Gerhard Weinberg
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Gerhard Ludwig Weinberg (born 1 January 1928) is a German-born American
diplomatic Diplomatics (in American English, and in most anglophone countries), or diplomatic (in British English), is a scholarly discipline centred on the critical analysis of documents: especially, historical documents. It focuses on the conventions, p ...
and
military historian Military history is the study of armed conflict in the history of humanity, and its impact on the societies, cultures and economies thereof, as well as the resulting changes to local and international relationships. Professional historians no ...
noted for his studies in the history of
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
and
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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. Weinberg is the William Rand Kenan, Jr. Professor Emeritus of History at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United State ...
. He has been a member of the history faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill since 1974. Previously he served on the faculties of the
University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
(1959–1974) and the
University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state ...
(1957–1959).


Youth and education

Weinberg was born in
Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
, Germany, and resided there the first ten years of his life. As
Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
living in
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
, he and his family suffered increasing persecution. They emigrated in 1938, first to the United Kingdom and then in 1941 to
New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. sta ...
. Weinberg became a U.S. citizen, served in the U.S. Army during its
Occupation of Japan Japan was occupied and administered by the victorious Allies of World War II from the 1945 surrender of the Empire of Japan at the end of the war until the Treaty of San Francisco took effect in 1952. The occupation, led by the United States ...
in 1946-1947, and returned to receive a BA in social studies from the State University of New York at Albany. He received his MA (1949) and PhD (1951) in history from the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
. Weinberg recounted some of his childhood memories and experiences in a two-hour long oral history interview for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.


Early career

Weinberg has studied the foreign policy of National Socialist Germany and the Second World War for his entire professional life. His doctoral dissertation (1951), directed by
Hans Rothfels Hans Rothfels (12 April 1891 – 22 June 1976) was a German nationalist conservative historian. He supported an idea of authoritarian German state, dominance of Germany over Europe and was hostile to Germany's eastern neighbours. After his appli ...
, was "German Relations with Russia, 1939–1941," subsequently published in 1954 as ''Germany and the Soviet Union, 1939–1941''. From 1951 to 1954 Weinberg was a Research Analyst for the War Documentation Project at
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
and was Director 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 ...
Project for Microfilming Captured German Documents in 1956–1957. After joining the project to microfilm captured records at Alexandria, Virginia, in the 1950s, Weinberg published the ''Guide to Captured German Documents'' (1952). In 1958, Weinberg made the discovery 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 so-called '' Zweites Buch'' (Second Book), an unpublished sequel to ''
Mein Kampf (; ''My Struggle'' or ''My Battle'') is a 1925 autobiographical manifesto by Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler. The work describes the process by which Hitler became antisemitic and outlines his political ideology and future plans for Ge ...
'', among captured German files. His find led to his publication in 1961 of ''Hitlers zweites Buch: Ein Dokument aus dem Jahr 1928'', later published in English as ''Hitler's Second Book: The Unpublished Sequel to Mein Kampf'' (2003). In 1953–1954, Weinberg was involved in a scholarly debate with and Andreas Hillgruber on the pages of the ''Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte'' journal over the question of whether
Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named afte ...
, the German invasion of the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
in 1941 was a preventive war forced on Hitler by fears of an imminent Soviet attack. In a 1956 review of Hillgruber's book ''Hitler, König Carol und Marschall Antonescu'', Weinberg accused Hillgruber of engaging at times in a pro-German apologia such as asserting that World War II began with the Anglo–French declarations of war against Germany on September 3, 1939, rather than the
German invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week afte ...
on September 1, 1939. In his 1980 monograph ''The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany Starting World War II 1937–1939'', Weinberg noted that about the question of the war's origins that "my view is somewhat different" from Hillgruber's. In his 1981 book ''World in the Balance'', Weinberg stated that "Hillgruber's interpretation is not, however, followed here". In his 1994 book ''A World At Arms'', Weinberg called Hillgruber's thesis presented in his book ''Zweierlei Untergang – Die Zerschlagung des Deutschen Reiches und das Ende des europäischen Judentums'' (''Two Kinds of Ruin – The Smashing of the German Reich and the End of European Jewry'') "... a preposterous reversal of the realities".Weinberg, Gerhard. ''A World At Arms''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1994, 2005, page 1124. Weinberg sarcastically commented that if the German Army had held out longer against the Red Army in 1945 as Hillgruber had wished, the result would not have been the saving of more German lives as Hillgruber had claimed, but rather an American
atomic bombing A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...
of Germany. Another scholarly debate involving Weinberg occurred in 1962–1963 when Weinberg wrote a review of David Hoggan's 1961 book ''Der Erzwungene Krieg'' for the '' American Historical Review''. The book claimed that the outbreak of war in 1939 had been due to an Anglo–Polish conspiracy against Germany. In his review, Weinberg suggested that Hoggan had probably engaged in forging documents (the charge was later confirmed). Weinberg noted that Hoggan's method comprised taking of all Hitler's "peace speeches" at face value, and simply ignoring evidence of German intentions for aggression such as the Hossbach Memorandum.Weinberg, Gerhard. Review of ''Der Erzwungene Krieg'', from ''The American Historical Review'', Volume 68, No. 1, October 1962, page 104 Moreover, Weinberg noted that Hoggan often rearranged events in a chronology designed to support his thesis such as placing the Polish rejection of the German demand for the return of the
Free City of Danzig The Free City of Danzig (german: Freie Stadt Danzig; pl, Wolne Miasto Gdańsk; csb, Wòlny Gard Gduńsk) was a city-state under the protection of the League of Nations between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gda ...
(modern
Gdańsk Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...
, Poland) to the ''Reich'' in October 1938 instead of in August 1939, thereby giving a false impression that the Polish refusal to consider changing the status of Danzig was due to British pressure. Weinberg noted that Hoggan had appeared to engage in forgery by manufacturing documents and attributing statements that were not found in documents in the archives. As an example, Weinberg noted during a meeting between
Neville Chamberlain Arthur Neville Chamberlain (; 18 March 18699 November 1940) was a British politician of the Conservative Party who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. He is best known for his foreign policy of appeaseme ...
and Adam von Trott zu Solz in June 1939, Hoggan had Chamberlain saying that the British guarantee of Polish independence given on March 31, 1939 "did not please him personally at all. He thereby gave the impression that Halifax was solely responsible for British policy".Weinberg, Gerhard. Review of ''Der Erzwungene Krieg'', from ''The American Historical Review'', Volume 68, No. 1, October 1962, page 105 As Weinberg noted, what Chamberlain actually said was:
Do you vonTrott zu Solz)believe that I undertook these commitments gladly? Hitler forced me into them!
Subsequently, both Hoggan and his mentor Harry Elmer Barnes wrote a series of letters to the '' American Historical Review'' protesting Weinberg's review and attempting to rebut his arguments. Weinberg in turn published letters rebutting Barnes's and Hoggan's claims.


