Karl Dietrich Erdmann

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Karl Dietrich Erdmann

Karl Dietrich Erdmann (born April 29, 1910 in Mülheim am Rhein , † June 23, 1990 in Kiel ) was a German historian .

Life

Karl Dietrich Erdmann was born into a Protestant family, studied history, Protestant theology and philosophy in Cologne , Paris , London and Marburg since 1928 and received his doctorate in 1933 at the University of Marburg under Wilhelm Mommsen . He then went into the school service, which he had to leave in October 1938, because his wife could not provide evidence of Aryans . A textbook he co-authored in 1938 and which was heavily controversial after his death because of clear National Socialist tendencies did not appear because the examination committee was not satisfied with the presentation of National Socialism. The historian Hans-Ulrich Wehler did not accept that. He took the view that the mere fact that Erdmann had written this book in the National Socialist sense suggests texts with "National Socialist historical misrepresentation". It was only after completion that the commission checked, which made higher National Socialist demands than Erdmann had planned. The Aryan certificate for the wife had also come and Erdmann had received his official post. The salary had been paid by the end of the war. At the beginning of the war Erdmann became a soldier and was active in officer training towards the end of the war. In September 1945 he became a research assistant at the historical seminar in Cologne and completed his habilitation there in 1947 with Peter Rassow .

In 1951 he became an adjunct professor in Cologne and held a chair for modern history at Kiel University from 1953 until his retirement in 1978 . In 1973 he was elected a full member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences .

In the 1960s, Erdmann got into a violent, sometimes very personal dispute with Fritz Fischer , whose theses ( grabbing world power ) on the German war guilt in the First World War he attacked together with Gerhard Ritter , Egmont Zechlin and others. The debate, which entered the historiography as the Fischer controversy, aroused great public interest, it had an eminently political character and escalated more and more when Erdmann was accused by some scholars (here especially Bernd Sösemann ), some of the documents he used as evidence for his He or the supporters of his position may have intentionally changed or even falsified views that he had put forward (especially the diaries of Kurt Riezler he edited in 1972 ). Bruno Thoß describes this in 1994 with the words that “the edition of the Riezler diaries, which is generally considered to be particularly reliable, has come under sharp attack”. He believes that the dispute has not "been finally decided and that it has been accused of forgery." Thomas Beckers takes the view in the First World War Encyclopedia that the diaries were incomplete and distorted. As a member of the CDU , Erdmann also commented on current politics - for example on the Ostpolitik of the social-liberal government.

Some of Erdmann's works are still largely undisputed standard works on the history of the 20th century, with the years between 1914 and 1949 being the focus of his research. The journal History in Science and Education , which he founded and was responsible for until his death, is still one of the most renowned German specialist publications . Erdmann was chairman of the Association of German Historians from 1962 to 1967 and chairman of the German Education Council from 1966 to 1970 , and from 1975 to 1980 president of the World Association of Historians, Comité International des Sciences Historiques (CISH). In 1982 he was awarded the City of Kiel's Culture Prize.

Erdmann's academic students included Gerhard Beier , Eberhard Jäckel , Erasmus Jonas , Jens Petersen , Karl-Heinz Minuth and Romedio Graf von Thun-Hohenstein .

Fonts (selection)

  • The relationship between state and religion according to Rousseau's social philosophy (the term “religion civile”) (= historical studies , volume 271). Ebering, Berlin 1935 [dissertation].
  • (Ed.): The Age of World Wars ( Gebhardt. Handbuch der deutschen Geschichte , 8th edition, Volume 4), Stuttgart 1959.
  • Adenauer in Rhineland politics after the First World War . Klett, Stuttgart 1966.
  • (Ed.): Kurt Riezler: Diaries, Articles, Documents. Göttingen 1972 (with list of publications, pp. 739–742). New edition with an introduction by Holger Afflerbach . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-525-35817-7 .
  • The First World War ( Gebhardt. Handbook of German History , 9th edition, Volume 4.1), Stuttgart 1973, dtv 4218, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-423-04218-4 (=  Gebhardt. Handbook of German History . Volume 18 ).
  • The Weimar Republic. ( Gebhardt. Handbuch der deutschen Geschichte , 9th edition, Volume 4.1), Stuttgart 1973, dtv 4219, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-423-04219-2 (=  Handbook of German History , Volume 19).
  • Germany under the rule of National Socialism: 1933–1939 . ( Gebhardt. Handbuch der deutschen Geschichte , 9th edition, Volume 4.2), Stuttgart 1973, dtv 4220, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-423-04220-6 (=  Handbook of German History , Volume 20).
  • The Second World War, ( Gebhardt. Handbook of German History , 9th edition, Volume 4.2), Stuttgart 1973, dtv, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-423-04221-4 (=  Handbook of German History , Volume 21).
  • The end of the empire and the emergence of the Republic of Austria, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic , ( Gebhardt. Handbuch der deutschen Geschichte , 9th edition, Volume 4.2), Stuttgart 1973, dtv 4222, Munich 1999, ISBN 3 -423-04222-2 (=  Handbook of German History , Vol. 22).
  • Reich Chancellery files. Weimar Republic. The Stresemann I and II cabinets (1923) . Volume 1: August 13, 1923 to October 6, 1923 , Volume 2: October 6, 1923 to November 30, 1923 . Edited by Karl Dietrich Erdmann and Martin Vogt. Oldenbourg, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-7646-1641-5 (Volume 1), ISBN 3-7646-1641-5 (Volume 2).
  • The ecumenical movement of historians. History of the International Congress of Historians and the Comité International des Sciences Historiques , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1987 (= treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class , Volume 3, Volume 158).

