Michael Stürmer

Michael Stürmer (September 29, 1938-) is a German historian. Born in Kassel, Germany, Stürmer received his education in History, Philosophy and languages at the University of Marburg, the Free University of Berlin and the London School of Economics.

From 1973 to 2003, he held an professorship at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg and at various times has been an guest lecturer at the Sorbonne, Harvard University, and the Institute for Advanced Study. In the 1980s, Stürmer worked as an advisor to the West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. At present, Stürmer is the chief correspondent for Springer-Verlag

Stürmer is best known for his advocacy of a geographical interpretation of German history. Stürmer has argued that what he regards as Germany’s precarious geographical situation in Central Europe has been the deciding factor in the course of German history, and that to cope with this matter has left successive German rulers no other choice but to engage in authoritarian government. During the of the 1980s, Stürmer played an prominent role in the Historikerstreit, and was much criticized by left-wing historians for an essay he wrote calling for an “positive evaluation” of German history as an way of building national pride. Many accused Stürmer of attempting to white-wash the Nazi past, an charge Stürmer vehemently rejected.

Reference

Evans, Richard In Hitler's Shadow : West German Historians and the Attempt to Escape from the Nazi Past, New York : Pantheon Books, 1989, ISBN 067972348X.
Hirschfeld, Gerhard "Erasing the Past?" pages 8–10 from History Today Volume 37, Issue 8, August 1987
Muller, Jerry "German Historians At War" pages 33-42 from Commentary Volume 87, Issue #5, May 1989.
Piper, Ernst (editor) Forever in the Shadow of Hitler? : Original Documents of the Historikerstreit, the Controversy Concerning the Singularity of the Holocaust, Atlantic Highlands, N.J. : Humanities Press, 1993 ISBN 0391037846.

Work

The German Empire, 1870-1918, New York : Random House, 2000 ISBN 0679640908.
(Editor) The German Century London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1999 ISBN 0297825240.
Co-edited with Robert D. Blackwill Allies Divided : Transatlantic Policies for the Greater Middle East, Cambridge, Mass. ; London : MIT Press, 1997 ISBN 0262522446.
Contributor to For the Friends of Nature and Art : the Garden Kingdom of Prince Franz von Anhalt-Dessau in Age of Enlightenment, Ostfildern-Ruit : G. Hatje ; New York : Distribution in the US DAP, Distributed Art Publishers, 1997 ISBN 3775707158.
Die Reichsgründung : deutscher Nationalstaat und europäisches Gleichgewicht im Zeitalter Bismarcks, München : Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 1984 ISBN 3423045043.
Das ruhelose Reich : Deutschland 1866-1918, Berlin : Severin und Siedler, 1983 ISBN 3886800512.
Die Weimarer Republik : belagerte Civitas, Königstein/Ts. : Verlagsgruppe Athenäum, Hain, Scriptor, Hanstein, 1980 ISBN 3445120641.
Regierung und Reichstag im Bismarckstaat 1871-1880 : Cäsarismus oder Parlamentarismus, Düsseldorf : Droste, 1974
Bismarck und die preussisch-deutsche Politik, 1871-1890, München : Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, 1970.
(Editor) Das kaiserliche Deutschland; Politik und Gesellschaft, 1870-1918, Düsseldorf, Droste 1970..