Major works

Weinberg's early work was the two-volume history of Hitler's diplomatic preparations for war: ''The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany'' (1970 and 1980; republished 1994). In this work, Weinberg portrayed a Hitler committed to his ideology, no matter how inane or stupid it might seem to others, and therefore as a leader determined to use foreign policy to effect a specific set of goals. Weinberg thus countered others, such as British historian A.J.P. Taylor, who had argued in ''
The Origins of the Second World War ''The Origins of the Second World War'' is a non-fiction book by the English historian A. J. P. Taylor, examining the causes of World War II. It was first published in 1961 by Hamish Hamilton. Origins Taylor had previously written ''The Struggl ...
'' (1962) that Hitler had acted like a traditional statesman in taking advantage of the weaknesses of foreign rivals. The first volume of ''The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany'' received the
George Louis Beer Prize The George Louis Beer Prize is an award given by the American Historical Association for the best book in European international history from 1895 to the present written by a United States citizen or permanent resident. The prize was created in 1923 ...
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 ...
in 1971. Weinberg's attention then turned to the Second World War. He published dozens of articles on the war and volumes of collected essays such as ''World in the Balance: Behind the Scenes of World War II'' (1981). All of that work was preparation for the release in 1994 of his 1000-page one-volume history of the war, ''A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II'', for which he won a second
George Louis Beer Prize The George Louis Beer Prize is an award given by the American Historical Association for the best book in European international history from 1895 to the present written by a United States citizen or permanent resident. The prize was created in 1923 ...
in 1994. Weinberg continued his studies of the era of the war even after the publication of his general history by examining the conceptions of World War II's leaders about the world that they thought they were fighting to create. It was published in 2005 as ''Visions of Victory: The Hopes of Eight World War II Leaders''. In that book, Weinberg looked at what eight leaders were hoping to see after the war ended. The eight leaders profiled were
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and the ...
,
Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in ...
, General Hideki Tōjō,
Chiang Kai-shek Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...
,
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet Union, Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as Ge ...
,
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
, General
Charles de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Governm ...
, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Weinberg has continued to be a critic of those who claim that
Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named afte ...
was a "preventive war" forced on Hitler. In a review of ''Stalin's War'' by , Weinberg called those who promote the preventive war thesis as believers in "fairy tales". In 1996, Weinberg was somewhat less harsh in his review of Topitsch's book but was still very critical in his assessment of the Czech historian R.C. Raack's ''Stalin's Drive to the West''. (The latter book did not accept the preventive war thesis, but Raack still argued that Soviet foreign policy was far more aggressive than many other historians would accept and that Western leaders were too pliant in their dealings with Stalin.) In the globalist versus continentalist debate, concerning whether Hitler had ambitions to conquer the entire world or merely the continent of Europe, Weinberg takes a globalist view, arguing Hitler had plans for world conquest. On the question of whether Hitler intended to murder Europe's Jews before coming to power, Weinberg takes an
intentionalist Original intent is a theory in law concerning constitutional and statutory interpretation. It is frequently used as a synonym for originalism; while original intent is indeed one theory in the originalist family, it has some salient differenc ...
position, arguing that Hitler had formulated ideas for 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; ...
by the time he wrote ''
Mein Kampf (; ''My Struggle'' or ''My Battle'') is a 1925 autobiographical manifesto by Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler. The work describes the process by which Hitler became antisemitic and outlines his political ideology and future plans for Ge ...
''. In a 1994 article, Weinberg criticized the American functionalist historian
