Gerhard Albert Ritter (29 March 1929 – 20 June 2015) was a German

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

Biography

Ritter was born in and grew up in Berlin and studied from 1947 at the

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (german: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; la, Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-W� ...

and at the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

. He died in Berlin in 2015.

Honors

* Honorary Fellow of St. Antony's College Oxford * B. Lit. of Oxford University *

Honorary degree An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad h ...

of University of Bielefeld * Honorary degree of the Philosophischen Fakultät I of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (1999) * Preis des Historischen Kollegs 2007Dokumentation der Preisverleihung
/ref> * Großes

Bundesverdienstkreuz The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, or , BVO) is the only federal decoration of Germany. It is awarded for special achievements in political, economic, cultural, intellect ...

(2008)

Work

* ''Der Sozialstaat. Entstehung und Entwicklung im internationalen Vergleich.'' Oldenbourg Verlag, München 1991, * ''Über Deutschland. Die Bundesrepublik in der deutschen Geschichte.'' C. H. Beck Verlag, München 1999, * ''Der Preis der Einheit. Die Wiedervereinigung und die Krise des Sozialstaats.'' C. H. Beck Verlag, München 2006, * ''

Friedrich Meinecke Friedrich Meinecke (October 20, 1862 – February 6, 1954) was a German historian, with national liberal and anti-Semitic views, who supported the Nazi invasion of Poland. After World War II, as a representative of an older tradition, he crit ...

: Akademischer Lehrer und emigrierte Schüler. Briefe und Aufzeichnungen. 1910–1977.'' Oldenbourg Verlag, München 2006, (= Biographische Quellen zur Zeitgeschichte. 23) * ''Wir sind das Volk! Wir sind ein Volk! Geschichte der deutschen Einigung''. C. H. Beck Verlag, München 2009, .

References

* Klaus Hildebrand: ''Laudatio auf Gerhard A. Ritter.'' In: Historische Zeitschrift, Bd. 286 (2008), 2, S. 281–288. * Jürgen Kocka,

Hans-Jürgen Puhle Hans-Jürgen Puhle (born 8 October 1940 in Środa Śląska) is a German historian and political scientist Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the a ...

und Klaus Tenfelde: ''Von der Arbeiterbewegung zum modernen Sozialstaat.'' Festschrift für Gerhard A. Ritter zum 65. Geburtstag, München 1994, * Andreas Helle, Söhnke Schreyer und Marcus Gräser: ''Disziplinargeschichte und Demokratiegeschichte. Zur Entwicklung von Politik- und Geschichtswissenschaft in Deutschland nach 1945. Ein Gespräch mit Gerhard A. Ritter.'' In: Marcus Gräser (Hrsg.): ''Staat, Nation, Demokratie. Traditionen und Perspektiven moderner Gesellschaften''. Festschrift für Hans-Jürgen Puhle, Göttingen 2001, S. 270–278, . * Rüdiger Hohls und Konrad H. Jarausch (Hrsg.): ''Versäumte Fragen. Deutsche Historiker im Schatten des Nationalsozialismus''. DVA, Stuttgart 2000, , S. 118–143 und 467 (Intervie
online

Endnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ritter, Gerhard Albert 1929 births 2015 deaths Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 20th-century German historians German male non-fiction writers University of Münster faculty Writers from Berlin 21st-century German historians