Herbert, Ulrich

Professor for 19th and 20th century history at Albert Ludwig University Freiburg and head of the working group "Humanities" of the Science Council.

Born 1951. He studied history, German language and literature and European ethnology at the university of Freiburg/Breisgau from 1971 to 1975. In 1985, he did his doctoral degree at Essen University with the thesis "Fremdarbeiter. Politik und Praxis des Ausländer-Einsatzes in der Kriegswirtschaft des Dritten Reiches" (Foreign workers. Policy and practice of deploying foreigners in the war time economy of the Third Reich). In 1987/88, he was Research Fellow at the German History department of Tel Aviv University and worked on the project "Minorities in Modern Europe". In 1992 he did his post-doctoral degree (Habilitation) at Hagen Distance University with a thesis on the judge Dr. Werner Best, deputy of Reinhard Heydrich and the person who provided the idea for the Holocaust in the Third Reich. Then he headed the "Forschungsstelle für die Geschichte des Nationalsozialismus" in Hamburg and, in 1995, accepted the chair for 19th and 20th century history at the History department of Freiburg University. In 1999, he was awarded the Leibniz Award of the German Research Association (DFG). From 2001 to 2007, he was a member of the Science Council and headed the working group "Humanities" from 2005 to 2007.

His research work focuses on German and European 20th century history, in particular, the history of the policy on foreigners and migration policy (guest workers, forced labourers, refugees) and the national socialist policy of extermination.

Last published in the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT on 30 August 2007: "Kontrollierte Verwahrlosung, Die Klage von der Krise der Geisteswissenschaften lenkt ab von dem wahren Problem: Der Vernachlässigung der Lehre".
Kontrollierte Verwahrlosung (doc, 40 KB)

Other important publications by Ulrich Herbert:

• (Editor): Wandlungsprozesse in Westdeutschland. Belastung, Integration, Liberalisierung 1945 – 1980, Göttingen 2002
• Geschichte der Ausländerpolitik in Deutschland. Saisonarbeiter, Zwangsarbeiter, Gastarbeiter, Flüchtlinge, Munich 2001
• Best. Biographische Studien über Radikalismus, Weltanschauung und Vernunft, Bonn 1996 (3rd edition 1997)
• Fremdarbeiter. Politik und Praxis des Ausländer-Einsatzes in der Kriegswirtschaft des Dritten Reiches, Berlin/Bonn 1985, 3rd extended edition Bonn 1999.