Gordon Brook-Shepherd

Gordon Brook-Shepherd CBE (born March 24, 1918 in Nottingham , † January 24, 2004 in London ) was a British historian and journalist who was known for his publications on the history of Central and Eastern Europe - especially the fall of the Habsburg Empire .

life and work

Brook-Shepherd studied history at Cambridge University and worked during the Second World War for the British secret service as a liaison officer to resistance groups in Central Europe. After the war he was an occupation officer in Vienna for several years , where he also met his future wife, an Austrian aristocrat. He then worked as a journalist for the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph , of which he was later deputy editor-in-chief.

Brook-Shepherd wrote some biographies about members of the House of Habsburg , including Emperor Karl , Empress Zita and Otto von Habsburg , whereby he tended to have a positive attitude towards the monarchy. In other publications he occupied himself a. a. with the Anschluss in 1938 , the ruler of the interwar period Engelbert Dollfuss and the history of the British secret service.

In 1987 he was awarded the Order of the British Empire for services to historiography and journalism .

Web links

• Literature by and about Gordon Brook-Shepherd in the catalog of the German National Library
• Entry on Gordon Brook-Shepherd in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
• The Times: Obituary for Gordon Brook-Shepherd