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{{short description|American historian}}

{{more citations needed|date=March 2015}}
{{more citations needed|date=March 2015}}

'''Hajo Holborn''' (18 May 1902, [[Berlin]] – 20 June 1969, [[Bonn]]) was a [[German-American]] historian and specialist in modern German history.
'''Hajo Holborn''' (18 May 1902, [[Berlin]] – 20 June 1969, [[Bonn]]) was a [[German-American]] historian and specialist in modern German history.


== Early life ==
== Early life ==
Hajo Holborn was born the son of Ludwig Holborn, the German physicist and "Direktor der [[Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt|Physikalisch-Technischen Reichsanstalt]]," and became a student of [[Friedrich Meinecke]] at [[Frederick William University of Berlin|Berlin University]], where he achieved a doctor of philosophy in 1924. After establishing at [[Heidelberg]] in 1926 as lecturer in medieval and modern history, he became [[Privatdozent]] there until he was called back to Berlin as Carnegie Professor of History and International Relationships at the private [[Deutsche Hochschule für Politik]].<ref name="Pflanze">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O5WNhrmBVY0C&lpg=PP1&pg=PA170#v=onepage&q&f=false |last=Pflanze |first=Otto P. |chapter=The Americanization of Hajo Halborn |pages=170–179 |title=An Interrupted Past: German-speaking Refugee Historians in the United States after 1933 |editor-last1=Lehmann |editor-first1=Hartmut |editor-last2=Sheehan |editor-first2=James J. |year=2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521558334}}</ref> He was dismissed from his appointments in 1933 by the Nazi government, but he had already left the country.<ref name="Pflanze" />
Hajo Holborn was born the son of [[Ludwig Holborn]], the German physicist and "Direktor der [[Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt|Physikalisch-Technischen Reichsanstalt]]," and became a student of [[Friedrich Meinecke]] at [[Frederick William University of Berlin|Berlin University]], where he achieved a doctor of philosophy in 1924. After establishing at [[Heidelberg]] in 1926 as lecturer in medieval and modern history, he became [[Privatdozent]] there until he was called back to Berlin as Carnegie Professor of History and International Relationships at the private [[Deutsche Hochschule für Politik]].<ref name="Pflanze">{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O5WNhrmBVY0C&pg=PA170 |last=Pflanze |first=Otto P. |chapter=The Americanization of Hajo Halborn |pages=170–179 |title=An Interrupted Past: German-speaking Refugee Historians in the United States after 1933 |editor-last1=Lehmann |editor-first1=Hartmut |editor-last2=Sheehan |editor-first2=James J. |year=2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-55833-4}}</ref> He was dismissed from his appointments in 1933 by the Nazi government, but he had already left the country.<ref name="Pflanze" />


==Emigration==
==Emigration==
Unwilling to participate in [[National Socialism]], that same year he fled to the [[United Kingdom]], then emigrated to the United States in 1934. Shortly after coming to America, he was appointed visiting professor of German history at [[Yale University|Yale]].<ref name="Pflanze" /> He taught Diplomatic History at [[Tufts University]], [[Massachusetts]], (1936–1942) and was a guest professor at the [[University of Vienna]], Austria (1955). He became a U.S. citizen and during the [[Second World War]] he worked for the [[Office of Strategic Services]] as special assistant to the chief of its Research and Analysis Branch, [[William L. Langer]].
Unwilling to participate in [[National Socialism]], that same year he fled to the [[United Kingdom]], then emigrated to the United States in 1934. Shortly after coming to America, he was appointed visiting professor of German history at [[Yale University|Yale]].<ref name="Pflanze" />
He taught Diplomatic History at [[Tufts University]], [[Massachusetts]], (1936–1942) and was a guest professor at the [[University of Vienna]], Austria (1955). He became a U.S. citizen and during the [[Second World War]] he worked for the [[Office of Strategic Services]] as special assistant to the chief of its Research and Analysis Branch, [[William L. Langer]].{{cn|date=July 2022}}


