Bernd Wegner | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1949-10-01)October 1, 1949 (age 76) |
| Occupations |
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| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | University of Hamburg |
| Academic work | |
| Era | 20th century |
| Institutions | Military History Research Office (MGFA) Helmut Schmidt University |
| Main interests | Modern European history[broken anchor], history of international relations, military history,historiography |
| Notable works | Germany and the Second World War |
Bernd Wegner (born October 1, 1949) is a German historian who specialises in military history and the history ofNazism. Since 1997 he has been professor of modern history at theHelmut Schmidt University in Hamburg, Germany.
Wegner is a contributor to the seminal workGermany and the Second World War from theMilitary History Research Office (MGFA). His book on theWaffen-SS, published in English asThe Waffen-SS: Organization, Ideology and Function byBlackwell Publishing, has been issued in Germany in nine editions (the latest being 2010) and is considered to be the standard work on the history of the Waffen-SS; concentrating on the pre-war years.[1]
After military service in theBundeswehr, Wegner studied history, philosophy and political science at the Universities of Tübingen, Vienna and Hamburg. He earned his PhD in 1980 at theUniversity of Hamburg, completing his dissertation underKlaus-Jürgen Müller (historian) [de] at the History Department. Wegner worked for over 15 years at theMilitary History Research Office (MGFA) inFreiburg, Germany. Since 1997, Wegner is a professor of Modern History of Western Europe at theHelmut Schmidt University of theBundeswehr (Federal Armed Forces) in Hamburg. His students included future military historiansAgilolf Kesselring [de],Thorsten Loch [de],Rudolf J. Schlaffer [de],Oliver von Wrochem [de] andJohn Zimmermann (historian) [de].[2]
Wegner is a widely published author and editor on the subjects of military history ofNazi Germany and the history ofNational Socialism. From 2000 to 2005, Wegner was chairman of the German Committee for the History of the Second World War. He is co-editor of thebook seriesWar in History published byVerlag Ferdinand Schöningh in Germany. He is also one of the authors of the seminal workGermany and the Second World War from theMilitary History Research Office (MGFA) contributing to several volumes of the series.[3]
Several of Wegner's books have been published in English, includingThe Waffen-SS: Organization, Ideology and Function. According to historianTimothy Garton Ash, Wegner is "the leading authority on theWaffen-SS".[4] Although, as Wegner writes in the book introduction, his focus on the Waffen-SS "concentrates more on the pre-war" years and for the war-time history of the organisation he recommends "especially", George Stein's workThe Waffen-SS: Hitler's Elite Guard at War 1939–1945.[1]
Wegner was the editor of the 1998 collection of essays that appeared in English asFrom Peace to War: Germany, Soviet Russia, and the World, 1939–1941 published byBerghahn Books. The review atH-Net finds that:[5]
On the whole, the thirty-five essays succeed extremely well in meeting the editors' objectives. Not only does the reader get the promised overview of research and scholarly debates, thanks to the international cast of contributors (nine different countries are represented here)--the book also touches on a lot of international scholarship that because of its vast scope and linguistic diversity would be impossible to master for any single individual.
