Walter L. Dorn

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Walter Louis Dorn (born September 29, 1894 in Rockford , Illinois, † February 16, 1961 in New York City ) was an American historian and civilian member of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and head of the Central Europe Department of the OSS Adviser to the US military government in Germany .

Life

Academic career

Born into a family of German descent, Walter Louis Dorn studied history and theology and was a professor at the University of Chicago from 1923 to 1928 and at the University of Wisconsin from 1929 to 1931 . From 1931 to 1956 - with an interruption due to the war from 1940 to 1947 - he was Professor of Modern European History at Ohio State University , and from 1956 at Columbia University . His specialty was the Prussian history of the 18th century. During the 1930s he came to Germany several times to do archival research, particularly in the Prussian Secret State Archives , sometimes together with his colleague Eugene N. Anderson .

Employee of the Office of Strategic Services and advisor to the US Military Government after 1945

From 1940 Walter L. Dorn was an employee of the Coordinator of Information , which in 1942 became the OSS. At the OSS and the Office of Military Government for Germany (US) (OMGUS) he was responsible for denazification issues and was involved in building a library for seized Nazi documents in Berlin.

With the rank of Colonel (later Brigadier general), Dorn served at Dwight D. Eisenhower's headquarters ; he became personal advisor to General Clarence L. Adcocks in September 1945 and was 1946/1947 advisor on denazification issues to Lucius D. Clay in OMGUS. On Eisenhower's behalf, Dorn was involved in the appointment of ministers for the state of Greater Hesse . Dorn was also involved in setting up Bremen's civil administration. So he visited Wilhelm Kaisen on his settler position and appointed him to the newly formed Senate and President of the newly formed Citizenship and on August 1, 1945, Mayor of Bremen.

In September 1947 he returned to the United States and resumed his activity at Ohio State University .

Fonts (selection)

  • Frederic the Great and Lord Bute . In: The Journal of Modern History , Vol. 1, Issue 4 (December 1929), pp. 529-560.
  • The Prussian Bureaucracy in the 18th Century. In: Political Science Quarterly . Part I: Vol. 46, Issue 3 (September 1931), pp. 403-423; Part II: Vol. 47, Issue 1 (March 1932), pp. 75-94; Part III: Vol. 47, Issue 2 (June 1932), pp. 259-273.
  • Competition for empire 1740-1763 . Harper & Brothers, New York 1940.
  • Law for the Liberation from National Socialism and Militarism of March 5, 1946
  • The Debate Over American Occupation Policy in Germany in 1944-1945 . In: Political Science Quarterly , Vol. 72, Issue 4 (December 1957), pp. 481-501.
  • Inspection trips in the US zone , (edited by Lutz Niethammer ). German publishing house, Stuttgart 1973.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Barry Askinas: CU Historian Walter L. Dorn Dies of Stroke. Professor Was Known As Prussian Expert . In: Columbia Daily Spectator, Feb.20 , 1961, p. 1.
  2. ^ Ernst C. Stiefel , Frank Mecklenburg: German Jurists in American Exile (1933–1950). Mohr, Tübingen 1991, ISBN 3-16-145688-2 , p. 150.
  3. ↑ On Adcocks, see the key information ( memento of January 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) on the website of the Eisenhower archive.
  4. ^ Walter L. Dorn: The debate about the American occupation policy . In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte , vol. 6, issue 1 (January 1958), pp. 60–77.
  5. ^ Walter L. Dorn: On the history of the origin of the state of Hesse . In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte , vol. 6, issue 2 (April 1958), pp. 191–196.
  6. ↑ Wilhelm Kaisen - from the field straight to the town hall ( Memento from July 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ Weekly Information Bulletin of the Military Government, September 8, 1947, p. 6.
personal data
SURNAME Dorn, Walter L.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dorn, Walter Louis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American historian
DATE OF BIRTH September 29, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Rockford
DATE OF DEATH February 16, 1961
Place of death New York City