Günther Stökl

Günther Stökl (born January 16, 1916 in Vienna , † March 20, 1998 in Cologne ) was a German historian . Stökl was one of Germany's leading Eastern European historians. Through his work he shaped several generations of German historians and political scientists. His academic school contributed significantly to the German coming to terms with the past and to Germany's reconciliation with its eastern neighbors.

life and work

Grave in Melaten cemetery

Günther Stökl spent his youth in Vienna in a Protestant milieu. After leaving school he studied history and Slavic studies in Königsberg and Breslau , where he also received his doctorate. His dissertation on the German-Slavic south-eastern border in the 16th century, submitted in 1938, was only accepted after a few modifications in 1940. After several years as a lecturer in Vienna, he completed his habilitation in 1949 with a thesis on Cossackism , which was published in 1953. In 1956 he was appointed to the newly established chair for Eastern European History at the University of Cologne . After 25 years of dedicated work, he retired in 1981. His academic students included Frank Golczewski , Hans Lemberg, and Erwin Oberländer . In 1962 his Russian History was published , which is now in its 7th edition and is still a trend-setting standard work today. His book Eastern Europe and the Germans , first published in 1967, also enjoyed great success , in which Stökl shows the changeful relationship between Germany and the peoples of Eastern Europe.

In addition to research and teaching, Stökl was active in numerous journalistic and political-scientific committees. From 1966 to 1991 he was editor of the journal Year Books for the History of Eastern Europe . In addition, he was a member of the board of directors of the Federal Institute for Research into Marxism-Leninism / Institute for Sovietology, later: Federal Institute for Eastern and International Studies (BIOst) in Cologne and the German Society for Eastern European Studies in Berlin. In 1980 he founded the Association of Eastern European Historians. V. , of which he remained chairman until 1987.

His grave is in the Melaten cemetery in Cologne (lit. K).

Fonts

• The German-Slavic southeast border of the empire in the 16th century. A contribution to their history, presented on the basis of the South Slavic Reformation literature (= writings of the Eastern European Institute in Breslau. New series issue 12, ZDB -ID 554629-1 ). Priebatsch, Breslau 1940.
• The emergence of the Cossacks (= publications of the Eastern European Institute Munich. 3, ISSN  0580-1990 ). Isar Verlag, Munich 1953, (at the same time: Vienna, university, habilitation paper, 1948).
• Russian history. From the beginnings to the present (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 244). Kröner, Stuttgart 1962, DNB 454899033 , (several editions; 7th, completely revised and updated edition. Ibid, 2009, ISBN 978-3-520-24407-9 ).
• The image of the West in the Old Russian Chronicles (= publications of the Working Group for Research of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. Humanities. Issue 124, ISSN  0570-5649 ). West German Publishing House, Cologne 1965.
• Eastern Europe and the Germans. Past and present of an exciting neighborhood. Stalling, Oldenburg et al. 1967, (several editions).
• The Russian State in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times. Selected essays. On the occasion of his 65th birthday (= sources and studies on the history of Eastern Europe. 13). Edited by Manfred Alexander , Hans Hecker , Maria Lammich. Steiner, Wiesbaden 1981, ISBN 3-515-03261-4 .

literature

• Dietrich Geyer : Focus on Eastern Europe. Historian Günther Stökl has died. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . No. 73, dated March 27, 1998.
• Hans Hecker: About the “laborious approach to historical reality”. Günther Stökl was born a hundred years ago. In: Yearbooks for the History of Eastern Europe . Vol. 64, No. 4, 2016, pp. 695-696.
• Walter Leitsch: Günther Stökl. In: Almanac of the Austrian Academy of Sciences for 1997/98. 148th year, 1998, pp. 441-447.
• Hans Lemberg (Ed.): Eastern Europe in the past and present. Festschrift for Günther Stökl on his 60th birthday , Böhlau, Cologne 1977, ISBN 3-412-05976-5 .
• Hans Lemberg : Elegantly critical. On the death of the Eastern European researcher Günther Stökl. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , from 28./29. March 1998.
• Günther Stökl January 16, 1916 - March 20, 1998. In: Year books for the history of Eastern Europe. Vol. 46, No. 3, 1998, p. 469, ( digitized version ).
• Günther Stökl. In: Almanac of the Austrian Academy of Sciences for 1989/90. 140th year, Vienna 1990, pp. 95–96.
• Peter Nitsche : Some memories of Günther Stökl's teaching years in Vienna (1949–1956). In: Yearbooks for the History of Eastern Europe. Vol. 46, No. 3, 1998, pp. 470-473 ( digitized version ).

Web links

• Literature by and about Günther Stökl in the catalog of the German National Library