Willi Paul Adams

Willi Paul Adams (born January 16, 1940 in Leipzig ; † October 3, 2002 in Berlin ) was a German Americanist and historian .

Life

Willi Paul Adams spent a school year in New York State at the age of seventeen. He studied history at the University of Bonn and since 1962 at the Free University of Berlin. In 1965/66 a research fellowship took him to Yale . In 1968 he received his doctorate from the Free University of Berlin under Gerald Stourzh and Hans Rudolf Guggisberg . In 1970 he was a visiting professor at the University of Chicago . In 1972 the habilitation followed. Since 1972 he has taught as a professor for American studies at the University of Frankfurt and since 1977 has been professor for North American history at the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies at the Free University of Berlin, at times also spokesman for the institute.

His work focused on the American Revolution , American constitutional history and German emigration to America. The sum of his research resulted in the two portrayals, published in 2000, The USA before 1900 and The USA in the 20th century . The constitutional historian John Phillip Reid described Adam's work as "the classic of the constitutional history of the individual states". In his view, his research and analysis would “not be obsolete for decades”.

In 1976 Adams received for his dissertation the Republican Constitution and Civil Liberty. The constitutions and political ideas of the American Revolution won the American Historical Association's Bicentennial Jubilee Award for best non-English account of the American Revolution. In his honor, the Organization of American Historians has presented the Willi Paul Adams Award for the best non-English book on American history every two years since 2003 .

Together with his colleague Knud Krakau , Adams was editor of studies on the history, politics and society of North America .

tomb

Adams died after four years of cancer at the age of 62. Four months after his death, his wife Angela also died. He is buried in the Dahlem forest cemetery.

Fonts

• The postulate of equality in the American Revolution. In: Historical magazine . Vol. 212, 1971, pp. 59-99.
• Republican Constitution and Civil Liberty. The constitutions and political ideas of the American Revolution (= Politica. Vol. 37). Luchterhand, Darmstadt et al. 1973, ISBN 3-472-74537-1 .
• as editor: The United States of America (= Fischer Weltgeschichte , Vol. 30). Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1977, ISBN 3-596-60030-8 .
• The history of North America in Berlin. In: Reimer Hansen , Wolfgang Ribbe (ed.): History in Berlin in the 19th and 20th centuries. Personalities and institutions (= publications of the Historical Commission in Berlin. Vol. 82, publications of the Section for the History of Berlin. ). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 1992, ISBN 3-11-012841-1 , pp. 595-601.
• The USA before 1900 (= Oldenbourg floor plan of history , vol. 28). Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-53081-X .
• The USA in the 20th century (= Oldenbourg floor plan of history , vol. 29). Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-56439-0 .

literature

• Gerald Stourzh : Nekrolog: Willi Paul Adams 1940-2002 . In: Historical magazine. Vol. 276, 2003, pp. 548-551.

Web links

• Literature by and about Willi Paul Adams in the catalog of the German National Library
• Short biography and reviews of works by Willi Paul Adams at perlentaucher.de
• Heinz Ickstadt : Obituary of the newspaper of the Free University of Berlin.

Remarks

1. ↑ Gerald Stourzh: Nekrolog: Willi Paul Adams 1940-2002. In: Historical magazine . Vol. 276, 2003, pp. 548-551, here: p. 549.
2. ↑ https://www.oah.org/awards/book-awards/willi-paul-adams-award/