Christopher Browning Christopher Robert Browning (born May 22, 1944) is an American historian who is the professor emeritus of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). A specialist on the Holocaust, Browning is known for his work documenting ...
for arguing that the decision to launch the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question" was taken in September–October 1941.Weinberg, Gerhard. "Comments on the Papers by Friedlander, Breitman, and Browning", pages 509–512 from ''German Studies Review'', Volume 17, Issue # 3, October 1994, page 511. In Weinberg's view, July 1941 was the more probable date. In the same article, Weinberg praised the work of the American historian
Henry Friedlander Henry Egon Friedlander (24 September 1930 – 17 October 2012) was a German-American Jewish historian of the Holocaust who was noted for his arguments in favor of broadening the scope of casualties of the Holocaust. Born in Berlin, Germany, to a ...
for arguing that the origins of the Holocaust can be traced to the Action T4 program, which began in January 1939. Finally, Weinberg praised the thesis put forward by the American historian
Richard Breitman Richard David Breitman, born in 1947, is an American historian best known for his study of the Holocaust. Richard Breitman is an American historian who has written extensively on modern German history, the Holocaust, American immigration and refuge ...
that planning for the ''Shoah'' began during the winter of 1940–1941 but argued that Breitman missed a crucial point: because the T4 program had generated public protests, the ''
Einsatzgruppen (, ; also ' task forces') were (SS) paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during World War II (1939–1945) in German-occupied Europe. The had an integral role in the im ...
'' massacres of Jews in the Soviet Union were intended as a sort of "trial run" to gauge reaction of the German people to genocide. A major theme of Weinberg's work about the origins of the Second World War has been a revised picture of
Neville Chamberlain Arthur Neville Chamberlain (; 18 March 18699 November 1940) was a British politician of the Conservative Party who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. He is best known for his foreign policy of appeaseme ...
and the
Munich Agreement The Munich Agreement ( cs, Mnichovská dohoda; sk, Mníchovská dohoda; german: Münchner Abkommen) was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. It provided "cession to Germany ...
. Based on his study of German documents, Weinberg established that the demands made by Hitler on the cession of the
Sudetenland The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and sk, Sudety) is the historical German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the ...
region of
Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...
were not intended to be accepted but were rather to provide a pretext for aggression against Czechoslovakia. Weinberg has established that Hitler regarded the Munich Agreement as a diplomatic defeat, which deprived Germany of the war that was intended to begin on October 1, 1938. Weinberg has argued against the thesis that Chamberlain was responsible for the failure of the proposed ''putsch'' in Germany in 1938.Weinberg, Gerhard. ''The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany Starting World War II''. University of Chicago Press: Chicago, Illinois, United States of America, 1980. page 396 Weinberg has argued that the three visits to London in the summer of 1938 of three messengers from the opposition, each bearing the same message (if only Britain would promise to go to war if Czechoslovakia was attacked, then a ''putsch'' would remove the Nazi regime, each ignorant of the other messengers' existence), presented a picture of a group of people apparently not very well organized and that it is unreasonable for historians to have expected Chamberlain to stake all upon uncorroborated words of such a badly-organized group. In a 2007 review of Ian Kershaw's ''Fateful Choices'', Weinberg, though generally favorable to Kershaw, commented that Chamberlain played a far more important role in the decision to fight on despite the great German victories in the spring of 1940 and in ensuring that Churchill was his successor, instead of the peace-minded
Lord Halifax Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax, (16 April 1881 – 23 December 1959), known as The Lord Irwin from 1925 until 1934 and The Viscount Halifax from 1934 until 1944, was a senior British Conservative politician of the 19 ...
, than Kershaw gave him credit for in his book. Weinberg's picture of Chamberlain has led to criticism; the American historian
Williamson Murray Williamson Murray (born November 23, 1941) is an American historian and author. He has authored numerous works on history and strategic studies, and served as an editor on other projects extensively. As of 2012, he is professor emeritus of histo ...
condemned Weinberg for his "... attempts to present the British Prime Minister in as favorable a light as possible".


