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Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
First public reading with the author on March 17 in the Kurfürstliches Schloss (Palace of the Counts Elector) in Mainz, Germany
(Mainz, 20 February 2009) Contemporaries in 1989/90 were in no doubt that they were experiencing world history in the making. The collapse of the Eastern Bloc, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the GDR, and the reunification of Germany ended an era that had been characterized by two world wars and the East-West conflict. A new age dawned. Andreas Rödder, Professor of Contemporary History at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany, recounts how it all happened in his latest book "Deutschland einig Vaterland". Based on the intensive research and countless discussions with contemporary witnesses, he presents the first historically substantiated account of the German reunification.
Rödder's carefully differentiating yet fascinating portrayal of events takes the reader to the center of power in the Kremlin, where Mikhail Gorbachev's political reforms bring about a change that gathers such momentum it soon spirals out of control. The reader is engaged in the emergency meetings of the Honecker regime and the secret meetings of the civil rights movement in the GDR, and is guided through the dramatic days of the large-scale demonstrations and the fall of the Wall. As one of the leading contemporary historians of the younger generation, Rödder critically appraises the strengths and weaknesses of the policies of Helmut Kohl, who attracted the German politics initiative with his Ten-Point Plan and who was one of the main architects in the unification process. With great sensitivity for the different perspectives of East and West Germans in the unification process, Rödder concludes by summing up the national and international consequences of the German reunification.
Andreas Rödder, born in 1967, studied history and German language and literature at the universities of Bonn, Tübingen and Stuttgart, Germany. Following his doctoral thesis on "Stresemann's legacy. Julius Curtius and German foreign policy, 1929-1931", Rödder worked as assistant lecturer at the Historical Institute of the University of Stuttgart. There he was awarded his postdoctoral lecture qualification in 2001 based on a thesis on the political culture of the English conservatives in the 19th century. He later became assistant professor at the University of Stuttgart, fellow of the Historical College (Historisches Kolleg) in Munich and visiting professor at Brandeis University of Boston, Massachusetts. Since April 2005, Rödder has been Professor of Contemporary History at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. His main areas of research include 19th and 20th century German and international history, and the processes involved in the change in values in modern and post-modern times. He also produced the volume "Die Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1969-1990" in the Oldenbourg Grundriss der Geschichte book series.
The book "Deutschland einig Vaterland - Die Geschichte der Wiedervereinigung" will be released on February 23, 2009, by the publisher Verlag C.H. Beck of Munich. On March 17, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation will host the first reading of the book with the author in the Kurfürstliches Schloss (Palace of the Counts Elector) in Mainz, Germany.
For a reviewer's copy please contact Katrin.Daehn@beck.de.
As an expert on the history of the German reunification, Andreas Rödder is available for topic questions and media interviews.
Contact:
Professor Andreas Rödder
Department of History IV: Contemporary History
Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
Tel. +49 (0) 6131 39-25680 or 39-24465
E-mail: aroedder@uni-mainz.de
http://www.uni-mainz.de/FB/Geschichte/hist4/
http://www.chbeck.de
http://www.kas.de/proj/home/events/94/1/-/-/veranstaltung_id-34791/
Merkmale dieser Pressemitteilung:
Geschichte / Archäologie, Gesellschaft
überregional
Buntes aus der Wissenschaft, Forschungsergebnisse
Englisch
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