Hagen Schulze (31 July 1943 – 4 September 2014) was a German historian who held a position 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 specialized in early modern and modern German and European history, particularly in comparative European nationalisms.

Life

Schulze studied medieval and early modern history, philosophy and political science at the

University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine U ...

and the University of Kiel. In 1967 he earned his doctorate and worked during the following years at the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

and for the Federal Archives in

Koblenz Koblenz (; Moselle Franconian language, Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz''), spelled Coblenz before 1926, is a German city on the banks of the Rhine and the Moselle, a multi-nation tributary. Koblenz was established as a Roman Empire, Roman mili ...

. In 1977 he earned his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

with his biography of Reiner Braun, after which he worked as a private tutor and as a substitute teacher at Kiel and Berlin until 1979, when he was named a full professor of modern history and historiography at the

. During the ''

Historikerstreit The ''Historikerstreit'' (, "historians' dispute") was a dispute in the late 1980s in West Germany between conservative and left-of-center academics and other intellectuals about how to incorporate Nazi Germany and the Holocaust into German hist ...

'' of 1986–7, Schulze did not defend the views of Ernst Nolte that

Nazi war crimes The governments of the German Empire and Nazi Germany (under Adolf Hitler) ordered, organized and condoned a substantial number of war crimes, first in the Herero and Namaqua genocide and then in the World War I, First and World War II, Second Wo ...

, including

The Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

, constituted a reaction to a perceived "Jewish declaration of war" against Germany, compounded by Nazi fears of Soviet communism. However, he did criticize Nolte's principal opponent,

Jürgen Habermas Jürgen Habermas (, ; ; born 18 June 1929) is a German social theorist in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. His work addresses communicative rationality and the public sphere. Associated with the Frankfurt School, Habermas's wor ...

, for presenting overly-simplistic views: on the one hand, liberals who supported the mainstream view of German history; on the other hand a group of historians promoted by conservatives. From 2000 to 2006 Schulze was the director of the

German Historical Institute The German Historical Institutes (GHI), german: Deutsche Historische Institute, (''DHI'') are six independent academic research institutes of the Max Weber Foundation dedicated to the study of historical relations between Germany Germany, ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Selected works

*''Kleine deutsche Geschichte'' (C. H. Beck, Munich, 1996) *''States, Nations and Nationalism: From the Middle Ages to the Present (The Making of Europe)'' (with William E. Yuill, 1998) *''Germany: A New History'' (with

Deborah Lucas Schneider According to the Book of Judges, Deborah ( he, דְּבוֹרָה, ''Dəḇōrā'', " bee") was a prophetess of the God of the Israelites, the fourth Judge of pre-monarchic Israel and the only female judge mentioned in the Bible. Many scholars ...

, 2001) *''The Course of German Nationalism: From Frederick the Great to Bismarck 1763-1867'' (with

Sarah Hanbury-Tenison Sarah (born Sarai) is a biblical matriarch and prophetess, a major figure in Abrahamic religions. While different Abrahamic faiths portray her differently, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all depict her character similarly, as that of a pio ...

, 2003)

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schulze, Hagne 1943 births 2014 deaths People from Tangier 20th-century German historians University of Bonn alumni University of Kiel alumni Free University of Berlin faculty German male non-fiction writers Academics of the German Historical Institute London 21st-century German historians