Peter C. W. Hoffmann (born 1930) is a German-Canadian historian who is the William Kingsford Professor in the Department of History at

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

. His principal area of research deals with the German resistance against Nazism, and in particular, the resistance efforts of

Claus von Stauffenberg Colonel Claus Philipp Maria Justinian Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (; 15 November 1907 – 21 July 1944) was a German army officer best known for his failed attempt on 20 July 1944 to assassinate Adolf Hitler at the Wolf's Lair. Despite ...

. Hoffmann lives in Canada and in Germany.

Life

Hoffmann was born in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

, Germany, on 13 August 1930 and grew up in Stuttgart. He is the son of , a former director of the Wurtemberg State Library and

University Library of Tübingen The University Library of Tübingen (german: Universitätsbibliothek Tübingen; ''UB Tübingen'') is the main library of the University of Tübingen, one of the biggest and most renowned universities in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The people who ...

. After studying at the universities of Stuttgart,

Tübingen Tübingen (, , Swabian: ''Dibenga'') is a traditional university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer rivers. about one in thre ...

, Zurich,

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Chart ...

and

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

he received his doctorate in 1961 from Franz Schnabel following his thesis defence on ''The diplomatic relations between Wurtemberg and Bavaria from the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included t ...

and the beginning of the Italian Crisis'' (''Die diplomatischen Beziehungen zwischen Württemberg und Bayern im Krimkrieg und bis zum Beginn der Italienischen Krise''). In 1965 he became a postdoctorate at the

University of Northern Iowa The University of Northern Iowa (UNI) is a public university in Cedar Falls, Iowa. UNI offers more than 90 majors across the colleges of Business Administration, Education, Humanities, Arts, and Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences and gr ...

. In 1970 he took up a teaching position on German History at

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

. Hoffmann is the William Kingsford Professor of History at McGill and a

fellow of the Royal Society of Canada Fellowship of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Canada judges to have "made remarkable contributions in the arts, the humanities and the sciences, as well as in Canadian public li ...

Works

* ''Widerstand, Staatsstreich, Attentat - Der Kampf der Opposition gegen Hitler''. 4. new reworked and expanded edition. Piper, München 1985. . * ''German Resistance to Hitler''. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts 1989. . * ''Stauffenberg und der 20. Juli 1944''. Beck, Munich 1998. . * ''Hitler's Personal Security''. Da Capo Press, Boston 2000

979 Year 979 ( CMLXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * March 24 – Second Battle of Pankaleia: An Ibero-Byzantine expeditionary ...

. * ''Stauffenbergs Freund. Die tragische Geschichte des Widerstandskämpfers Joachim Kuhn.'' C. H. Beck, Munich 2007. .see also

Joachim Kuhn Joachim (; ''Yəhōyāqīm'', "he whom Yahweh has set up"; ; ) was, according to Christian tradition, the husband of Saint Anne and the father of Mary, the mother of Jesus. The story of Joachim and Anne first appears in the Biblical apocryphal ...

and th
''Rezension''
by Hanne Stinshoff at H-Soz-Kult * ''Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg. Die Biographie''. Fourth, expanded edition. Pantheon, Munich 2009. . * ''

Carl Goerdeler Carl Friedrich Goerdeler (; 31 July 1884 – 2 February 1945) was a monarchist conservative German politician, executive, economist, civil servant and opponent of the Nazi regime. He opposed some anti-Jewish policies while he held office and was ...

and the Jewish Question, 1933–1942''. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2011. . * ''Behind

Valkyrie In Norse mythology, a valkyrie ("chooser of the slain") is one of a host of female figures who guide souls of the dead to the god Odin's hall Valhalla. There, the deceased warriors become (Old Norse "single (or once) fighters"Orchard (1997:36 ...

. German Resistance to Hitler. Documents''. McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal & Kingston, London, Ithaca 2011. . * ''Carl Goerdeler gegen die Verfolgung der Juden''. Böhlau Verlag, Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 2013. .

Literature

* T. Lahme: ''Ein Leben im Widerstand. Zum 80. Geburtstag von Peter Hoffmann''. In: FAZ, 9. August 2010, S. 28.

References

External links

*
Website with publications by Peter Hoffmann the McGill University server
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoffmann, Peter 20th-century Canadian historians McGill University faculty Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada German emigrants to Canada Writers from Dresden Living people 1930 births Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 21st-century Canadian historians 20th-century German historians