literature

  • Arvid von Bassi: Karl Dietrich Erdmann's appointment to the Christiana Albertina in 1953. In: Christoph Cornelißen (Hrsg.): Wissenschaft im Aufbruch. Contributions to the re-establishment of Kiel University after 1945 (= communications from the Society for Kiel City History. Volume 88). Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2014, ISBN 978-3-8375-1390-5 , pp. 130–159.
  • Agnes Blänsdorf: On the biography of Karl Dietrich Erdmann 1939-1945. Soldier in World War II. In: History in Science and Education 61 (2010), pp. 713–730.
  • Christoph Cornelißen : Karl Dietrich Erdmann. Continuation of a debate and open questions . In: History in Science and Education 61 (2010), pp. 692–699.
  • Eberhard Jäckel : Karl Dietrich Erdmann 1910–1990. In: Historische Zeitschrift 252 (1991), pp. 529-539.
  • Eberhard Jäckel: Karl Dietrich Erdmann. Its public impact. In: History in Science and Education 61 (2010), pp. 731–736.
  • Eberhard Jäckel, Agnes Blänsdorf: One more time to Karl Dietrich Erdmann. In: History in Science and Education 48 (1997), pp. 744–747.
  • Martin Kröger , Roland Thimme : The historical pictures of the historian Karl Dietrich Erdmann. From the Third Reich to the Federal Republic . Oldenbourg, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-486-56154-5 .
  • Martin Kröger, Roland Thimme: Karl Dietrich Erdmann in the "Third Reich". One answer to Eberhard Jäckel and Agnes Blänsdorf. In: History in Science and Education 48 (1997), pp. 462–478.
  • Martin Kröger, Roland Thimme: Karl Dietrich Erdmann. Utopias and realities. The controversy. In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft 7 (1998), pp. 603–621.
  • Hartmut Lehmann : Karl Dietrich Erdmann in the time of National Socialism. Erdmann as a teacher . In: History in Science and Education 61 (2010), pp. 700–712.
  • Marcel vom Lehn: West German and Italian historians as intellectuals? How you deal with National Socialism and Fascism in the mass media (1943 / 45–1960) (= Critical Studies in History . Volume 206). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2012, ISBN 978-3-525-37022-3 (Simultaneously slightly abbreviated version from: Berlin, Freie Universität, dissertation, 2010).
  • Winfried Schulze , Eberhard Jäckel, Agnes Blänsdorf: Karl Dietrich Erdmann and National Socialism. In: History in Science and Education 48 (1997), pp. 220–240.

Web links

Commons : Karl Dietrich Erdmann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ^ Mülheim am Rhein was not incorporated into Cologne until 1914.
  2. ↑ Marcel vom Lehn: West German and Italian historians as intellectuals? How you deal with National Socialism and Fascism in the mass media (1943 / 45–1960). Göttingen 2012, p. 66.
  3. ^ Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. Updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, p. 138.
  4. ↑ Marcel vom Lehn: West German and Italian historians as intellectuals? How you deal with National Socialism and Fascism in the mass media (1943 / 45–1960). Göttingen 2012, p. 68.
  5. ↑ Hans-Ulrich Wehler: National Socialism and Historians. In: Winfried Schulze, Otto Gerhard Oexle (Hrsg.): German historians in National Socialism. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-596-14606-2 , pp. 306-340, here: p. 325.
  6. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 77.
  7. ↑ Bernd Sösemann: The diaries of Kurt Riezler. Investigations into their authenticity and edition . In: Historische Zeitschrift 236 (1983), Issue 2, pp. 327-369; Karl Dietrich Erdmann: On the authenticity of Kurt Riezler's diaries. An anti-criticism . In: Historische Zeitschrift 236 (1983), Issue 2, pp. 371-402.
  8. ↑ Bruno Thoß: The First World War as an event and experience. Paradigm shift in West German World War II research since the Fischer controversy . In Wolfgang Michalka (ed.): The First World War, Piper, Munich, 1994, ISBN 3-492-11927-1 , p. 1016.
  9. ↑ Thomas Becker: Riezler, Kurt . In: Gerhard Hirschfeld , Gerd Krumeich and Irina Renz: Encyclopedia First World War . Schöningh, Paderborn 2003, ISBN 3-506-73913-1 , p. 797.
  10. ↑ Files of the Reich Chancellery on the website of the Federal Archives.
personal data
SURNAME Erdmann, Karl Dietrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian
DATE OF BIRTH April 29, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH June 23, 1990
Place of death Kiel