==Postwar==
==Postwar==
After the war, he served as Randolph W. Townsend Professor at Yale until 1959, when he was awarded the title of [[Sterling Professor]] of History at Yale University; here he continued to teach and write until his death in 1969.<ref name="Pflanze" />
After the war, he served as Randolph W. Townsend Professor at Yale until 1959, when he was awarded the title of [[Sterling Professor]] of History at Yale University; here he continued to teach and write until his death in 1969.<ref name="Pflanze" />


In 1967, Holborn became the first president of the [[American Historical Association]] not born in the United States.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wegener |first=Jens |chapter="An Organisation, European in Character"—European Agency and American Control at the Centre Européen, 1925–1940 |page=60 |title=American Foundations and the Coproduction of World Order in the Twentieth Century |editor1-last=Kriege |editor1-first=John |editor2-last=Rausch |editor2-first=Helke |publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht |year=2012}}</ref> Several specialists of German and European history in America, including [[Peter Gay]], were students of Holborn.
In 1967, Holborn became the second president of the [[American Historical Association]] not born in the United States (after Mikhail Rostovtzeff).<ref>{{cite book |last=Wegener |first=Jens |chapter="An Organisation, European in Character"—European Agency and American Control at the Centre Européen, 1925–1940 |page=60 |title=American Foundations and the Coproduction of World Order in the Twentieth Century |editor1-last=Kriege |editor1-first=John |editor2-last=Rausch |editor2-first=Helke |publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht |year=2012}}</ref> Several specialists of German and European history in America, including [[Peter Gay]], were students of Holborn.


== Family ==
== Family ==
Like their father, Hajo Holborn's children pursued successful careers in academic scholarship. His son [[Fred Holborn]] was a senior adjunct professor of American Foreign Policy at the School of Advanced International Studies at [[Johns Hopkins University]] before his death in 2005. Holborn's daughter, [[Hanna Holborn Gray]] (born 1930), is a historian of political thought in the [[Renaissance]] and [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]]. She is the Harry Pratt Judson Professor Emeritus at the [[University of Chicago]] and was the University's President for 15 years.
Hajo Holborn married Annemarie Bettmann. Their son, Fred Holborn (born 1928), was a senior adjunct professor of American Foreign Policy at the School of Advanced International Studies at [[Johns Hopkins University]] before his death in 2005.{{cn|date=July 2022}}

Their daughter, [[Hanna Holborn Gray]] (born 1930), is a historian of political thought in the [[Renaissance]] and [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]]. She is the Harry Pratt Judson Professor Emeritus at the [[University of Chicago]] and was the University's President for 15 years.<ref name="Academic">{{cite book|last= Gray|first= Hanna Holborn|date= 2018|title= An Academic Life: A Memoir|location= Princeton, New Jersey|publisher= Princeton University Press|isbn= 978-0-691-17918-6|author-link= Hanna Holborn Gray}}</ref>


== Work ==
==Work==
{{Unsourced|section|date=July 2022}}
Prior to his emigration, Holborn was commissioned by the government to compose a history of the constitution of the [[Weimar Republic]], resulting in the work "The Weimar Republic and the Birth of the German Democratic Party: The Hajo Holborn Papers, 1849-1956." Other works by Holborn include the History of Modern Germany series, spanning three volumes and covering a four-century period from the <nowiki>Reformation</nowiki> and culminating in the capitulation of [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]]'s regime in 1945.
Prior to his emigration, Holborn was commissioned by the government to compose a history of the constitution of the [[Weimar Republic]], resulting in the work ''The Weimar Republic and the Birth of the German Democratic Party: The Hajo Holborn Papers, 1849–1956''.


Other works by Holborn include the History of Modern Germany series, spanning three volumes and covering a four-century period from the <nowiki>Reformation</nowiki> and culminating in the capitulation of [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]]'s regime in 1945. Holborn's work has been praised by peers, including [[Fritz Stern]].
Holborn's work has been praised by several of his distinguished peers (e.g. [[Fritz Stern]]).


