Helmut Schnitter

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Helmut Schnitter (born October 17, 1933 in Reichenberg ) is a German historian . He is one of the few German military historians with a focus on the early modern period and is also regarded by West German historians until recently as one of the "most stimulating researchers in the field of early modern historiography in the GDR ".

life and work

From 1956 to 1960, Schnitter worked as a research assistant at the Institute for German History at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig , where he was commissioned in 1960 to hold a lectureship in the Department of Military History . From 1960 to 1969 he was also a research assistant in the military history department at the Institute for History of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin . In February 1964 he received his doctorate in Leipzig “On the history of bourgeois military magazine literature in Germany” .

From 1969 to 1983 Schnitter headed a specialist group and finally until 1989 a research department at the Military History Institute of the GDR in Potsdam . His PhD B took place in Potsdam in 1975 on the subject of people and national defense. On the history of the national defense system in the German territories from the 16th to the 18th century . In September 1983 he received a full professorship in Potsdam. He was editor of the Berlin series of publications of the Research Center for Military History . In the National People's Army , Schnitter held the rank of colonel .

Schnitter is one of the few German military historians with a focus on the early modern period . According to the Marxist-Leninist understanding of history of the early modern period as an epoch of early bourgeois revolutions , Schnitter devoted himself to the national defension , which emerged following the Orange army reform after the Dutch uprising , as an alternative to mercenaryism , which "the development of a new relationship between the state and the people and armed forces ”. When the idea of ​​a "socialist nation" was being propagated in the GDR since the 1970s , Schnitter was one of the historians who treated the history of the army in absolutism as an independent subject and no longer just under the sign of militarism research. Schmitter's work on early modern military history has been recognized as “worth reading” until recently.

Fonts

  • with Gerhard Förster and Heinz Helmert : The Second World War. Military history and chronicle. Verl. Encyclopedia, Leipzig 1962.
  • with Gerhard Förster and Helmut Otto : The Prussian-German General Staff 1870 - 1963. On its political role in history. 1st edition. Dietz, Berlin 1964.
  • with Helmut Otto and Karl Schmiedel : The First World War. Military historical outline. 1st edition. German Military Edition, Berlin 1964.
  • On the history of bourgeois military magazine literature in Germany. [Sn], Leipzig 1964.
  • Military affairs and military journalism. Military journalism in the history of the bourgeois military in Germany. German military publisher, Berlin 1967.
  • Three conservative Berlin newspapers during the Crimean War, 1853-56. , Berlin 1969.
  • with Karl Schmiedel: Civil War and Intervention 1918 to 1922. Military-historical outline of the civil war and foreign intervention in Soviet Russia. 1st edition. German Military Edition, Berlin 1970.
  • with Ludwig Renn and Klaus Segner : Warrior, Landsknecht and Soldier. 1st edition. Children's book publisher, Berlin 1973.
  • Military and science. On the influence of the sciences on military thought from the 16th to the 18th centuries. In: Military History. 1973.
  • To the development of the state defense in the German territories in the 16./17. Century. In: Military History. 1973.
  • The soldier image of the German Peasant War. In: Military History. 1974.
  • Desertion in the 18th century. Two documents on the relationship between the people and the army in the late feudal Prussian military. In: Military History. 1974.
  • Leibniz and the military system of his time. In: military history; 16 (1977), 3. 1977.
  • People and national defense. Popular mobilization, defense works, land militias in the German territories from the 15th to the 18th century. 1st edition. Military ext. the Dt. Democratic Republic, Berlin 1977.
  • From the peasant army to the people's army. Advanced military traditions of the German people. 1st edition. Military publishing house of the German Democratic Republic, Berlin 1979.
  • Prussia and its army in the 18th and 19th centuries. Reaction and progress. In: Prussia: legend and reality. 1983, pp. 173-184.
  • "... so the sword is also necessary". Forays into German military history. Verl. Neues Leben, Berlin 1984.
  • The Peasants' War in Thuringia. 1st edition. Military publishing house of the GDR, Berlin 1984.
  • and Karl-Heinz Döring : From Salamis to Dien Bien Phu. Battles from three millennia. Verl. Neues Leben, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3355004901 .
  • But I do not doubt the people. Thomas Müntzer, theologian and revolutionary. 1st edition. Military Publishing House of the German Democratic Republic, Berlin 1989, ISBN 9783327007266 .
  • and Karl-Heinz Schmick : Shaping around Frederick the Great. Biographical sketches. Preußischer Militär-Verl., Reutlingen 1991, ISBN 3927292079 .
  • with Daniela Schnitter: Generals and war scholars. Portraits from three centuries. Fides, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3931363015 .

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

  1. ↑ Bernhard R. Kroener : "The flywheel on the state machine"? The Significance of Armed Power in Early Modern European History. In: Bernhard R. Kroener and Ralf Pröve (eds.). War and peace. Military and Society in the Early Modern Era; [... summarized in revised. Form the results of a conference that took place in Potsdam in spring 1995]. Schöningh, Paderborn 1996, ISBN 3-506-74825-4 , p. 3.
  2. ↑ a b Bernhard R. Kroener: Warfare, rule and society 1300-1800. Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag , Munich 2013, ISBN 9783486765403 , p. 94.
  3. ^ Bernhard R. Kroener: Warfare, rule and society 1300-1800. Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag , Munich 2013, ISBN 9783486765403 , p. 94 f.
personal data
SURNAME Reaper, Helmut
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian
DATE OF BIRTH October 17, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Reichenberg