Robert Gerwarth
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Robert Gerwarth (born 12 February 1976) is a German historian and author who specialises in European history, with an emphasis on
German history The concept of Germany as a distinct region in Central Europe can be traced to Julius Caesar, who referred to the unconquered area east of the Rhine as ''Germania'', thus distinguishing it from Gaul. The victory of the Cherusci, Germanic tribes ...
. Since finishing a
British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...
Postdoctoral Fellowship at the
University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
, he has held fellowships at Princeton,
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
, the NIOD (Amsterdam) and the Institute for Advanced Studies at the
University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...
. He teaches at University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland.


Career

Born in Berlin, Gerwarth earned a master's degree in history and politics from
Humboldt University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...
in 2000. While working on his doctorate at the
University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
, Gerwarth was appointed to a two-year lectureship in modern
European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD 500), the Middle Ages (AD 500–1500), and the modern era (since AD 1500). The first early Eu ...
. Shortly thereafter, he was awarded a British Academy postdoctoral fellowship. In 2003, Gerwarth received his
Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...
from Oxford. Gerwarth is currently Director of the Centre for War Studies at
University College Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...
. He is also Head of the School of History, a position that has a three-year duration, his term began in 2017. In 2008, Gerwarth debated Holocaust-denier
David Irving David John Cawdell Irving (born 24 March 1938) is an English author and Holocaust denier who has written on the military and political history of World War II, especially Nazi Germany. He was found to be a Holocaust denier in a British court ...
on Irish television. Gerwarth has been commended for the thoroughness of his research on
Reinhard Heydrich Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich ( , ; 7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942) was a German high-ranking SS and police official during the Nazi era and a principal architect of the Holocaust. He held the rank of SS-. Many historians regard Heydrich ...
in his book ''Hitler's Hangman: The Life of Heydrich.'' Heydrich did not leave behind a substantive paper trail. Reviews have noted Gerwarth's diligence in digging through archives and other sources in the United States and Ireland in order to uncover the nature of his subject. Gerwarth is credited with dispelling several myths about Heydrich, verifying that Heydrich was not Jewish and that he was a relative latecomer to membership in the
Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...
. In 2016, Gerwarth published his third monograph, ''The Vanquished'', to great critical acclaim. The Times Literary Supplement called it a “breathtaking, magisterial panorama” while The New York Review of Books described it as “important and timely”. Originally published by Penguin, the book has also been translated into sixteen further languages. Gerwarth’s fourth monograph, ''November 1918: The German Revolution'' was published by Oxford University Press in 2020. In his review for the Financial Times, Tony Barber wrote: ”Gerwarth's ''November 1918'' s oneof the most stimulating histories of the interwar period to have been published in recent years." Gerwarth's other scholarly work has been published widely in international journals such as '' The Journal of Modern History'', '' Past & Present'', ' and ''Vingtième Siècle.'' He is series editor for the
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...
monograph series, ''The Greater War, 1912–23,'' designed to mark the centenary of the First World War and, with Jay Winter, of the Cambridge University Press book series “Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare”.


Personal

Gerwarth was raised during the final years of the
Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
in
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
, Germany. At age 13, he witnessed the
fall of the Berlin Wall The fall of the Berlin Wall (, ) on 9 November in German history, 9 November 1989, during the Peaceful Revolution, marked the beginning of the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the figurative Iron Curtain, as East Berlin transit restrictions we ...
. Gerwarth says that living in such a significant historical city sparked his interest in European history. Of his career path, Gerwarth says: "I have no regrets in following this career path; I love being a historian." Other hobbies include skiing, rowing and reading for pleasure. Gerwarth currently lives in Ireland with his wife and two sons.


Published works

* * * *


Edited volumes

* ''Empires at War: 1911-1923''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2014. *''War in Peace: Paramilitary Violence in Europe After the Great War''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013 (with John Horne). * (with D. Bloxham) * * (with D. Geppert) * (with H.G. Haupt) * (with J. Harris and H. Nehring)


References


External links


Robert Gerwarth's personal Website

Gerwarth's staff page
at UCD. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gerwarth, Robert Living people 21st-century German historians Historians of Germany Historians of the Holocaust in Germany German historians of the Holocaust 1976 births