Heinz Helmert

Heinz Helmert (born June 7, 1925 in Bannewitz ; † January 7, 1995 ) was a German historian . He mainly worked on German military history of the 19th century and was one of the pioneers of Marxist-Leninist military history in the GDR .

Life

After attending primary school , Helmert first completed an apprenticeship at the Reichspost . From 1943 he was a soldier in World War II and was taken prisoner by the Soviets . From 1945 he performed various activities until he was delegated to the pre-study institute in Dresden in 1947 .

From 1948 to 1952 Helmert studied history at the University of Leipzig . After the final examination, he became a research assistant at the Institute for German History at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig in 1952. He received his doctorate in December 1957 under Ernst Engelberg and Walter Markov with a thesis on "The military system in Germany on the eve of the revolution from above and national unification".

Initially senior research assistant in the military history department at the Leipzig Institute for German History, he finally took over the management of the department that had been transferred to the Institute for History of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin. In October 1968 he received his habilitation on the warfare of the Prussian general staff before the unification of the empire in Leipzig . In 1970 Helmert worked as a research assistant at the German Institute for Military History in Potsdam and in 1984 at the Leipzig branch of the Central Institute for History of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR .

In 1966 Helmert was awarded the Silver Medal of Merit of the National People's Army .

plant

As an employee of Ernst Engelberg in Leipzig, Helmert was involved in the formation of military history in the GDR and is counted among the pioneers of Marxist-Leninist military history. In 1962 he published the programmatic article Military History and National History in Neues Deutschland . In Engelberg's and its conception, military history encompassed the history of military policy, wars and the art of war , the armed forces and military theory. In their opinion, military history should contribute to the elaboration of the national historical image of the German working class.

Helmert mainly worked on the military history of the 19th century. He based his dissertation on the military system of the German Confederation as well as his habilitation thesis on Helmuth Karl Bernhard von Moltke's warfare on extensive archive studies. The aim was also to grasp the military system in the German Confederation in a more complex and less Prussian way. Other focal points of Helmert's work were the military events of the revolution of 1848/1849 in Germany and the work of Friedrich Engels . He was unable to complete a planned military biography of Helmuth von Moltke.

Together with Walter Markov, Helmert published a volume of battles of world history in 1977 , which was also published in a West German licensed edition in the following year, and which remained unrivaled in German military history for a long time.

Fonts

with Gerhard Förster and Helmut Schnitter : German imperialism during the Second World War and its military, economic and moral-political defeat. 1962.

with Gerhard Förster and Helmut Schnitter: The Second World War. Military history and chronicle. Verl. Encyclopedia, Leipzig 1962.

with Hansjürgen Usczeck : The War of Liberation 1813/14. Military history. 1st edition. German Military Edition, Berlin 1963.

Military system and armed forces in the German Confederation on the eve of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. German Military Publ., Berlin 1964.

Friedrich Engels and the tasks of Marxist military historiography. , Berlin 1966.

and Hansjürgen Usczeck: Prussian-German Wars from 1864 to 1871. Military history. German military publisher, Berlin 1967.

Friedrich Engels. The beginnings of proletarian military theory (1842–1852); a biographical sketch. 1st edition. German Military Edition, Berlin 1970.

War Policy and Strategy. Political and military goals of the warfare of the Prussian General Staff before the establishment of the Empire (1859–1869). 1st edition. German military publisher, Berlin 1970.

with Gerhard Förster and Helmut Schnitter: The Second World War. Military historical summary. 1st edition. Military ext. of the GDR, Berlin 1972.

and Werner Ruhner: Friedrich Engels. Adjutant of the Revolution 1848/49. 1st edition. Urania-Verl., Leipzig 1973.

and Hansjürgen Usczech: Armed People's Struggles in Europe 1848/49. 1st edition. Military publishing house of the German Democratic Republic, Berlin 1973.

and Hansjürgen Usczeck: European Wars of Liberation. 1808-1814 / 15; military. Course. 1st edition. Military publisher of Dt. Democrat. Republic, Berlin 1976.

with Walter Markov (ed.): Battles of world history. Edition Leipzig, Leipzig 1977.

Helmuth von Moltke. About the power of the sword and the decision to go to war. In: Shaping the Bismarck Period. 1978, pp. 106-125.

Clausewitz - a classic of military science. 200 years ago ed was born "the most profound writer on questions of war". In: New Dtl. 35, No. 127 1980, SS 13.

Elevation and departure 1813. In: Prussia: Legend and Reality. 1983, pp. 139-146.

and Rudolf Koschulla: Karl Marx and the armed power. For the theoretical justification of the military policy of the revolutionary labor movement. 1983.

and Rudolf Koschulla: Friedrich Engels and the position of violence in military policy and the military theory of the revolutionary workers' movement. For Friedrich Engel's 165th birthday. 1985.

literature

Lothar Mertens : Lexicon of the GDR historians. Biographies and bibliographies on the historians from the German Democratic Republic. Saur, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-598-11673-X .

Individual evidence

^ Reinhard Brühl : Military historiography in the GDR. On concerns and problems of a new beginning. In: Hans-Joachim Beth, Reinhard Brühl and Dieter Dreetz (eds.). Research on military history. Problems and research results of the Military History Institute of the GDR. Transformer publ. Weist, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-89626-098-7 ( Society - History - Present . 11), p. 21.
^ Reinhard Brühl: Military historiography in the GDR. On concerns and problems of a new beginning. In: Hans-Joachim Beth, Reinhard Brühl and Dieter Dreetz (eds.). Research on military history. Problems and research results of the Military History Institute of the GDR. Transformer publ. Weist, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-89626-098-7 ( Society - History - Present . 11), p. 16 f.
↑ Helmut Schnitter : For the investigation of military-historical problems of older German history from the early Middle Ages to the middle of the 19th century. In: Hans-Joachim Beth, Reinhard Brühl and Dieter Dreetz (eds.). Research on military history. Problems and research results of the Military History Institute of the GDR. Transformer publ. Weist, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-89626-098-7 ( Society - History - Present . 11), p. 65 f.

personal data
SURNAME	Helmert, Heinz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German historian
DATE OF BIRTH	June 7, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH	Bannewitz
DATE OF DEATH	January 7, 1995

[1] Reinhard Brühl : Military historiography in the GDR. On concerns and problems of a new beginning. In: Hans-Joachim Beth, Reinhard Brühl and Dieter Dreetz (eds.). Research on military history. Problems and research results of the Military History Institute of the GDR. Transformer publ. Weist, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-89626-098-7 ( Society - History - Present . 11), p. 21.

[2] Reinhard Brühl: Military historiography in the GDR. On concerns and problems of a new beginning. In: Hans-Joachim Beth, Reinhard Brühl and Dieter Dreetz (eds.). Research on military history. Problems and research results of the Military History Institute of the GDR. Transformer publ. Weist, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-89626-098-7 ( Society - History - Present . 11), p. 16 f.

[3] Helmut Schnitter : For the investigation of military-historical problems of older German history from the early Middle Ages to the middle of the 19th century. In: Hans-Joachim Beth, Reinhard Brühl and Dieter Dreetz (eds.). Research on military history. Problems and research results of the Military History Institute of the GDR. Transformer publ. Weist, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-89626-098-7 ( Society - History - Present . 11), p. 65 f.