Michael Stürmer
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Michael Stürmer (born September 29, 1938) is a German historian.
Born in Kassel, Germany, Stürmer received his education in history, philosophy and languages at the University of Marburg, the Free University of Berlin and the London School of Economics. From 1973 to 2003, he held a professorship at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg and at various times has been a guest lecturer at the Sorbonne, Harvard University, and the Institute for Advanced Study. In the 1980s, Stürmer worked as an advisor to the West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. At present, Stürmer is chief correspondent for the newspaper Die Welt, published by the Axel Springer publishing group.
Stürmer is best known for his advocacy of a geographical interpretation of German history. Stürmer has argued that what he regards as Germany’s precarious geographical situation in Central Europe has been the deciding factor in the course of German history, and that to cope with this matter has left successive German rulers no other choice but to engage in authoritarian government. During the of the 1980s, Stürmer played a prominent role in the Historikerstreit, and was much criticized by left-wing historians for an essay he wrote entitled "Land Without History" published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on April 25, 1986, in which Stürmer claimed that Germans lacked an history to be proud of, and called for a "positive evaluation" of German history as a way of building national pride. In Stürmer's view, what was needed was a campaign by the government, the media and historians to create a "positive view" of German history. In Stürmer's opinion, the Third Reich was a major block towards a postive view of the German past, and what was needed was a focus on the broad sweep of German history as opposed to 12 years of Nazi Germany as way of creating a national identity that all Germans could take pride in[1]. Many of Stürmer's critics in the Historikerstreit such as Hans-Ulrich Wehler and Jürgen Kocka accused Stürmer of attempting to white-wash the Nazi past, a charge Stürmer vehemently rejected[2]. Much of Stürmer's work since the Historikerstreit has been concerned with creating the sense of national identity he feels Germans are missing. In his 1992 book, Die Grenzen der Macht, Stürmer suggested that German history be viewed in the long-term starting from the 17th century to the 20th century to find the "national and trans-national traditions and patterns worth cherishing"[3]. Stürmer argued that traditons were tolerance for religious minorities, civic values, federalism and striking the fine balance between the peripheries and the center[4]. In a 1992 interview, Stürmer called his historical work a "bid to prevent Hitler remaining the final, unavoidable object of German history, or indeed its one and only starting point"[5].
[edit] References
- Evans, Richard In Hitler's Shadow : West German Historians and the Attempt to Escape from the Nazi Past, New York : Pantheon Books, 1989, ISBN 067972348X.
- Hirschfeld, Gerhard "Erasing the Past?" pages 8–10 from History Today Volume 37, Issue 8, August 1987
- Kershaw, Ian The Nazi Dictatorship : Problems and Perspectives of interpretation, London : Arnold 2000.
- Muller, Jerry "German Historians At War" pages 33-42 from Commentary Volume 87, Issue #5, May 1989.
- Piper, Ernst (editor) Forever in the Shadow of Hitler? : Original Documents of the Historikerstreit, the Controversy Concerning the Singularity of the Holocaust, Atlantic Highlands, N.J. : Humanities Press, 1993 ISBN 0391037846.
[edit] Endnotes
- ^ Kershaw, Ian The Nazi Dictatorship : Problems and Perspectives of interpretation, London : Arnold 2000 page 239.
- ^ Kershaw, Ian The Nazi Dictatorship : Problems and Perspectives of interpretation, London : Arnold 2000 page 239.
- ^ , Ian The Nazi Dictatorship : Problems and Perspectives of interpretation, London : Arnold 2000 page 242.
- ^ , Ian The Nazi Dictatorship : Problems and Perspectives of interpretation, London : Arnold 2000 page 242.
- ^ Interview with David Walker in The Times Higher Education Supplement, July 24, 1992.
[edit] Work
- The German Empire, 1870-1918, New York : Random House, 2000 ISBN 0679640908.
- (Editor) The German Century London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1999 ISBN 0297825240.
- Co-edited with Robert D. Blackwill Allies Divided : Transatlantic Policies for the Greater Middle East, Cambridge, Mass. ; London : MIT Press, 1997 ISBN 0262522446.
- Contributor to For the Friends of Nature and Art : the Garden Kingdom of Prince Franz von Anhalt-Dessau in Age of Enlightenment, Ostfildern-Ruit : G. Hatje ; New York : Distribution in the US DAP, Distributed Art Publishers, 1997 ISBN 3775707158.
- Die Reichsgründung : deutscher Nationalstaat und europäisches Gleichgewicht im Zeitalter Bismarcks, München : Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 1984 ISBN 3423045043.
- Das ruhelose Reich : Deutschland 1866-1918, Berlin : Severin und Siedler, 1983 ISBN 3886800512.
- Die Weimarer Republik : belagerte Civitas, Königstein/Ts. : Verlagsgruppe Athenäum, Hain, Scriptor, Hanstein, 1980 ISBN 3445120641.
- Regierung und Reichstag im Bismarckstaat 1871-1880 : Cäsarismus oder Parlamentarismus, Düsseldorf : Droste, 1974
- Bismarck und die preussisch-deutsche Politik, 1871-1890, München : Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, 1970.
- (Editor) Das kaiserliche Deutschland; Politik und Gesellschaft, 1870-1918, Düsseldorf, Droste 1970.
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Stürmer, Michael |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Historian |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 29, 1938 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kassel, Germany |
| DATE OF DEATH | living |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