Hitler diaries controversy

In 1983, when the German illustrated weekly magazine ''
Der Stern ''Stern'' (, German for "Star") is an illustrated, broadly left-liberal, weekly current affairs magazine published in Hamburg, Germany, by Gruner + Jahr, a subsidiary of Bertelsmann. Under the editorship (1948–1980) of its founder Henri Nan ...
'' reported its purchase of the alleged diaries of Adolf Hitler, the U.S. weekly magazine ''
Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...
'' asked Weinberg to examine them hurriedly in a bank vault in
Zürich , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Z ...
, Switzerland. Together with Hugh Trevor-Roper and Eberhard Jäckel, Weinberg was one of the three experts on Hitler asked to examine the alleged diaries. Squeezing the visit into just a few hours so as not to miss any of his teaching assignments at Chapel Hill, Weinberg reported in ''
Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...
'' that "on balance I am inclined to consider the material authentic." Weinberg also noted that the purported journals would likely add less to our understanding of the Second World War than many might have thought and that more work would be needed to "make the verdict f authenticityairtight." When that work was undertaken by the
German Federal Archives , type = Archive , seal = , seal_size = , seal_caption = , seal_alt = , logo = Bundesarchiv-Logo.svg , logo_size = , logo_caption = , lo ...
, the "diaries" were deemed forgeries.


Professional accomplishments

Weinberg was elected president of the
German Studies Association The German Studies Association (GSA) is an international organization of scholars in history, literature, economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services ...
in 1996. Weinberg has been a fellow of the
American Council of Learned Societies American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...
, a
Fulbright The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...
professor 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 ...
, a
Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
, and a Shapiro Senior Scholar in Residence at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum among many other such honors. In June 2009, Weinberg was selected to receive the $100,000 Pritzker Military Library Literature Award for lifetime excellence in military writing, sponsored by the Chicago-based Tawani Foundation. As part of his acceptance, he gave a webcast lecture at the library on "New Boundaries for the World: The Postwar Visions of Eight World War II Leaders." He was awarded the 2011 Samuel Eliot Morison Prize, a lifetime achievement award given by the Society for Military History.


