Harold C. German

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Harold Charles Deutsch (born June 7, 1904 in Milwaukee , † May 15, 1995 in Bear Township , Minnesota ) was an American historian .

Life

German studied at the University of Wisconsin with a bachelor's degree in 1924 and a master's degree in 1925, and received his doctorate from Harvard University in 1929 (after a second MA in 1927). He also studied in Paris, Berlin and Vienna and spoke fluent German and French. From 1929 until his retirement in 1972 he was a professor at the University of Minnesota , where he headed the history faculty from 1960 to 1966. During World War II he was in the Economic War Department and in 1944/45 in Paris and Germany at the Office of Strategic Services as Head of Analysis. In 1945 he officially interviewed numerous German military personnel and other leaders of Nazi Germany. After his retirement in 1972 he taught at the US Army War College for a long time . 1978/79 he held the Harold Keith Johnson Chair of Military History at the US Army Military History Institute . In 1984 he held the Harmon Memorial Lectures in Military History at the United States Air Force Academy . He has also taught as visiting professor at the University of Southern California , the National War College and the FU Berlin .

He dealt with military history especially of the Second World War and here German military history and the relationship between Hitler and his generals and the military opposition to Hitler, and with the development of relations between the United States and Europe in the post-war period. In the 1970s he also played a leading role in incorporating the findings from the deciphering of the Enigma into military historiography. Originally he was a specialist in French history and dealt with Napoleon.

He also had a reputation as an excellent teacher, using television broadcasting technology as early as the 1960s for his course on World War II.

In 1994 he received the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize for life's work.

Fonts (selection)

  • The genesis of Napoleonic imperialism, Harvard UP, Oxford UP 1938
  • Our changing german problems, Chicago: Science Research Associates 1956
  • America's stake in Western Europe, Chicago: Science Research Associates 1959
  • The new Europe, the Common Market, and the United States, River Forest Illinois, Laidlaw Brothers 1964
  • Conspiracy against Hitler in the twilight war, University of Minnesota Press 1968
  • Hitler and his generals: the hidden crisis, January-June 1938, University of Minnesota Press, 1974
    • The plot or the disempowerment of the generals. Blomberg and Fritsch crisis. Hitler's Path to War, Neue Diana Press, Zurich 1974
  • Editor with Dennis Showalter : What if - the might have beens of world war II, Chicago: Emperor's Headquarters 1995
    • New edition as: If the allies had fallen: sixty alternate scenarios of world war II, New York, MJF Books 2014
  • Editor with Helmut Krausnick: Helmuth Groscurth : Diaries of an Abwehr Officer 1938–1940; with further documents on the military opposition to Hitler, DVA 1970

Web links

personal data
SURNAME German, Harold C.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES German, Harold Charles (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American historian
DATE OF BIRTH June 7, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Milwaukee
DATE OF DEATH May 15, 1995
Place of death Bear Township , Minnesota