Franz W. Seidler

Franz W. Seidler
Born (1933-03-02) 2 March 1933
Vítkov/Wigstadt, Czechoslovakia
Citizenship Germany German
Nationality German
Fields Modern history, particularly military history and social history
Institutions Bundeswehr University of Munich (1973–1998)
Alma mater Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, University of Cambridge, Sorbonne University, NATO Defence College
Notable awards Federal Cross of Merit (1978)

Franz Wilhelm Seidler (b. 2 March 1933) is a German historian, author and expert on German military history. He is Professor Emeritus of Modern History at the Bundeswehr University Munich.

His research focuses on issues concerning German military personnel, war crimes and guerrilla warfare, as well as postwar disarmament.

Career

As a child, Seidler came as a refugee to West Germany, following the expulsion of Germans after World War II by the Czechoslovak government from his native Moravian Silesia.

Seidler studied history, German and English at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, the University of Cambridge and the Sorbonne University of Paris between 1951 and 1956. He was a civil servant (Studienreferendar and Studienassessor) of the state of Baden-Württemberg from 1956 to 1959. From 1959 to 1963 he was Deputy Director of the Bundeswehrfachschule in Cologne, and was subsequently employed by the Federal Ministry of Defence, as an Adviser in the Department of Administration and Law, from 1963 to 1968. He was Scientific Director of the Heeresoffiziersschule München from 1968 to 1972, and attended the NATO Defence College Senior Course in Rome in 1972.[1]

From 1973 until his retirement in 1998, he was Professor of Modern History, particularly social and military history, at the Bundeswehr University Munich. He has been active as an expert adviser for the CDU/CSU faction in the Bundestag in the 1990s.[2]

Since his retirement Seidler has published books with the extreme right wing[3] publisher Pour le Mérite Verlag of Dietmar Munier.[4] A reviewer in the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, writing on Seidler's book Phantom der Berge, stated that "Since his retirement he publishes one book after the other, with which he has distanced himself from serious historical research."[5] His biography of Fritz Todt has been described as offering too positive a picture of Todt[6] and as reflecting a neo-conservative perspective.[7]

Honours

Publications

Articles

See also

References

  1. ↑ Martin Seidler. "Homepage von Franz W. Seidler". franzwseidler.de. Retrieved 2014-11-17.
  2. ↑ "Taterundopfer". alfreddezayas.com. Retrieved 2014-11-17.
  3. ↑ Answer of the Federal Government (of Germany) to the written question of Ulla Jelpke et.al.
  4. ↑ A link to Amazon.com showing Seidler's publication with Pour le Merite Verlag , last accessed August 23, 2010
  5. ↑ Albert A. Feiber, Phantom der Berge in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung vom 13. Februar 2001, S. 10 "Seit seiner Emeritierung publiziert er ein Buch nach dem anderen, mit denen er sich schon lange aus der seriösen Geschichtswissenschaft verabschiedet hat“.
  6. ↑ Zeller, T. (2007). Driving Germany: The Landscape of the German Autobahn, 1930-1970. Berghahn Books. p. 10. ISBN 9781845453091. Retrieved 2014-11-17.
  7. ↑ Etlin, R.A. (2002). Art, Culture, and Media Under the Third Reich. University of Chicago Press. p. 254. ISBN 9780226220871. Retrieved 2014-11-17.
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