Works


Books

*''Germany and the Soviet Union, 1939–1941'', Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1954. *''The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany: Diplomatic Revolution in Europe, 1933–36,'' Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970, . *(editor) ''Transformation of a Continent: Europe in the Twentieth Century''. Minneapolis, Minn.: Burgess Pub. Co., 1975, . *''The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany: Starting World War II, 1937–1939''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980, . *''World in the Balance: Behind the Scenes of World War II'', Hanover, New Hampshire: Published for Brandeis University Press by University Press of New England, 1981, . *''A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II'', Cambridge ng. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994, revised edition 2005, .
online edition
*''Germany, Hitler, and World War II: Essays in Modern German and World History''. Cambridge ngland; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1995, . * ''Hitler's Second Book: The Unpublished Sequel to'' Mein Kampf, Enigma Books, 2003 . *''Visions of Victory: The Hopes of Eight World War II Leaders''. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005, . * with Hugh Trevor-Roper, ''Hitler's Table Talk 1941–1944: Secret Conversations''. New York: Enigma Books, 2007, . *''Hitler's Foreign Policy, 1933–1939: The Road to World War II''. New York: Enigma Books, 2010 . * ''World War II: A Very Short Introduction.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. .


Articles

*"A Critical Note on the ''Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918–1945''" pages 38–40 from ''The Journal of Modern History'', Volume 23, Issue # 1, March 1951. *''Guide to Captured German Documents''. Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University, Human Resources Research Institute, 1952. *"Der deutsche Entschluß zum Angriff auf die Sowjetunion" pages 301-318 from ''Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte'' Volume 1, Issue # 4 1953. *''The Partisan Movement in the Yelnya-Dorogobuzh Area of Smolensk Oblast'', Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air Research and Development Command, Human Resources Research Institute Headquarters, United States Air Force, 1954. *"A Proposed Compromise over Danzig in 1939?" pages 334-338 from ''Journal of Central European Affairs'', Volume 14, Issue 4, January 1955. *"Hitler's Private Testament of May 2, 1938" pages 415-419 from ''The Journal of Modern History'', Volume 27, Issue # 4, December 1955. *"Deutsch-japanische Verhandlungen über das Südseemanddat, 1937–1938" pages 390-398 from ''Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte'', Volume 4, Issue 4, October 1956. *"German Recognition of Manchoukuo" pages 149-164 from ''World Affairs Quarterly'', Volume 28, Issue #2, July 1957. *"The May Crisis, 1938" pages 213-225 from ''The Journal of Modern History'' Volume 29, Issue # 3 September 1957. *''Supplement to the Guide to Captured German Documents''. Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration, 1959. *"Secret Hitler-Beneš Negotiations in 1936-37" pages 366-374 from ''Journal of Central European Affairs'', Volume 19, Issue 4, January 1960. * Review of ''Operationsgebiet Ostliche Ostsee und der Finnisch-Baltische Raum, 1944'' page 366 from ''The Journal of Modern History'', Volume 34, Issue # 3, September 1962 *"Schachts Beusch in den USA im Jahre 1933" pages 166-180 from ''Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte'', Volume 11, Issue #2, April 1963. *"German Colonial