{{short description|German historian and author (born 1976)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2021}} {{Use British English|date=January 2013}} [[File:Robert Gerwarth.JPG|thumb|180px|Gerwarth in 2011]] '''Robert Benjamin Gerwarth''' (born 12 February 1976) is a German historian and author who specialises in European history, with an emphasis on [[German history]]. Since finishing a [[British Academy]] Postdoctoral Fellowship at the [[University of Oxford]], he has held fellowships at [[Princeton University|Princeton]], [[Harvard University|Harvard]], the [[NIOD]] (Amsterdam) and the Institute for Advanced Studies at the [[University of Western Australia]]. He teaches at University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland.
==Career== Born in Berlin, Gerwarth earned a master's degree in history and politics from [[Humboldt University of Berlin]] in 2000. While working on his doctorate at the [[University of Oxford]], Gerwarth was appointed to a two-year lectureship in modern [[European history]]. Shortly thereafter, he was awarded a British Academy postdoctoral fellowship.<ref name="perfect nazi" /> In 2003, Gerwarth received his [[Doctor of Philosophy]] from Oxford. Gerwarth is currently Director of the Centre for War Studies at [[University College Dublin]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pritzkermilitary.org/whats_on/pritzker-military-presents/robert-gerwarth-vanquished/|title=Robert Gerwarth, The Vanquished: Why the First World War Failed to End – Pritzker Military Museum & Library – Chicago|website=pritzkermilitary.org}}</ref> He is also Head of the School of History, a position that has a three-year duration, his term began in 2017. In 2008, Gerwarth debated Holocaust-denier [[David Irving]] on Irish television.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.rte.ie/tv/latelate/20080307.html |title=Freedom of speech? |date=7 March 2008 |work=[[The Late Late Show (Ireland)|The Late Late Show]] |publisher=[[RTÉ Television]]}} Available also on {{YouTube|c82WPNFBNnM}}.</ref>
Gerwarth has been commended for the thoroughness of his research on [[Reinhard Heydrich]] in his book ''Hitler's Hangman: The Life of Heydrich.'' Heydrich did not leave behind a substantive paper trail. Reviews have noted Gerwarth's diligence in digging through archives and other sources in the United States and Ireland in order to uncover the nature of his subject.<ref name="perfect nazi" /><ref name="The Telegraph" /> Gerwarth is credited with dispelling several myths about Heydrich, verifying that Heydrich was not Jewish and that he was a relative latecomer to membership in the [[Nazi Party]].<ref name="perfect nazi" />
In 2016, Gerwarth published his third monograph, ''The Vanquished'', to great critical acclaim. The Times Literary Supplement called it a “breathtaking, magisterial panorama” while The New York Review of Books described it as “important and timely”.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/79324/robert-gerwarth/ | title=Robert Gerwarth, The Vanquished: Why the First World War Failed to End – Link to publisher’s website – Penguin Books | website=penguin.co.uk}}</ref> Originally published by Penguin, the book has also been translated into sixteen further languages.
