Horst Drechsler

Horst Drechsler (born January 8, 1927 in Erfurt ; † June 20, 2004 in Rostock ) was a German historian who specialized in research into German colonial history.

Life

Horst Drechsler attended business school until 1943 and then worked as a trainee in a bookstore until 1945. Although he met the formal requirements, he had been denied high school for political and racial reasons. He was a member of a resistance group in Erfurt. After the war he was able to complete a preparatory college in Jena until 1947 and from 1947 and 1951 studied history , classical philology , German and Spanish at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (FSU). In 1951 Drechsler took his final exam, and received his doctorate in September 1952 with a thesis on the topic of The Universities of the Middle Ages, their origin and development up to 1300 with Friedrich Schneider and Karl Griewank . From 1952 to 1959 he worked as a research assistant and later as a senior assistant at the FSU. In 1960 Drechsler moved to the Martin Luther University in Halle as a senior assistant , where he later became a research assistant. During this time, Drechsler also specializes in researching German colonial history. In January he completed his habilitation in Halle with Walter Markov and Heinz Tillmann with a thesis on The Struggle of the Herero and Nama against German Imperialism (1884–1915) . Exactly one year later he was appointed lecturer for the history of Latin America at the Latin American Studies section at the University of Rostock . There he was appointed professor with teaching assignment in September 1967, and in 1978 he was appointed full professor for general history of the modern age 1500–1917 at the history section of the WPU Rostock. A visiting professorship led him to the University of Havana in Cuba in 1968 . In 1986 Drechsler retired. From 1967 to 1978 he acted as deputy director of the Latin American Studies section in Rostock.

Drechsler was one of the most prominent researchers in the field of German colonial history in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). He was also a recognized expert internationally. His habilitation thesis was published in English, French, Russian and Spanish on the initiative of the United Nations in the 1980s.

Fonts

• South West Africa under German colonial rule.
  • Volume 1: The struggle of the Herero and Nama against German imperialism [1884–1915]. Habilitation thesis. Academy, Berlin 1966 (studies on the history of Asia, Africa and Latin America) [2. revised edition 1984]
    • [English translation udT:] Let us die fighting. The struggle of the Herero and Nama against German imperialism [1884-1915]. Zed Press, London 1980 (Africa series). [Reprint 1984: ISBN 0-905762-37-1 and ISBN 0-905762-47-9 ].
    • [Spanish translation udT:] Africa del Sudoeste bajo la dominación colonial alemana. La lucha de los Hereros y los Namas contra el imperialismo alemán (1884–1915). Academy, Berlin 1985
    • [French translation udT:] Le sud-ouest africain sous la domination coloniale allemande. La lutte des Hereros et des Namas contre l'impérialisme allemand (1884–1915). Academy, Berlin 1986
    • [Russian translation udT:] Yugo-zapadnaja Afrika pod germanskim kolonial'nym ​​gospodstvom. 1884–1915 , Izdatel'stvo Nauka, Moscow 1987
  • Volume 2: The great agricultural and mining companies (1885-1914). Steiner, Stuttgart 1996 (Contributions to Colonial and Overseas History, Vol. 63), ISBN 3-515-06689-6
• Riots in South West Africa. The struggle of the Herero and Nama from 1904 to 1907 against German colonial rule. Dietz, Berlin 1984 (History Series)

literature

• Wood turner, Horst . In: Collegium Politicum at the University of Hamburg. Historiography Working Group (Ed.): Historians in Central Germany . Ferd. Dümmerls Verlag, Bonn, Hanover, Hamburg, Munich 1965, p. 24.
• 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 , pp. 185-186.

Web links

• Literature by and about Horst Drechsler in the catalog of the German National Library
• Literature about Horst Drechsler in the state bibliography MV
• Entry on Horst Drechsler in the Catalogus Professorum Rostochiensium