Werner Gembruch

Werner Gembruch (born July 5, 1918 in Würzburg , † July 15, 1988 ) was a German historian .

The son of a factory owner graduated from the Kaiser-Friedrichs-Gymnasium in Frankfurt am Main in 1937 . He then did six months' Reich Labor Service . He embarked on a military career. In November 1942 he was taken prisoner by the British in El-Alamein . He taught Latin in a so-called camp university. He studied history, German and philosophy at Frankfurt University . His academic teacher was Otto Vossler . He received his doctorate in 1950 with a thesis on Otto von Bismarck . Gembruch was Vossler's assistant until 1956. In the meantime he was promoted to major in the Bundeswehr . After the end of his assistantship, he moved to the Military History Research Office in Freiburg im Breisgau for financial reasons . There he worked as a lifetime official, among other things, with the development of curricula for officers' schools. However, he continued to publish scientific articles, especially in the magazine Wehrwissenschaftliche Rundschau .

He completed his habilitation in Frankfurt in 1960 with a thesis on Freiherr vom Stein . The Philosophical Faculty in Frankfurt offered him a diet lecturer in view of his excellent habilitation. He then decided to swap the secure career for the less lucrative and less secure career at university. In the winter semester 1960/61 he started teaching at the University of Frankfurt. In April 1965 he was appointed full professor in Frankfurt. In 1986 he retired. With his work on stone he presented a standard work. His most important essays were bundled and edited by Johannes Kunisch in 1990 . The studies deal with Prussian and French history from 1633 to 1831.

Fonts (selection)

• State and army. Selected historical studies on the Ancien Régime, the French Revolution and the Wars of Liberation (= historical research. Vol. 40). Edited by Johannes Kunisch. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-428-06716-9 .
• Freiherr vom Stein in the Age of Restoration (= writings of the Scientific Society at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University. Vol. 2). Steiner, Wiesbaden 1960.

literature

• Peter Wende : Werner Gembruch. Soldier and historian. In: Evelyn Brockhoff, Bernd Heidenreich and Michael Maaser (eds.): Frankfurter Historiker (= series of publications of the Frankfurt University Archives. Vol. 6). Wallstein, Göttingen 2017, ISBN 3-8353-1749-0 , pp. 169-185.

Web links

• Literature by and about Werner Gembruch in the catalog of the German National Library