Plans and Policies, 1938-1942" pages 462-491 from'' Geschichte und Gegenwartsbewusstsein Festschrift für Hans Rothfels'', Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruphrect, 1963. *"Hitler's Image of the United States" pages 1006-1021 from ''American Historical Review'', Volume 69, Issue #4, July 1964. *"National Socialist Organization and Foreign Policy Aims in 1927" pages 428-433 from ''The Journal of Modern History'', Volume 36, Issue # 4, December 1964. *"The Defeat of Germany in 1918 and the European Balance of Power" pages 248-260 from ''Central European History'', Volume 2, Issue 3, September 1969. *"Germany and Czechoslovakia 1933-1945" pages 760-769 from ''Czechoslovakia Past and Present'' edited by Miloslva Rechcigl, The Hauge: Moution, 1969. *"Recent German History: Some Comments and Perspectives" pages 358-368 from ''Deutschland-Russland-Amerika: Festschrift für Fritz Epstein'', Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1978. * "Stages to War: Response" pages 316-320 from ''The Journal of Modern History'', Volume 57, Issue # 2, June 1985. *"Hitler's Memorandum on the Four-Year Plan: A Note" pages 133-135 from ''German Studies Review'', Volume 11, Issue # 1, February 1988. *"Munich After 50 Years" pages 165-178 from ''Foreign Affairs'' Volume 67, Issue # 1 Fall 1988. *"The Munich Crisis in Historical Perspective" pages 668-678 from ''International History Review'' Volume 11, Issue #4, November 1989. *"Hitlers Entschluß zum Krieg" pages 31–36 from ''1939 An der Schwelle zum Weltkrieg. Die Entfesselung des Zweiten Weltkrieges'' edited by Klaus Zernack, Jurgen Schmadeke & Klaus Hildebrand, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1990 . *"Some Thoughts on World War II" pages 659-668 from ''The Journal of Military History'', Volume 56, Issue # 4, October 1992. *Co-written with Edwin Bridges, Gregory Hunter, Page Putnam Miller, David Thelen "Historians and Archivists: A Rationale for Cooperation" pages 179-186 from ''The Journal of American History'', Volume 80, Issue # 1, June 1993. *"Comments on the Papers by Friedlander, Breitman, and Browning" pages 509-512 from ''German Studies Review'', Volume 17, Issue # 3, October 1994. *"Changes in the Place of Women in the Historical Profession: A Personal Perspective" pages 323-327 from ''The History Teacher'', Volume 29, Issue # 3, May 1996. *"Germany's War for World Conquest and the Extermination of the Jews" pages 119-133 from ''Holocaust and Genocide Studies'', Volume 10, 1996. *"World War II Scholarship, Now and in the Future" pages 335-345 from ''The Journal of Military History'', Volume 61, Issue # 2, April 1997. *"Reflections on Two Unifications" pages 13–25 from ''German Studies Review'', Volume 21, Issue # 1, February 1998. *"Unexplored Questions about the German Military during World War II" pages 371-380 from ''The Journal of Military History'', Volume 62, Issue # 2, April 1998. *"German Plans and Policies regarding Neutral Nations in World War II with Special Reference to Switzerland" pages 99–103 from ''German Studies Review'', Volume 22, Issue # 1, February 1999. *"Reflections on Munich after 60 Years" pages 1–12 from ''The Munich Crisis, 1938 Prelude to World War II'' edited by Igor Lukes and Erik Goldstein, London: Frank Cass, 1999, . * (editor & translator) ''Hitler's Second Book: The Unpublished Sequel to Mein Kampf'', New York: Enigma Books, 2003 . * "Some Issues and Experiences in German-American Scholarly Relations," ''The Second Generation. Émigrés from Nazi Germany as Historians.'' , ed. Andreas W. Daum, Hartmut Lehmann, and James J. Sheehan. New York: Berghahn Books 2016, 97-101.


