The German Historians

Hans Mommsen

Born 1930, son of Wilhelm Mommsen and twin of Wolfgang J. Mommsen; from 1941 attended the Städtische Realgymnasium in Marburg; in 1951 studied History, German Literature, and Philosophy at Marburg; at University of Heidelberg Teaching Assistant of Werner Conze; dissertation at the University of Tübingen under the supervision of Hans Rothfels; Doctorate in Philosophy 1959; Habil. 1967; 1960-61 researcher at the Munich Institut für Zeitgeschichte; 1968-1996 Professor of Modern History at the Ruhr University in Bochum. He is perhaps Germany's most prominent historian and Goldhagen's most ardent opponent.

Hans-Ulrich Wehler

Born 1931 in Freudenberg near Siegen; father killed in action when he, Wehler, was eight; admitted in recent interview his enthusiastic participation in the Hitler Youth; studied History, Sociology, and Economics at Athens, Ohio, and Bonn, and Cologne; Doctorate of Philosophy 1962 and Habil. 1968, both under the supervision of Theodor Schieder; in 1971 appointed Chair in Modern History at the new University of Bielefeld, where he became one of the founders of the so-called "Bielefeld School" (the "Historische Sozialwissenschaft"), a structuralist approach to history; one of the founders and co-editors of the journal Geschichte und Gesellschaft; noteworthy spokesman in recent debate over the plight of the German refugees; retired in 1996.

Eberhard Jäckel

Born in 1929 in Wesermünde; attended Gymnasium in Dortmund, Fulda, and Arnsberg; commenced university studies after World War II at Göttingen and continued at Tübingen, Freiburg i. Br.; Gainsville, Florida, and Paris; 1955 Doctorate in Philosophy, Doktor-Vater, Gerhard Ritter; 1961 Habil. at Kiel; 1967-97 Chair for Modern History at the University of Stuttgart; a Hitler specialist but his source book Hitler: Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen 1905-1924 (1980) contains forgeries by Konrad Kujau who was exposed in 1983 as the forger of the so-called Hitler Diaries. Jäckel is considered to be one of Germany's leading left liberal historians.

Born in 1952 in Stuttgart; university studies in History, Oriental Studies and Ethnology in Munich, Tübingen and Stuttgart; dissertation "Die höheren SS- und Polizeiführer: Himmlers Vertreter im Reich und in den besetzten Gebieten" written under the supervision of Eberhard Jäckel; 1985-86 postdoctoral fellow at MIT; since 1986 conducted investigations on suspected Nazi war criminals for Australian, Canadian and U.S. governments; since 1991 Chief Historian of the Crimes against Humanities and War Crimes Section of the Canadian Department of Justice. Der Spiegel introduced her in its anti-Goldhagen campaign to German readers as the "most knowledgeable expert on questions concerning the Holocaust."