Günter Kahle

Günter Kahle (born July 11, 1927 in Berlin ; † September 26, 2003 in Cologne ) was a German historian . Kahle was one of the founders of Latin American history. Through his teaching activities at the University of Cologne , his work and as long-time editor of the yearbook for the history of Latin America , he has made a decisive contribution to German and international Latin American research.

Live and act

Günter Kahle was born as the youngest of three children. His father was a civil servant. He attended elementary school from 1933 to 1937. From 1937 to 1944 he attended the Königstädtische Reform-Realgymnasium in Berlin. In July 1944 he received his school leaving certificate. From 1944 to May 1945 he was used in the German Wehrmacht . As an ensign , Kahle was seriously wounded and lost an eye in World War II. In the post-war period he lived in Berlin. Due to anti-Soviet connections to Western secret services, he had to interrupt his studies at the School of Politics . Kahle was sentenced to long imprisonment in Soviet camps. Life in the Gulag left a deep mark on Kahle. Konrad Adenauer's visit to Moscow in 1956 enabled Kahle to return to Germany. In the winter semester of 1956/57 Kahle began studying Middle and Modern History, Ethnology and American Studies at the University of Cologne . There he became the first student and employee of the newly appointed Richard Konetzke . For his dissertation, Kahle conducted research from October 1959 to November 1960 in archives in Buenos Aires ( Archivo General de la Nación ) and Asunción ( Archivo Nacional ). In 1962 he received his doctorate with the work The Basics and Beginnings of Paraguayan National Consciousness. He was then elected in September 1962 as a corresponding member of the Instituto Paraguayo de Investigaciones Históricas . For this work he was awarded the Ranke Society's Erich Lübbert Prize in October 1964 . From June 1963 he was Konetzke's research assistant. The habilitation took place in July 1966 with the work military and state formation in the beginning of the independence of Mexico . In 1967 he took over the chair for Iberian and Latin American history and the management of the Iberian and Latin American department of the historical seminar of the University of Cologne as Konetzke's successor. In 1973 he declined a call to the chair of modern history with special focus on the history of Latin America in the 19th and 20th centuries at the Free University of Berlin . In the 1980/81 winter semester he was visiting professor at the University of Vienna . In 1992 he retired.

Kahle is considered one of the founding fathers of Latin American history. In his dissertation and habilitation, he examined the formation of states and nations in Latin America as well as the Mexican army in the independence epoch. His work did not fit with current research trends and was first picked up by research on Latin American history many years later. Kahle conducted several research on Paraguay in particular . His account of Latin America in the international politics of the colonial era, interpreted in terms of economic and social history, became a standard work. Kahle was co-editor of the 1964 yearbook for the history of the state, economy and society of Latin America (today yearbook for the history of Latin America ).

He has received numerous honors and memberships for his research. He was a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (1985), a corresponding member of the national history academies of Argentina and Paraguay. He was awarded the Order of Merit by the Republic of Venezuela . He was also given high honors in Mexico, Paraguay and Argentina. In December 1968 he was awarded the Order de Mayo al Mérito with the rank of Grand Officer by the President of the Republic of Argentina. In Mexico he was awarded the Mexican Order of "Aguila Azteca" in 1986 at the officer's cross.

Fonts

A list of publications appeared in Günter Kahle: Ibero America. Selected articles (= Latin American research. Vol. 15). Böhlau, Cologne 1987, pp. 379-386.

• Latin America in the Politics of the European Powers: 1492–1810. Böhlau, Cologne et al. 1993, ISBN 3-412-04093-2 .
• Simón Bolívar and the Germans. Reimer, Bonn 1980, ISBN 3-496-00130-5 .
• Military and state formation in the beginning of the independence of Mexico (= Latin American research. Vol. 1). Böhlau, Cologne 1969 (at the same time: Cologne, university, habilitation paper, 1966).
• Basics and beginnings of the Paraguayan national consciousness. 1962 (Cologne, University, dissertation, 1962).

literature

• Felix Becker: Iberian Worlds. Festschrift for Günter Kahle's 65th birthday (= Latin American research. Vol. 22). Böhlau, Cologne et al. 1994, ISBN 3-412-12993-3 .
• Horst Pietschmann : Editor and Advisory Board of the Yearbook for the History of Latin America mourn Günter Kahle (1927–2003). In: Yearbook for the History of Latin America 40 (2003), pp. XI – XV.
• Barbara Potthast : Nekrolog. Günter Kahle 1927-2003. In: Historische Zeitschrift 278 (2004), pp. 828–831.

Web links

• Literature by and about Günter Kahle in the catalog of the German National Library