Manfred Messerschmidt was a German historian who specialised in the history of Nazi Germany and World War II.
12 Facts About Manfred Messerschmidt
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Manfred Messerschmidt was the longtime research director at the Military History Research Office who conceived and launched the seminal series of books Germany and the Second World War, edited by the MGFA.
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Manfred Messerschmidt was an expert on international military law and an author of multiple books on German military history of the 19th and 20th centuries.
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Manfred Messerschmidt completed his doctorate under the supervision of historian Gerhard Ritter, and earned his PhD in 1954 with a dissertation about Germany from the view of English historians.
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Manfred Messerschmidt joined in 1962; it had been founded only five years earlier.
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Manfred Messerschmidt held the position until 1978, making the institution one of the most respected institutes for German history.
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From 1987 to 1988 Manfred Messerschmidt was a member of the Waldheim Commission that investigated the Waldheim Affair, involving the alleged Nazi past of Kurt Waldheim, then newly elected as President of Austria.
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Manfred Messerschmidt was the deputy chairman of the German Holocaust Museum Foundation.
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Manfred Messerschmidt was president of the Internationale Gesellschaft fur Wehrrecht und Kriegsvolkerrecht, general-secretary of the German committee for the history of the Second World War.
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Manfred Messerschmidt launched the ten-volume history Germany and the Second World War, which focused on the interdependent relationship between military events and society.
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Manfred Messerschmidt was a recognised expert on international military law who was called upon to testify in high-profile court cases pertaining to World War II war crimes.
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The studies, which were designed and conceived in the Manfred Messerschmidt era, continue to set the trend for a society-orientated military history.