Magnus Brechtken

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Magnus Brechtken (born March 21, 1964 in Olsberg ) is a German historian. He is Deputy Director at the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich and teaches as an adjunct professor at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich . In 2017 he presented a comprehensive biographical study on Albert Speer and the reception of his life legends in the post-war era, which was awarded the NDR Kultur Sachbuchpreis in the same year .

Life

Brechtken studied history, political science and philosophy. At the suggestion of Klaus Hildebrand , he chose the Madagascar Plan as the subject of his doctoral thesis. In 1994 he received his doctorate from the University of Bonn. Brechtken completed his habilitation in 2002 at the University of Munich with a thesis accompanied by Horst Möller and Hans Günter Hockerts and became a private lecturer in modern and contemporary history. In 2002 he became DAAD long-term lecturer for German history and politics in the European context (19th and 20th centuries) at the University of Nottingham . From 2007 to 2012 he taught as an Associate Professor and Reader in Nottingham.

Brechtken has been deputy director at the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich since 2012 and teaches as an adjunct professor at the Ludwig Maximilians University . His main areas of work and research focus are the prehistory and history of National Socialism, the history of anti-Semitism, German-British-American relations since the 19th century, the importance of political memoirs for historiography and the international discourse on the processing of National Socialist rule since 1945.

Speer biography

Brechtken's biographical study on Albert Speer , published in 2017, received a broad, mostly positive reception and reached number 8 on the Spiegel bestseller list in June 2017 . According to Sven Felix Kellerhoff's review in Die Welt , Brechtken succeeded in an exemplary manner in addressing the lies that are still widespread today about Speer's alleged role as a “good Nazi”, his crimes, his direct responsibility for the misery of millions of slave laborers, hundreds of thousands of whom were killed to juxtapose and shed light on Speer's manipulative post-war portrayals. Robert Probst misses a more comprehensive account of the private person Speer in the Süddeutsche Zeitung , but praises the source-saturated portrayal of Speer's role as a staunch National Socialist and armaments minister, who deliberately sought the closeness of Hitler, but also Himmler and Goebbels, with a view to his own benefit.

Rolf-Dieter Müller points out in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that Brechtken says little about his methodological approach and that his biography may go down in historical literature as "the late execution of Albert Speer". However, it leaves no doubt that the apparatus of 300 pages of notes and literature on the study contributed to the quality of the study. Speer's self-portrayal after 1945 that he was ultimately an apolitical architect and technocrat who did not specifically participate in the crimes of the Nazi regime can be shown as post-war legends that contradict the facts. Like Probst in the SZ , Müller also emphasizes that Brechtken demonstrates the procedures of the Speer biographers Joachim C. Fest and Gitta Sereny with a great deal of expertise . They would not have consulted archives for their Speer biographies and so uncritically contributed to spreading Speer's “fables” and giving them literary quality and popularity.

Fonts

as an author
  • “Madagascar for the Jews.” Anti-Semitic Idea and Political Practice 1885–1945 . (= Studies on Contemporary History Vol. 53.) Oldenbourg, 2nd edition Munich 1998, ISBN 3-486-56384-X ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  • The National Socialist rule 1933–1939 . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2004, ISBN 3-534-15157-7 . (2nd reviewed, bibliographically updated edition 2012, ISBN 978-3-534-24892-6 )
  • Hinge period 1895–1907. Personality Networks and International Politics in German-British-American Relations before the First World War. Von Zabern, Mainz 2006, ISBN 978-3-8053-3397-9 .
  • Albert Speer. A German career. Siedler, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-8275-0040-3 .
as editor
  • with Adolf M. Birke : Political disaffection. The party state in the historical and current discussion . Prince Albert Studies; 12. Munich, Saur, 1995, ISBN 3-598-21412-X .
  • with Adolf M. Birke: Kommunale Selbstverwaltung / Local Self-Government: Past and Present in a German-British Comparison . Prince Albert Studies; 13. Munich, Saur, 1996. ISBN 978-3-598-21413-4 .
  • with Franz Bosbach : Political Memoirs in German and British Perspective . Munich, Saur, 2005. ISBN 3-598-21423-5 .
  • Life Writing and Political Memoir - life testimonies and political memoirs . V&R unipress publishing house, Göttingen 2012, ISBN 978-3-89971-978-9 .

Footnotes

  1. ↑ LMU: Prof. Dr. Magnus Brechtken
  2. ↑ Spiegel bestseller . In: Der Spiegel , No. 25 v. June 17, 2017, p. 122.
  3. ^ Sven Felix Kellerhoff: Albert Speer. The most successful manipulator of the Third Reich . In: Die Welt, May 31, 2017.
  4. ↑ Robert Probst: The end of the myths about Albert Speer . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung, June 1, 2017.
  5. ↑ Rolf-Dieter Müller / FAZ.net June 12, 2017: Later execution not excluded ...
  6. ↑ Magnus Brechtken in an interview with Stefan Reinecke on his spear biography: In TAZ am weekend, 17./18. June 2017. Historians on Albert Speer. “He did everything for the final victory.” Albert Speer styled himself as a good Nazi for decades. TAZ online edition of the interview on June 22, 2017.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Brechtken, Magnus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian
DATE OF BIRTH March 21, 1964
PLACE OF BIRTH Olsberg