Fritz Klein, Jr. (11 July 1924,

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 ...

– 26 May 2011,

) was a German Marxist

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 race; as well as the st ...

specializing in the German Empire and debates on the Empire's role before, during, and after World War II. He was an official

East German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

historian prior to German reunification in 1990.Borejsza, Jerzy W. (2006). ''Totalitarian and authoritarian regimes in Europe: legacies and lessons from the twentieth century.'' Berghahn Books, From 1979 to 1989, he served the Stasi as an informer under the codename "Wilhelm".Vgl. Kowalczuk: ''Klein, Fritz''.

Life and career

His father was journalist Fritz Klein, Sr., editor of the ''

Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung ''Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung'' (often abbreviated to DAZ) was a German newspaper that appeared between 1861 and 1945. Until 1918 the title of the paper was ''Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung''. Although Wilhelm Liebknecht, one of the founders ...

'' from 1924 to 1933, when he was fired by the Nazi government. The younger Klein served as a soldier in

World War II 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 opposing ...

. After 1945, he opted for

communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...

, joining the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

in the GDR. In 1947 he married Dorle Deiters, with whom he had a son, Wolfgang. He enrolled at

Humboldt 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 initiati ...

in Berlin in 1946, and received his doctorate in 1952 with the thesis ''Die diplomatischen Beziehungen Deutschlands zur Sowjetunion 1917 - 1932.'' (The Diplomatic Relationship of Germany to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

1917 - 1932.). After his graduation, he was appointed as editorial secretary and later as editor of the "Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft" ("Journal of Historical Studies"), but was removed in 1957 for political reasons, but was asked to take the post again in 1990. He worked for more than 30 years as a professor and researcher at the Institut für Geschichte of the Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften (Institute of General History at the

German Academy of Sciences at Berlin The German Academy of Sciences at Berlin, german: Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin (DAW), in 1972 renamed the Academy of Sciences of the GDR (''Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR (AdW)''), was the most eminent research institution ...

).Fink, Carole. (2011). ''Historian of the First World War'' American Historical Association, http://www.historians.org/perspectives/issues/2011/1112/In-Memoriam-Fritz-Klein.cfm During his tenure there, he supervised the publication of the three volume ''Deutschland im Ersten Weltkrieg'', which Roger Chickering called "the richest and most comprehensive account of Germany in the First World War".Chickering, Roger (2004). ''Imperial Germany and the Great War, 1914-1918.'' Cambridge University Press, p. 204 Klein was an active part in the Fischer Controversy, around

Fritz Fischer Fritz Fischer (5 March 1908 – 1 December 1999) was a German historian best known for his analysis of the causes of World War I. In the early 1960s Fischer advanced the controversial thesis at the time that responsibility for the outbreak of the ...

Germany's Aims in the First World War ''Germany's Aims in the First World War'' (German title: Griff nach der Weltmacht: Die Kriegzielpolitik des kaiserlichen Deutschland 1914–1918) is a book by German historian Fritz Fischer. It is one of the leading contributions to historical ana ...

, which argued that Germany was responsible for instigating

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Selected publications

*''Die diplomatischen Beziehungen Deutschlands zur Sowjetunion 1917 – 1932.'' (The Diplomatic Relationship of Germany to the Soviet Union 1917 - 1932.) Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1952 *''Es begann in Sarajewo''. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1964. *''Der deutsche Imperialismus und die Entstehung des ersten Weltkrieges''. Leipzig 1968. * Germany in World War I in 3 volumes by a team of authors led by Fritz Klein. Leipziger Universitätsverlag, Leipzig 1968–1970. Reissue: Leipziger Universitätsverlag, Leipzig 2004, **''Deutschland im Ersten Weltkrieg, Bd. 1.'' (Germany in World War, Vol. 1: Preparation, initiation and progression of the war until end of 1914.) **''Deutschland im Ersten Weltkrieg, Bd. 2.'' (Germany in World War, Vol. 2: January 1915 to October 1917.) **''Deutschland im Ersten Weltkrieg, Bd. 3.'' (Germany in World War, Vol. 3: November 1917 to November 1918.) *''Drinnen und Draußen: Ein Historiker in der DDR''. (Inside and outside. A historian of the GDR.) S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2000

References

1924 births 2011 deaths German male non-fiction writers German Marxist historians 20th-century German historians People of the Stasi {{germany-historian-stub