my project on "Historical Leadership Studies" and a Langzeitdozentur for European Studies in Nottingham, funded by the German Academic Exchange Service, I was undecided. I arrived in Nottingham for the interview on 15 July 2002 with the firm intention not to move to the East Midlands. But living on the Campus for a weekend and talking to members of the German Department, I was impressed by their high intellectual level and general professionalism. When I was offered the post, I agreed to come for two years. That was in August 2002.