==References==
==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}
{{Reflist|30em}}


== External links ==
{{AHA Presidents|state=uncollapsed}}


* Hajo Holborn papers (MS 579). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library. [http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/mssa.ms.0579]
{{American Historical Association presidents|state=uncollapsed}}
{{Authority control}}
{{Authority control}}


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[[Category:1902 births]]
[[Category:1902 births]]
[[Category:1969 deaths]]
[[Category:1969 deaths]]
[[Category:German emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States]]
[[Category:German historians]]
[[Category:20th-century German historians]]
[[Category:Guggenheim Fellows]]
[[Category:Historians of Nazism]]
[[Category:Historians of Nazism]]
[[Category:Presidents of the American Historical Association]]
[[Category:Presidents of the American Historical Association]]
[[Category:20th-century American historians]]
[[Category:20th-century American historians]]
[[Category:German male writers]]
[[Category:German male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Yale University faculty]]
[[Category:Yale University faculty]]
[[Category:Yale Sterling Professors]]
[[Category:Yale Sterling Professors]]
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:20th-century German male writers]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the Deutsche Hochschule für Politik]]

Latest revision as of 14:55, 18 August 2023

Hajo Holborn (18 May 1902, Berlin – 20 June 1969, Bonn) was a German-American historian and specialist in modern German history.

Early life[edit]

Hajo Holborn was born the son of Ludwig Holborn, the German physicist and "Direktor der Physikalisch-Technischen Reichsanstalt," and became a student of Friedrich Meinecke at Berlin University, where he achieved a doctor of philosophy in 1924. After establishing at Heidelberg in 1926 as lecturer in medieval and modern history, he became Privatdozent there until he was called back to Berlin as Carnegie Professor of History and International Relationships at the private Deutsche Hochschule für Politik.[1] He was dismissed from his appointments in 1933 by the Nazi government, but he had already left the country.[1]

Emigration[edit]

Unwilling to participate in National Socialism, that same year he fled to the United Kingdom, then emigrated to the United States in 1934. Shortly after coming to America, he was appointed visiting professor of German history at Yale.[1]

He taught Diplomatic History at Tufts University, Massachusetts, (1936–1942) and was a guest professor at the University of Vienna, Austria (1955). He became a U.S. citizen and during the Second World War he worked for the Office of Strategic Services as special assistant to the chief of its Research and Analysis Branch, William L. Langer.[citation needed]

Postwar[edit]

After the war, he served as Randolph W. Townsend Professor at Yale until 1959, when he was awarded the title of Sterling Professor of History at Yale University; here he continued to teach and write until his death in 1969.[1]

In 1967, Holborn became the second president of the American Historical Association not born in the United States (after Mikhail Rostovtzeff).[2] Several specialists of German and European history in America, including Peter Gay, were students of Holborn.

Family[edit]

Hajo Holborn married Annemarie Bettmann. Their son, Fred Holborn (born 1928), was a senior adjunct professor of American Foreign Policy at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University before his death in 2005.[citation needed]

Their daughter, Hanna Holborn Gray (born 1930), is a historian of political thought in the Renaissance and Reformation. She is the Harry Pratt Judson Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago and was the University's President for 15 years.[3]

Work[edit]

Prior to his emigration, Holborn was commissioned by the government to compose a history of the constitution of the Weimar Republic, resulting in the work The Weimar Republic and the Birth of the German Democratic Party: The Hajo Holborn Papers, 1849–1956.

Other works by Holborn include the History of Modern Germany series, spanning three volumes and covering a four-century period from the Reformation and culminating in the capitulation of Hitler's regime in 1945. Holborn's work has been praised by peers, including Fritz Stern.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d Pflanze, Otto P. (2002). "The Americanization of Hajo Halborn". In Lehmann, Hartmut; Sheehan, James J. (eds.). An Interrupted Past: German-speaking Refugee Historians in the United States after 1933. Cambridge University Press. pp. 170–179. ISBN 978-0-521-55833-4.
  2. ^ Wegener, Jens (2012). ""An Organisation, European in Character"—European Agency and American Control at the Centre Européen, 1925–1940". In Kriege, John; Rausch, Helke (eds.). American Foundations and the Coproduction of World Order in the Twentieth Century. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. p. 60.
  3. ^ Gray, Hanna Holborn (2018). An Academic Life: A Memoir. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-17918-6.

External links[edit]

  • Hajo Holborn papers (MS 579). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library. [1]
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