Rolf Hellmut Foerster

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Rolf Hellmut Foerster (born June 18, 1927 in Karlsruhe ; † December 16, 1990 ) was a German historian and writer .

The son of a senior city official evaded British captivity by escaping to his mother, who lived in Calw . After the war he trained as a bookseller in Stuttgart and briefly studied history at the University of Tübingen . In 1957 he published his first short story. In 1963 and 1967 he published two relevant books on Europe. Since 1962 he has written more than 150 radio programs on political and historical topics for ARD . In 1968 he published books on the role of Berlin in European intellectual life, then - probably under the influence of the student revolt of 1968/69 - a representation of the many uprisings and rebellions in Germany ( Revolution in Germany. Die chronic utopia 1971), then two volumes on the Gothic ( Life in the Gothic , 1977) and the Baroque ( Die Welt des Barock , 1977). In 1980 he published a history of human evolution ( Between Earth and Immortality. The Adventure of Human Evolution , 1980). A year later a book about the baroque palace followed (1981). Foerster had been a member of the PEN Center Germany since 1973, he was awarded the Schubart Literature Prize in 1974, and in 1980/81 he received an annual scholarship from the state of Baden-Württemberg .

Foerster translated more than 200 books from English into German, such as two important studies by Arnold Toynbees from the early 1960s ( The Present-Day Expoeriment in Western Civilization, America and the World Revolution ) entitled The Future of the West .

Works

  • Between earth and immortality. The adventure of human evolution. Stuttgart 1980.
  • The world of the baroque. Munich 1977.
  • Life in the Gothic. Munich 1977.
  • Revolution in Germany. The chronic utopia. Munich 1971.
  • The role of Berlin in European intellectual life. Berlin 1968.
  • History and European politics. Bonn 1966.
  • The idea of ​​Europe 1300–1946. Sources on the history of political unification. Munich 1963.

literature

  • Heinz Duchhardt : Rolf Hellmut Foerster. In: Heinz Duchhardt (Hrsg.): Europa-Historiker. A biographical manual. Vol. 1, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 3-525-30154-5 , pp. 303-315.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Foerster, Rolf Hellmut
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian and writer
DATE OF BIRTH June 18, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Karlsruhe
DATE OF DEATH December 16, 1990