Gerwarth’s fourth monograph, ''November 1918: The German Revolution'' was published by Oxford University Press in 2020. In his review for the Financial Times, Tony Barber wrote: ”Gerwarth's ''November 1918'' [is one] of the most stimulating histories of the interwar period to have been published in recent years."<ref>{{cite web | url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/november-1918-9780199546473?cc=pk&lang=en&#/ | title=Robert Gerwarth, November 1918, The German Revolution – Link to publisher’s website – Oxford University Press | website=global.oup.com/}}</ref>
Gerwarth's other scholarly work has been published widely in international journals such as ''[[The Journal of Modern History]]'', ''[[Past & Present (journal)|Past & Present]]'', ''{{ill|Geschichte & Gesellschaft|de}}'' and ''Vingtième Siècle.'' He is series editor for the [[Oxford University Press]] monograph series, ''The Greater War, 1912–23,'' designed to mark the [[centenary of the First World War]]<ref name="Rider U" /> and, with Jay Winter, of the Cambridge University Press book series “Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare”.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/series/studies-in-the-social-and-cultural-history-of-modern-warfare/91ECDBDF57DFAFCE48A1E71899E2A80E | title=Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare – Cambridge University Press | website=cambridge.org/}}</ref>
==Personal== Gerwarth was raised during the final years of the [[Cold War]] in [[Berlin]], Germany. At age 13, he witnessed the [[fall of the Berlin Wall]]. Gerwarth says that living in such a significant historical city sparked his interest in European history. Of his career path, Gerwarth says: "I have no regrets in following this career path; I love being a historian."<ref name="perfect nazi"/> Other hobbies include skiing, rowing and reading for pleasure. Gerwarth currently lives in Ireland with his wife and two sons.<ref name="perfect nazi"/>
==Published works== *{{Cite book |year=2020 |title=November 1918: The German Revolution |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-199-54647-3}} *{{Cite book |year=2016 |title=The Vanquished: Why the First World War Failed to End, 1917–1923|location=London |publisher=Allen Lane|isbn=9781846148118}} *{{Cite book |year=2011 |title=Hitler's Hangman: The Life of Heydrich |location=New Haven, CT |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-11575-8}} *{{Cite book |year=2005 |title=The Bismarck Myth |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-928184-8}}
==Edited volumes== * ''Empires at War: 1911-1923''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2014. *''War in Peace: Paramilitary Violence in Europe After the Great War''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013 (with John Horne). *{{Cite book |year=2011 |title=Political Violence in Twentieth-Century Europe |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0521182041}} (with D. Bloxham) *{{Cite book |year=2007 |title=Twisted Paths: Europe 1914–1945 |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0199281855}} *{{Cite book |year=2008 |title=Wilhelmine Germany and Edwardian Britain |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press }} (with D. Geppert) *{{Cite book |year=2007 |title=Terrorism in Twentieth-Century Europe|location=London |publisher=University Press }} (with H.G. Haupt) *{{Cite book |year=2008 |title=Constitutions: Civility and Violent Collapse in Europe|location=Munich |publisher=University Press }} (with J. Harris and H. Nehring)
==References== {{reflist|30em|refs= <ref name="perfect nazi">{{cite web |last= Darracott-Cankovic |first= Chloe |date= 6 October 2011 |title=Hitler's Hangman: The Life of Heydrich. Blueprint for a perfect Nazi |url=http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=417638 |publisher= [[Times Higher Education]] |access-date= 18 September 2012 }}</ref>
<ref name="The Telegraph">{{cite web |last= Overy |first= Richard |date= 18 October 2011 |title=Heinrich Himmler: A Life by Peter Longerich and Hitler's Hangman: The Life of Heydrich by Robert Gerwarth: review. Two exceptional studies of the lives of Hitler's henchmen |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/8827418/Heinrich-Himmler-A-Life-by-Peter-Longerich-and-Hitlers-Hangman-The-Life-of-Heydrich-by-Robert-Gerwarth-review.html |work= The Telegraph|location=London|access-date= 18 September 2012 }}</ref>
<ref name="Rider U">{{cite web |last=Ramsden |first=Sean |date=27 February 2012 |title=Historian Robert Gerwarth to Deliver 20th Annual Levine Lecture on March 7 |url=http://www.rider.edu/news/2012/02/27/historian-robert-gerwarth-deliver-20th-annual-levine-lecture-march-7 |publisher=[[Rider University]] |access-date=18 September 2012 |archive-date=8 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120308010835/http://www.rider.edu/news/2012/02/27/historian-robert-gerwarth-deliver-20th-annual-levine-lecture-march-7 |url-status=dead }}</ref> --> }}
==External links== * [https://robertgerwarth.com/ Robert Gerwarth's personal Website] * [http://www.ucd.ie/warstudies/members/robertgerwarthdirector/ Gerwarth's staff page] at UCD.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gerwarth, Robert}} [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:21st-century German historians]] [[Category:Historians of Germany]] [[Category:Historians of the Holocaust in Germany]] [[Category:German historians of the Holocaust]] [[Category:1976 births]]