Jürgen Rohwer (24 May 192424 July 2015) was a German military historian and professor of history at the

University of Stuttgart The University of Stuttgart (german: Universität Stuttgart) is a leading research university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized into 10 faculties. It is one of the oldest technical universities in Germany wit ...

. Rohwer wrote over 400 books and essays on World War II naval history and military intelligence, which gained him worldwide recognition as a prominent historian and a leading authority on

U-boat U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role ...

Biography

Rohwer was born in

Friedrichroda Friedrichroda () is a town in the district of Gotha, Thuringia, Germany. It is situated at the north foot of the Thuringian Forest, 21 km by rail southwest of the town of Gotha. It is surrounded by fir-clad hills and possesses numerous han ...

. After leaving school in 1942, he entered the

Kriegsmarine The (, ) was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official branches, along with the a ...

as an officer candidate (crew VI/42). During

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 opposin ...

he served on several German warships, e.g. destroyer Z24, ''

Sperrbrecher A ''Sperrbrecher'' (German; informally translated as "pathfinder" but literally meaning "mine barrage breaker"), was a German auxiliary ship of the First World War and the Second World War that served as a type of minesweeper, steaming ahead of ot ...

'' 104/Martha, and

minesweeper A minesweeper is a small warship designed to remove or detonate naval mines. Using various mechanisms intended to counter the threat posed by naval mines, minesweepers keep waterways clear for safe shipping. History The earliest known usage of ...

M-502. After the end of the war he left service and studied history at the

University of Hamburg The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vor ...

. During that time he got into contact with

Günter Hessler Günter Hessler (14 June 1909 – 4 April 1968) was a German naval officer during World War II. He commanded the Type IXB U-boat , sinking twenty-one ships on three patrols, totalling of Allied shipping. Hessler was a recipient of the Knight's ...

son in law to

Karl Dönitz Karl Dönitz (sometimes spelled Doenitz; ; 16 September 1891 24 December 1980) was a German admiral who briefly succeeded Adolf Hitler as head of state in May 1945, holding the position until the dissolution of the Flensburg Government follo ...

and was commissioned by the

British Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

to write an official account of the U-boat war 1939–1945. In 1954 he received his doctoral degree at Hamburg University for his dissertation on German-American relations from 1937 to 1941. In 1959 he became the director of the Bibliothek für Zeitgeschichte in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

. During his tenure, the library became an internationally renown institution for military history and especially the war at sea. In the 1970s, Rohwer researched the history of

cryptanalysis Cryptanalysis (from the Greek ''kryptós'', "hidden", and ''analýein'', "to analyze") refers to the process of analyzing information systems in order to understand hidden aspects of the systems. Cryptanalysis is used to breach cryptographic sec ...

in World War II and especially the decoding of

Enigma Enigma may refer to: *Riddle, someone or something that is mysterious or puzzling Biology *ENIGMA, a class of gene in the LIM domain Computing and technology * Enigma (company), a New York-based data-technology startup * Enigma machine, a family ...

by the British and Polish scientists. In a cooperation of the Bibliothek für Zeitgeschichte and the

, the congress "Der Mord an den europäischen Juden" ( The murder of the European Jews) took place in May 1984. Together with

Eberhard Jäckel Eberhard Jäckel (; 29 June 1929 – 15 August 2017) was a German historian. In the 1980s he was a principal protagonist in the Historians' Dispute (''Historikerstreit'') over how to incorporate Nazi Germany and the Holocaust into German hist ...

, Rohwer edited the book "Der Mord an den Juden im Zweiten Weltkrieg. Entschlußbildung und Verwirklichung", which contains the most important contributions from the congress. Jürgen Rohwer retired in 1989. He died in

Weinstadt Weinstadt (meaning "Wine City") is a town in the Rems-Murr district, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located in the Rems Valley approximately 15 km east of Stuttgart. Its population in 2012 was 25,998. The town is composed ...

Publications

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References

External links

* http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/rohwer.htm * https://www.stadtlexikon-stuttgart.de/dts/index.html?id=3de0c76b-3613-43db-905e-f1a5ce3142c9 {{DEFAULTSORT:Rohwer, Jurgen Kriegsmarine personnel of World War II 20th-century German historians 1924 births 2015 deaths People from Friedrichroda University of Hamburg alumni University of Stuttgart faculty German male non-fiction writers