Walter Bussmann

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Walter Bussmann (born January 14, 1914 in Hildesheim , † April 20, 1993 in Karlsruhe ) was a German historian .

Life

Pre-war career

Bußmann came from a Protestant civil servant family and studied history, German, philosophy and English in Heidelberg and Göttingen from 1933 to 1939 . His most important teachers were Karl Jaspers as a philosopher and Percy Ernst Schramm , Karl Brandi and Siegfried A. Kaehler as historians. In 1938 he passed the state examination for the higher teaching post in Göttingen, followed by his doctorate there in 1939. The doctoral supervisor was Siegfried A. Kaehler, subject of the dissertation Worldview standards of liberalism .

Participant in the war and knowledge of the Holocaust

From 1939 to 1945 Bußmann took part in the Second World War as an officer. During the war he belonged to the Qu 4 B department of the Quartermaster General OKH , Eduard Wagner . He kept the war diary there during the Wehrmacht attack on the Soviet Union . As part of his activities there he also evaluated the killing messages of the SS - Einsatzgruppen and regularly had his supervisor Hans Georg Schmidt of the Old City , Quartermaster General Wagner and the Chief of General Staff Franz Halder carry forward. Bussmann's sphere of responsibility also included written and verbal communication between the Quartermaster General and the civilian Reich offices such as the Reich Security Main Office and the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories . "With that he was one of the best-informed officers in the army about military-political, military-administrative-relevant issues in the rear areas, such as the liquidation of the Jewish population ."

In the "Note about the Karaimen" made by Bußmann in Department Qu 4 B, which he later published himself, he writes that the SD "until the beginning of December 1941 the Krimchaks , about 6,000 in number, together with the actual ones Jews and the gypsies in the Crimea ”.

Post war career

After the end of the war Bußmann became a research assistant at the History Department of the University of Göttingen. In 1949 he completed his habilitation in Middle and Modern History in Göttingen with a thesis on Heinrich von Treitschke . His view of the world and history.

In 1955 Bußmann was appointed to the German School of Politics in Berlin, and in 1960 he was appointed professor of modern history at the Friedrich Meinecke Institute of the Free University of Berlin as successor to Hans Herzfeld . In 1966 he went to the University of Munich as the successor of Franz Schnabel, who was responsible for the 19th and 20th centuries, at the now divided Chair of Modern History. As Schnabel's successor for the history of the early modern era, Fritz Wagner followed the call to Munich at the same time . In 1970 Bußmann finally moved to the University of Karlsruhe and took over the chair for modern history.

Bussmann was a member of the historical commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in Munich, where he was department head of the German historical sources of the 19th and 20th centuries and chief editor of the New German Biography . He was also a member of the Commission for the History of Parliamentarism and Political Parties and the Historical Commission in Berlin . From March 1977 he was the chief editor of the files on German foreign policy 1918–1945 .

From 1959 to 1977 he was a member of the Advisory Board of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom .

Fonts (selection)

  • Treitschke. His view of the world and history . Musterschmidt, Göttingen 1952; New edition 1981.
  • Bismarck in the judgment of contemporaries and posterity . Klett, Stuttgart 1954.
  • On the history of German liberalism in the 19th century . In: Historical magazine . Volume 168, 1958. Reprint Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1969.
  • The age of Bismarck . Athenaion, Konstanz 1956, 4th edition 1968.
  • The foreign policy of the German Empire under Bismarck 1871/1890 . Klett, Stuttgart 1959.
  • Friedrich Meinecke . Colloquium, Berlin 1963.
  • The internal development of the German resistance against Hitler . More, Berlin 1964.
  • Otto von Bismarck . Steiner, Wiesbaden 1966.
  • The German resistance and the " White Rose " . Hueber, Munich 1968.
  • Change and continuity in politics and history. Selected essays for the 60th birthday . Boldt, Boppard 1973, ISBN 978-3-7646-1590-1 .
  • Between Prussia and Germany. Friedrich Wilhelm IV. A biography. Siedler, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-88680-326-0 .
editor
  • Files on German foreign policy (editor of 35 volumes between 1950 and 1995).
  • Siegfried A. Kaehler: Studies on German history of the 19th and 20th centuries. Articles and lectures . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1961 (afterword by Bußmann).
  • From his private political correspondence. Count Herbert von Bismarck. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1964.
  • Handbook of European History . Volume 5: Europe from the French Revolution to the Nation-State Movements of the 19th Century . Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-12-907570-4 . (In it contributions from him: The introduction, which gives a general overview of political, economic-social, scientific and cultural aspects of this epoch, and the chapter From the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation to the Foundation of the German Empire ).
  • Fabian von Schlabrendorff: Officers against Hitler . Siedler, Berlin 1984, ISBN 3-88680-096-2 .
  • Siegfried A. Kaehler: Letters 1900–1963 . Boldt, Boppard 1993, ISBN 3-7646-1930-9 (Ed. With Günther Grünthal).

literature

  • Baden's latest news , January 14, 2014.
  • Günther Grünthal : Nekrolog. Walter Bussmann January 14, 1914 - April 20, 1993 . In: Historische Zeitschrift , Vol. 258 (1994), pp. 867-876.
  • Günther Grünthal: Walter Bussmann. In: Hans-Christof Kraus (Ed.): The subject of “Prussia” in science and science policy before and after 1945 . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2013 (= research on Brandenburg and Prussian history , supplement, NF 12), pp. 419–433, ISBN 978-3-428-14045-9 .
  • Manfred Messerschmidt : Karl Dietrich Erdmann, Walter Bußmann and Percy Ernst Schramm: Historians at the front and in the high command of the Wehrmacht and the Army. In: Hartmut Lehmann and Otto Gerhard Oexle : National Socialism in the Cultural Studies. Vol. 1: Subjects - Milieus - Careers , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, pp. 417–446, ISBN 3-525-35198-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Walter Bußmann: "Notes" from the War Administration Department at the Quartermaster General (1941/42) , in: German question and European balance. Festschrift for Andreas Hillgruber on the occasion of his 60th birthday , edited by Klaus Hildebrand and Reiner Pommerin , Böhlau, Cologne 1985, p. 229, ISBN 3-412-07984-7 .
  2. ↑ Manfred Messerschmidt: Karl Dietrich Erdmann, Walter Bußmann and Percy Ernst Schramm: Historians at the front and in the high command of the Wehrmacht and the army. In: Hartmut Lehmann and Otto Gerhard Oexle : National Socialism in the Cultural Studies. Volume 1: Subjects - Milieus - Careers. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, pp. 417-446, here p. 428, ISBN 3-525-35198-4 . See also Dieter Pohl : The rule of the Wehrmacht. German military occupation and native population in the Soviet Union 1941–1944 , 2nd edition, Oldenbourg, Munich 2009, p. 95, note 29, ISBN 978-3-486-59174-3 .
  3. ↑ Walter Bußmann: "Notes" from the War Administration Department at the Quartermaster General (1941/42) , in: German question and European balance. Festschrift for Andreas Hillgruber for his 60th birthday , edited by Klaus Hildebrand and Reiner Pommerin, Böhlau, Cologne 1985, pp. 238–240, ISBN 3-412-07984-7 .
personal data
SURNAME Bussmann, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian
DATE OF BIRTH January 14, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Hildesheim
DATE OF DEATH April 20, 1993
Place of death Karlsruhe