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Manfred Messerschmidt (1 October 1926 – 19 December 2022) was a German historian who specialises in the history of Nazi Germany and World War II. He was the long-term research director at the Military History Research Office (MGFA) who conceived of and launched the seminal series Germany and the Second World War from the MGFA.

Messerschmidt was one of the most important military historians of Germany after 1945 and is considered to be the founder of modern military history in Germany. He was an expert on the international military law and an author of multiple books on German military history of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Contents

1 Education and career

2 Military historian of Nazi Germany

3 Personal life and death

4 Works

4.1 In English

4.2 In German

5 References

5.1 Citations

5.2 Sources

Education and career

Born on 1 October 1926 in Dortmund, Messerschmidt grew up in Nazi Germany. From May 1944 till the end of World War II he served in anti-aircraft auxiliary forces in the engineering corps. Following the war, Messerschmidt studied the University of Münster and the University of Freiburg. He completed his doctorate under the guidance of historian Gerhard Ritter and earned his PhD in 1954. After an occupation in the insurance sector, Messerschmidt studied law and passed the second state exam (a specific German professional law degree qualifiying to be appointed as a judge) in 1962. From 1970 to 1988 he was chief historian at the Military History Research Office (MGFA). In 1987 to 1988 he was a member of the Waldheim Commission that investigated the Waldheim Affair, involving the alleged Nazi past of Kurt Waldheim, the newly elected President of Austria. Messerschmidt was the deputy chairman of the German Holocaust Museum Foundation .

Military historian of Nazi Germany

At the end of 1971, Messerschmidt took over the scientific management of the MGFA. He launched the ten-volume history Germany and the Second World War, which focused on the interdependent relationship between military events and society. The first four volumes were set against the backdrop of the Cold War, and the German debate on rearmament in view of the catastrophic military past. The studies, which were designed and conceived in the Messerschmid era, continue to set the trend for a society-oriented military history.

Messerschmidt was a recognised expert on the international military law who was called upon to testify in high-profile court cases pertaining to World War II war crimes. He was described as "the doyen of modern German military history" by Der Spiegel.

Personal life and death

Messerschmidt died on 19 December 2022, at the age of 96.

Works

In English

Germany and the Second World War, Volume I: The Build-up of German Aggression, with Wilhelm Deist, Hans-Erich Volkmann and Wolfram Wette

In German

Die Wehrmacht im NS-Staat. Zeit der Indoktrination (= Truppe und Verwaltung Bd. 16). Von Decker, Hamburg 1969.

Die Wehrmachtjustiz im Dienste des Nationalsozialismus. Zerstörung einer Legende. Nomos, Baden-Baden 1987, ISBN 3-7890-1466-4. with Fritz Wüllner

Militärgeschichtliche Aspekte der Entwicklung des deutschen Nationalstaates. Droste, Düsseldorf 1988, ISBN 3-7700-0775-1.

Was damals Recht war… NS-Militär und Strafjustiz im Vernichtungskrieg. Klartext, Essen 1996, ISBN 3-88474-487-9.

Die Wehrmachtjustiz 1933–1945. Schöningh, Paderborn u.a. 2005, ISBN 3-506-71349-3.