Wolfgang Kessler (historian)

Wolfgang Kessler (born December 22, 1946 in Hamm ) is a German historian with a focus on the history of Southeast Europe. From 1991 to 2011 he was director of the Martin Opitz Library (the former library of the German East ) in Herne .

academic career

Kessler studied history, Slavic and Eastern European history in Bochum . After receiving his doctorate in 1980 from Hans Lemberg in Düsseldorf with a thesis on politics, culture and society in Croatia and Slavonia in the first half of the 19th century, he moved to Marburg with his doctoral supervisor , where he worked as a research assistant. In the 1990s he turned to the history of the Germans in Poland and in 1991 became director in Herne.

Offices and memberships

• From 1996 to 2005, Kessler was chairman of the Commission for the History of Germans in Poland
• He is a member of the Commission for the History and Culture of Germans in Southeast Europe and the Herder Research Council (since 1988).
• until December 2011 director of the Martin Opitz library in Herne

Publications (selection)

• Politics, culture and society in Croatia and Slavonia in the first half of the 19th century . Munich 1981.
• Aspects of East German regional history . Lueneburg 1989.

Editorships

• with Franz Heiduk : The Guardian and Eichendorff Calendar. Complete table of contents . Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Sigmaringen 1985, ISBN 3-7995-1804-5 .
• Otto Heike: Life in the German-Polish field of tension . 2nd edition, Herne 2002.
• Hermann Rauschning : The emigration of the German population from West Prussia and Posen after the First World War. A contribution to the history of German-Polish relations 1919–1929 . Berlin 1988 (reprint).
• (Afterword) Arthur Rhode : Memories of the wartime in the province of Poznan 1914-1920 . Herne 2003.
• with Markus Krzoska : Between Region and Nation. 125 years of research on the history of Germans in Poland . Osnabrück 2013.

Web links

• Literature by and about Wolfgang Kessler in the catalog of the German National Library