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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. Since finishing a
British Academy The British Academy 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 same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars s ...
Postdoctoral Fellowship at the
University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...
, he has held fellowships at
Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nin ...
,
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, the
NIOD The NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies (Dutch: ''NIOD Instituut voor Oorlogs-, Holocaust- en Genocidestudies'') is an organisation in the Netherlands which maintains archives and carries out historical studies into the Second Wo ...
(Amsterdam) and the Institute for Advanced Studies at the
University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany and various other facilitie ...
. 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 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 ...
in 2000. While working on his doctorate at the
University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...
, 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 to AD 1500), and the modern era (since AD 1500). The first early ...
. Shortly thereafter, he was awarded a British Academy postdoctoral fellowship. In 2003, Gerwarth received his
Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
from Oxford. Gerwarth is currently Director of the Centre for War Studies at
University College Dublin University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 33,284 student ...
. 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, with a focus on Nazi Germany. His works include '' The Destruction of Dresden'' (1 ...
on Irish television. Available also on . 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 high-ranking German SS and police official during the Nazi era and a principal architect of the Holocaust. He was chief of the Reich Security Main Office (inclu ...
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 (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...
. Gerwarth's other scholarly work has been published widely in international journals such as ''
The Journal of Modern History ''The Journal of Modern History'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering European intellectual, political, and cultural history, published by the University of Chicago Press. Established in 1929, the journal covers events from app ...
'', '' Past & Present'', ' and ''Vingtième Siècle.'' He is series editor for the
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...
monograph series, ''The Greater War, 1912–23,'' to be released during the centenary of the First World War.


Personal

Gerwarth was raised during the final years of the
Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...
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 constitu ...
, Germany. At age 13, he witnessed the
fall of the Berlin Wall The fall of the Berlin Wall (german: Mauerfall) on 9 November 1989, during the Peaceful Revolution, was a pivotal event in world history which marked the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the figurative Iron Curtain and one of the series of eve ...
. 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 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


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