Gunther Mai

Gunther Mai (born May 22, 1949 in Eschwege ) is a German historian who researches the history of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Live and act

Gunther Mai studied English, history and political science at the Philipps University in Marburg since 1967 . After a year abroad in 1970/71 as a Foreign Language Assistant Teacher in Wolverhampton (England), he passed the state examination in English and history in Marburg in January 1973, and the one in political science in November 1973. From 1973 to 1979 he was a research assistant at Philipps University and from 1979 to 1985 a university assistant. On July 1, 1975, he received his doctorate there with a thesis on the Korean War and the West German rearmament in 1950 , and on July 1, 1981, he completed his habilitation with a thesis on the war economy and labor movement in Württemberg 1914-1918 . After a professorship at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in 1985/86, he was a research assistant at the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich from 1986 to 1989 , where he worked on the Allied Control Council 1945–1948 with the help of a scholarship from the Volkswagen Foundation . The activity there was interrupted in 1986/87 by a substitute chair ( Helga Grebing ) at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen . From 1989 to 1993 a substitute professor ( Rudolf von Thadden ) followed. This was followed by the transition to Erfurt , where he was professor for modern and contemporary history at the Erfurt University of Education from 1993 to 2001 and, as prorector, first accompanied the reconstruction and then the transition to the university. With the transition in 2001 he became the first elected dean of the Philosophical Faculty. From 2011 to 2013 he was on leave for the research project The Morocco-Germans 1873–1918 , initially as an Erfurt Fellow at the Max Weber College of the University of Erfurt , then with support from the German Research Foundation . He retired on September 30, 2014.

Together with Peer Schmidt (†), he was the founder of the Gotha Research Center for cultural and social science research at the University of Erfurt from May 2004 to 2008 and was initially its deputy and finally its provisional director. Together with Peer Schmidt, he founded the Herzog Ernst scholarship program financed by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation and the Friedenstein research series .

He was involved in other scientific institutions in Thuringia on an honorary basis: Scientific Advisory Board of the Wartburg Foundation , Eisenach (1996–2017); Board member of the Historical Commission for Thuringia (2000–2015); Board of Trustees for the Weimar Classic / Classic Foundation Weimar (2001–2008); Chair of the jury of the school competition “Experiences of dictatorship and democratic upheavals in Germany and Europe” of the Ettersberg Foundation , Weimar (2009–2017); Scientific advisory board for the national special exhibition "Luther and the Germans" at the Wartburg in Eisenach 2017 (2013–2017).

For his essays on the concept of "Agrarian Transition", which he introduced into the scientific discussion, he was awarded the Fritz Thyssen Foundation Prize for social science essays (founded by Erwin Scheuch †) 2007, 2nd place. His book on the Weimar Republic was translated into Italian in 2011 and into Chinese in 2018.

Works (selection)

• Western security policy in the Cold War. The Korean War and German rearmament 1950 , Boppard a. Rh .: Boldt 1977. (Dissertation). ISBN 3-7646-1691-1 .
• War economy and labor movement in Württemberg 1914–1918 , Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta 1983. (Habilitation thesis). ISBN 3-608-91247-9 .
• (Ed.) Workers in Germany 1914–1918. Studies on industrial disputes and the labor market in the First World War , Düsseldorf: Droste 1985. ISBN 3-7700-0690-9 .
• (Ed., Together with Detlev Heiden) National Socialism in Thuringia , Cologne-Weimar-Vienna: Böhlau 1995. ISBN 3-412-03894-6 .
• The end of the empire. Politics and warfare in the First World War , Munich: dtv 1987, ²1993; 3rd, updated edition 1997. ISBN 3-423-04510-8 .
• The Allied Control Council in Germany 1945–1948. Allied unity - German division? , Munich: Oldenbourg 1995. ISBN 3-486-56123-5 .
• (Ed.) The Kyffhäuser Monument 1896–1996. A national monument in a European context , Cologne-Weimar-Wien: Böhlau 1997. ISBN 3-412-02397-3 .
• (Ed., Together with Günther Heydemann and Werner Müller ), Revolution and Transformation in the GDR 1989/90 , Berlin: Duncker & Humblot 1999. ISBN 3-428-10003-4 .
• (Ed., Together with Lothar Ehrlich and with the participation of Ingeborg Cleve), Weimar Classics in the Ulbricht era , Cologne-Weimar-Vienna: Böhlau 2000. ISBN 3-412-13399-X .
• Europe 1918–1939. Mentalities, ways of life, politics between the world wars , Stuttgart a. a .: Kohlhammer 2001. ISBN 3-17-013572-4 .
• (Ed., Together with Lothar Ehrlich and with the participation of Ingeborg Cleve), Weimar Classicism in the Honecker era , Cologne-Weimar-Vienna: Böhlau 2001. ISBN 3-412-03601-3 .
• The Weimar Republic , Munich: CH Beck 2009; 3rd revised edition 2018. ISBN 978-3-406-72780-1 .
• The Morocco-Germans 1873–1918 , Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2014. ISBN 978-3-525-30038-1 .
• The Morocco Germans 1873–1918. Biograms . Electronic resource. 2nd improved and expanded edition 2017. (URN: urn: nbn: de: gbv: 547-201700149 )

Among the approx. 90 articles should be emphasized:

• “Why does the German worker stand by Hitler?” On the function of the German labor front in the system of rule of the Third Reich , in: Geschichte und Gesellschaft, 12 (1986), pp. 212–234.
• Dominance or cooperation in the alliance? The security policy of the USA and Europe's defense contribution 1945–1956 , in: Historische Zeitschrift, 246 (1988), pp. 327–364.
• "Defense War" and "National Community". State self-assertion, national solidarity and social liberation in Germany during the First World War (1900–1925) , in: The First World War. Reality, Perception, Analysis. On behalf of the Military History Research Office, ed. by Wolfgang Michalka , Munich-Zurich 1994, pp. 583-602. ISBN 3-492-11927-1 .
• Monuments and political culture in the 19th century, in: The Kyffhäuser Monument 1896–1996. A national monument in a European context , ed. by Gunther Mai, Cologne-Vienna-Weimar 1997, pp. 9–44. ISBN 3-412-02397-3 .
• State establishment process and national question as constitutive elements of the cultural policy of the GDR , in: Weimarer Klassik in der Ära Ulbricht, ed. by Lothar Ehrlich and Gunther Mai, with the participation of Ingeborg Cleve, Cologne-Weimar-Wien 2000, pp. 31–60. ISBN 3-17-013572-4 .
• August 1, 1914: Was there an August experience? , in: Days of German History. From the Reformation to Reunification, ed. by Eckart Conze and Thomas Nicklas , Munich 2004, pp. 177–192. ISBN 3-421-05770-2 .
• Agrarian transition and industrial crisis. Anti-modernism in Europe in the first half of the 20th century , in: Journal of Modern European History, 4 (2006), pp. 5-38. ISSN  0340-613X
• The Agrarian Transition. Agrarian societies in Europe and the challenges of industrial modernity in the 19th and 20th centuries , in: Geschichte und Gesellschaft, 33 (2007), pp. 471–514. ISSN  1611-8944 .
• From Luther to Hitler? Luther receptions 1883–1945 , in: Luther and the Germans. Accompanying volume for the National Special Exhibition at the Wartburg May 4 - November 5, 2017, ed. from the Wartburg Foundation Eisenach, Petersberg 2017, pp. 62–68. ISBN 978-3-7319-0360-4 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Gunther Mai in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Gunther Mai  in the German Digital Library
• Curriculum Vitae (PDF)
• List of publications (PDF)