Werner Jochmann (August 5, 1921 – November 16, 1994) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

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 species; as well as the ...

and director of the Research Centre for the History of National Socialism in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Early life and career

Werner Jochmann grew up the son of a modest farmer. After completing the

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

(final exams) and graduating from high school in Reichenbach in 1940, he was immediately drafted into the German defence force (''

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...

''). In August 1941 he was wounded in

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, and in 1942, after being discharged from the hospital, Jochmann studied history, German, geography and philosophy at

Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...

. However, he was expelled from the university due to a conflict with a

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

functionary. From 1948 to 1953 he was a teacher at a secondary school in

. In 1953 Jochmann was hired as an assistant to the historian Fritz Fischer, from the University of Hamburg, working intensively on 20th-century German history for the next seven years. In 1960 he was entrusted to the Hamburg Senate building of the former "Research Centre for the History of National Socialism" in Hamburg that he conducted 26 years to his retirement 1986th During this time, the establishment has developed into a well-known at home and abroad Institute. With the reestablishment of the Institute continued Jochmann by that not only the period of

National Socialism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was frequ ...

in the narrow sense, but the history since the foundation of the

Reich ( ; ) is a German word whose meaning is analogous to the English word " realm". The terms and are respectively used in German in reference to empires and kingdoms. In English usage, the term " Reich" often refers to Nazi Germany, also ca ...

in 1871 was to investigate. In his era a large number of studies appeared on the political social history of Hamburg and Germany from the late 19th to the mid-20th century. The focus was on the question of the causes for the rise of Nazism, according to its precursors and pioneers. Besides Jochmann worked in teaching for many years. From 1954 to 1959 he taught at the Institute of Teacher Education from 1959 to 1963, the Academy of Sciences and from 1967 to 1984 at the History Department of the

University of Hamburg The University of Hamburg (, also referred to as UHH) is a public university, public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('':de:Allgemeines Vorlesungswesen, ...

. Jochmann acted as a consultant in the Hamburg Nazi trial of Ludwig Hahn, the Commander of the Security Police and Security Service in Warsaw. A wider public Jochmann was also by publishing a faithful version of Hitler Table Talk known. He has fund amental contributions to the spread of anti-Semitism (to 1945) submitted between 1871 and 1945 and the history of National Socialism in Hamburg, Germany, and the political role of Protestants during this time. Jochmann worked according to the maxim "memory freed and is the basis of reconciliation," according to the news magazine ''Der Spiegel''. He was willing "to get different answers, than expected or even desired."''Der Spiegel'' (1994)
"GESTORBEN: Werner Jochmann."
''Der Spiegel'' 42.

Selected bibliography

*(Ed.) ''Monologues at Hitler's headquarters from 1941 to 1944. Recorded by Henry Home''. Hamburg 1980, (special edition, Munich 2000, ). *''Social crisis and hostility towards Jews in Germany from 1870 to 1945''. Hamburg 1988, (Hamburger contributions to social and contemporary history, Volume 23). *''In the struggle for power. Hitler's speech to the Hamburg National Club of 1919''. Frankfurt am Main, 1960 (Publications of the Research Centre for the History of National Socialism in Hamburg, Band 1). *''National Socialism and Revolution. Origin and History of the Nazi Party in Hamburg from 1922 to 1933''. Documents. Frankfurt am Main, 1963 (Publications of the Research Centre for the History of National Socialism in Hamburg, Volume 3).

Literature

*Büttner, Ursula (1986). "Werner Jochmann's work as director of the Research Centre for the History of National Socialism." In ''The unjust regime: International research on National Socialism''. Vol. 1, Hamburg: pp. XV-XXVII. . *Büttner, Ursula (2001). "Werner Jochmann." In ''Hamburgische Biography''. Vol 1. Franklin Kopitzsch and Dirk Brietzke, eds. Hamburg: Wallstein Verlag. pp. 150–151. . *Büttner, Ursula (2004). Werner Jochmann. A review of the tenth anniversary. ''Contemporary History in Hamburg'' 2: 11-13.. *Schüler-Springorum, Stefanie (2004). Werner Jochmann and the German-Jewish history. ''Contemporary History in Hamburg'', Vol 2, pp. 14–20.

References

Links

in the catalog of the German National Library
Karl-Heinz Janßen: Werner Jochmann
In: The time, August 8 1986th
On the death of Werner Jochmann. Ethos of a historian
''Time'' 25 November 25, 1994 {{DEFAULTSORT:Jochmann, Werner 1921 births 1994 deaths 20th-century German historians