Hajo Holborn (18 May 1902,
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
– 20 June 1969,
Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...
) was a
German-American
German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the Unite ...
historian and specialist in modern German history.
Early life
Hajo Holborn was born the son of
Ludwig Holborn, the German physicist and "Direktor der
Physikalisch-Technischen Reichsanstalt," and became a student of
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 criti ...
at
Berlin University
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...
, where he achieved a doctor of philosophy in 1924. After establishing at
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
in 1926 as lecturer in medieval and modern history, he became
Privatdozent there until he was called back to Berlin as Carnegie Professor of History and International Relationships at the private
Deutsche Hochschule für Politik The Deutsche Hochschule für Politik (DHfP), or ''German Academy for Politics'', was a private academy in Berlin, founded in October 1920. It was integrated into the Faculty for Foreign Studies (''Auslandswissenschaftliche Fakultät'') of the Fried ...
.
He was dismissed from his appointments in 1933 by the Nazi government, but he had already left the country.
Emigration
Unwilling to participate in
National Socialism
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Naz ...
, that same year he fled to the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, then emigrated to the United States in 1934. Shortly after coming to America, he was appointed visiting professor of German history at
Yale
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...
.
He taught Diplomatic History at
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...
,
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
, (1936–1942) and was a guest professor at the
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hist ...
, Austria (1955). He became a U.S. citizen and during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
he worked for the
Office of Strategic Services as special assistant to the chief of its Research and Analysis Branch,
William L. Langer
William Leonard Langer (March 16, 1896 – December 26, 1977) was an American historian, intelligence analyst and policy advisor.
He served as chairman of the history department at Harvard University. He was on leave during World War II as h ...
.
Postwar
After the war, he served as Randolph W. Townsend Professor at Yale until 1959, when he was awarded the title of
Sterling Professor of History at Yale University; here he continued to teach and write until his death in 1969.
In 1967, Holborn became the first president of the
American Historical Association
The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world. Founded in 1884, the AHA works to protect academic freedom, develop professional s ...
not born in the United States.
Several specialists of German and European history in America, including
Peter Gay, were students of Holborn.
Family
Hajo Holborn married Annemarie Bettmann. Their son, Fred Holborn (born 1928), was a senior adjunct professor of American Foreign Policy at the School of Advanced International Studies at
Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...
before his death in 2005.
Their daughter,
Hanna Holborn Gray
Hanna Holborn Gray (born October 25, 1930) is an American historian of Renaissance and Reformation political thought and Professor of History ''Emerita'' at the University of Chicago. She served as president of the University of Chicago, from 197 ...
(born 1930), is a historian of political thought in the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in 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 ...
and
Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
. She is the Harry Pratt Judson Professor Emeritus at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
and was the University's President for 15 years.
Work
Prior to his emigration, Holborn was commissioned by the government to compose a history of the constitution of the
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is ...
, resulting in the work ''The Weimar Republic and the Birth of the German Democratic Party: The Hajo Holborn Papers, 1849–1956''.
Other works by Holborn include the History of Modern Germany series, spanning three volumes and covering a four-century period from the
Reformation and culminating in the capitulation of
Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
's regime in 1945. Holborn's work has been praised by peers, including
Fritz Stern
Fritz Richard Stern (February 2, 1926 – May 18, 2016) was a German-born American historian of German history, Jewish history and historiography. He was a University Professor and a provost at New York's Columbia University. His work focused ...
.
References
External links
* Hajo Holborn papers (MS 579). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Holborn, Hajo
1902 births
1969 deaths
German emigrants to the United States
20th-century German historians
Historians of Nazism
Presidents of the American Historical Association
20th-century American historians
German male non-fiction writers
Yale University faculty
Yale Sterling Professors
20th-century American male writers
American male non-fiction writers
20th-century German male writers
Academic staff of Deutsche Hochschule für Politik