German Werth

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German Werth (* 1937 ; † July 9, 2000 ) was a German radio journalist and military historian .

life and work

German Werth studied German, philosophy and sport at the Free University of Berlin . He began his journalistic career in 1958 at Tagesspiegel and had worked as an editor for literature and art at Deutschlandfunk and later Deutschlandradio since 1963 . As a book author, he appeared mainly with publications on war topics. Despite his more journalistic than specialist historical approach, Werth was also regarded in specialist circles as one of the best experts on the Battle of Verdun in the First World War , with which he dealt intensively throughout his life. His interest in a military-historical “perspective from below”, which focuses on the authentic experience of the battle by the common soldier, was decisive for his examination of Verdun. His feature, broadcast on Deutschlandfunk in 1977, How was that with Verdun? Battle participants remember was based on his interviews conducted in the 1970s with German soldiers who fought in the battle. The military sources also formed the focus of his 1979 book on the battle and its myth. In the manner of representation, he renounced the pathos that characterized the older representations and took a position critical of ideology . In the editions of the original publisher, the book achieved a total German circulation of 35,000 copies. Werth's extensive source research and the often unconventional questions were praised in the criticism. Werth is considered a pioneer of this type of military history literature, which established itself in the 1980s and 1990s. In addition, in 1984 he and Claus-Ferdinand Siegfried produced the one-and-a-half-hour television documentary Eyewitnesses report on Verdun 1916 , for which he interviewed contemporary witnesses who were still alive. His book on the Crimean War , published in 1989, was also noted , in which he presented an overview of the history of military and diplomacy of this conflict, which had long been neglected in German historiography. In 1995 he was one of the founding members of the Military History Working Group of the German Historians Guild. Due to his untimely death at the age of 63, he was unable to carry out other projects, some of which were supposed to deal with Verdun again.

Book publications

  • with Klaus Sauer: Laurel and Palm. Patriotism in German festivals . dtv 1971, ISBN 3-423-00795-8 .
  • Verdun. The battle and the myth . Lübbe 1979, 1982 (fully revised and expanded version), 1987 (paperback), Weltbild Verlag 1990 (licensed edition, ISBN 3-89350-016-2 ).
  • The Crimean War. The birth of the world power Russia . Straube Verlag 1989, Ullstein Taschenbuch 1992 ( ISBN 3-548-34949-8 ).
  • 1916 - Verdun battlefield - Europe's trauma . Brandenburgisches Verlagshaus 1994, ISBN 3-89488-066-X

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The feature was republished in early 2016 as an audio book with an introduction by Gerd Krumeich to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the battle (Ch.Links Verlag, ISBN 978-3861538868 ).
  2. ↑ Winfried Baumgart (Ed.): English files on the history of the Crimean War. Volume 1. Munich 2005, p. 9 f. (Foreword by the editor):
    A single German voice in the chorus of the Crimean war researchers has been that of the journalist German Werth, who has presented an overview of the war in terms of military and diplomacy history.
personal data
SURNAME Werth, German
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German military historian and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH 1937
DATE OF DEATH July 9, 2000