Quick Facts
Biography
Christian Hartmann (born 1959) is a German historian and author. He specialises in modern European history, including the history of Nazi Germany. Currently, Hartmann is a historian at the Institute of Contemporary History (Munich) and is Senior Lecturer at the Military Academy of the German Armed Forces.
Historian of Nazi Germany
Hartmann wrote a 1991 biography of Franz Halder, the chief of staff of the Wehrmacht's High Command of the Army, entitled Halder. Generalstabschef Hitlers 1938–1942. The biography examined in part the impact that Halder's, Hitler's and the High Command's propensity to overestimate German capabilities and to underrate the opposing Soviet side had on the conduct of World War II. Hartmann served as an editor in chief for the 2015 publication of the annotated edition of Mein Kampf.
Hartmann is the author of Operation Barbarossa: Nazi Germany's War in the East, 1941–1945 published in English by the Oxford University Press in 2013. The review in Michigan War Studies Review praised the book for its concise nature and the ability to present complex concepts clearly:
Its clear, almost conversational prose, devoid of jargon and overly specialized terminology, makes it especially suitable for undergraduates as well as the general public. The widely published Hartmann is eminently qualified to write such a work. He has both impeccable scholarly credentials and much experience making history accessible to a mass audience as an advisor for German films and television programs.
The review criticised the book for "Hartman's insistence on the relative decency of the Wehrmacht", noting also that "more space should have been devoted as well to the other institutions of German destruction in the East and to the Wehrmacht's anti-Partisan war, which, apart from one brief mention, the author fails to link to the Holocaust".
Select works
- Hartmann, Christian (1991): Halder. Generalstabschef Hitlers 1938–1942 [Halder: Hitler's Chief of the General Staff], Paderborn: Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, ISBN 3-506-77484-0 (In German)
- Hartmann, Christian, with Johannes Hürter and Ulrike Jureit (2005): Verbrechen der Wehrmacht. Bilanz einer Debatte [Crimes of the Wehrmacht: Review of the Debate], Munich: C.H. Beck, ISBN 978-3-406-52802-6