See also

* List of books by or about Adolf Hitler


References

*Croan, Melvin. Review of ''The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany: Starting World War II, 1937-1939'' pages 114-115 from ''
Slavic Review The ''Slavic Review'' is a major peer-reviewed academic journal publishing scholarly studies, book and film reviews, and review essays in all disciplines concerned with Russia, Central Eurasia, and Eastern and Central Europe. The journal's tit ...
'', Volume 42, Issue # 1, Spring 1983. * Daum, Andreas W., Hartmut Lehmann, and James J. Sheehan, eds., ''The Second Generation. Émigrés from Nazi Germany as Historians''. New York: Berghahn Books, 2016, * Dawidowicz, Lucy S. Review of ''The Foreign Policy Of Hitler's Germany'' pages 91–93 from ''Commentary'', Volume 52, Issue # 2, August 1971. *Diehl, James. Review of A ''World at Arms: A Global History of World War II'' pages 755-756 from '' The Journal of Military History'', Volume 58, Issue # 4, October 1994. *Dorn, Walter. Review of ''Germany and the Soviet Union, 1939-1941'' pages 295-297 from ''
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 ...
'', Volume 28, Issue # 3, September 1956. * Eckert, Astrid M. ''The Struggle for the Files: The Western Allies and the Return of German archives after the Second World War.'' Cambridge University Press, 2012. , *Fisher, H.H. Review of ''Germany and the Soviet Union, 1939-1941'' pages 152-153 from ''
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science The American Academy of Political and Social Science (AAPSS) was founded in 1889 to promote progress in the social sciences. Sparked by Professor Edmund J. James and drawing from members of the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, Swarthmo ...
'', Volume 302, November 1955. * Harris, Robert. ''Selling Hitler: The Story of the Hitler Diaries''. London: Faber and Faber, 1986 . *Hauner, Milan. Review of ''A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II'' pages 873-874 from ''
The American Historical Review ''The American Historical Review'' is a quarterly academic history journal and the official publication of the American Historical Association. It targets readers interested in all periods and facets of history and has often been described as the ...
'', Volume 100, Issue # 3, June 1995 * Kershaw, Ian. ''The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation''. London: Arnold; New York: Oxford University Press, 2000 . *Kulski, W.W. Review of ''Germany and the Soviet Union, 1939-1941'' pages 417-419 from ''
American Slavic and East European Review American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the " United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...
'', Volume 14, Issue # 3, October 1955. * Krammer, Arnold, Review of ''World in the Balance: Behind the Scenes of World War II'' pages 341-342 from '' German Studies Review'', Volume 6, Issue # 2, May 1983. *Lewin, Ronald. Review of ''World in the Balance: Behind the Scenes of World War II'' page 107 from '' International Affairs'', Volume 59, Issue # 1, Winter 1982-1983. *Snell, John. Review of ''The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany: Diplomatic Revolution in Europe, 1933-36'' pages 891-892 from ''Slavic Review'', Volume 30, Issue # 4, December 1971. *Steinweis, Alan E. and Daniel E. Rogers, eds., ''The Impact of Nazism: New Perspectives on the Third Reich and Its Legacy''. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2003 . *"Stages to War: An Examination of Gerhard Weinberg's "''The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany''"" by Radomír V. Luža, F. Gregory Campbell and Anna M. Cienciala pages 297-315 from ''The Journal of Modern History'', Volume 57, Issue # 2, June 1985. *Parker, R.A.C. Review of ''A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II'' pages 792-793 from ''International Affairs'', Volume 70, Issue # 4, October 1994 *Reynolds, P.A. Review of ''Germany and the Soviet Union 1939–1941'' page 229 from ''International Affairs'', Volume 31, Issue # 2, April 1955. *von Riekhoff, Harald. "Continuity and Change in German Détente Strategy Toward Poland: Comments on Professor Weinberg's Paper" pages 24–29 from ''Polish Review'', Volume 20, Issue # 1. *Robbins, Keith. Review of ''The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany: Diplomatic Revolution in Europe, 1933–36'' pages 672-672 from '' The English Historical Review'', Volume 88, Issue # 348, July 1973. * Stone, Dan. "The Course of History: Arno J. Mayer, Gerhard L. Weinberg, and David Cesarani on the Holocaust and World War II." ''Journal of Modern History'' 91.4 (2019): 883-904. * Taylor, A.J.P. Review of ''The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany: Diplomatic Revolution in Europe, 1933–36'' pages 140-143 from ''The Journal of Modern History'', Volume 44, Issue # 1 March 1972. *Watt, D.C. Review of ''The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany: Starting World War II, 1937–1939'' pages 411-414 from ''The Journal of Modern History'', Volume 54, Issue # 2, June 1982. *Wesson, Robert. Review of ''Germany and the Soviet Union, 1939–1941'' pages 218-219 from '' Russian Review'', Volume 32, Issue # 2, April 1973 * Wiskemann, Elizabeth. Review of ''Hitlers Zweites Buch: Ein Dokument aus dem Jahr 1928'' pages 229-230 from '' International Affairs'', Volume 38, Issue # 2, April 1962


Notes


External links

*


On Weinberg


Dr. Gerhard Weinberg: World War II Scholar and Teacher (Metro Magazine, January 2006)


* ttp://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040202&s=bartov020204 He Meant What He Said: Review of ''Zweites Buch''br>Review of ''Germany, Hitler, and World War II: Essays in Modern German and World History''

Oral history interview with Gerhard L. Weinberg, USHMM 2012


By Weinberg


Review of ''Der Holocaust und die westdeutschen Historiker'' by Nicolas BergReview of ''Fateful Choices'' by Ian Kershaw


* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070707092113/http://www.h-net.org/mmreviews/showrev.cgi?path=385 Review of ''Hitler: The Rise of Evil''br>Statement of Gerhard L. Weinberg before the U.S. House of Representatives Banking CommitteeLecture by Weinberg
on ''New Boundaries for the World: The Post-War Visions of Eight World War II Leaders'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Weinberg, Gerhard 1928 births Living people American military historians Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States Jewish historians Jewish American writers Historians of Nazism People from the Province of Hanover University of Chicago alumni University of Michigan faculty University of Kentucky faculty University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty Columbia University faculty University at Albany, SUNY alumni 20th-century American historians 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers 20th-century American male writers American male non-fiction writers United States Army soldiers