Memorial Page for Fritz Stern (née Fritz Richard Stern)

Fritz Richard Stern (born 2 February 1926 in Breslau; died 18 May 2016 in New York) was a German-American historian. He worked on German history, the history of Jews in Germany, National Socialism, political culture and memory. At Columbia University in New York he taught for decades; at the same time he spoke and wrote regularly for German and American audiences.

Breslau, family and emigration

Stern was born in Breslau, now Wrocław, into a family of Jewish origin that had converted to Protestantism. His father Rudolf Stern was a physician and researcher, and his mother Käthe Brieger Stern was active in educational questions. After the National Socialists came to power, the family increasingly lost security and rights in Germany. In 1938 they fled to the United States, shortly before the November pogroms.

Columbia University

In New York Stern went to school and then studied at Columbia University. He remained closely connected with Columbia as a historian, teacher and academic administrator. He received his doctorate in 1953 and taught German history there; later he also served as provost. German history touched his own family history, his language, his political alertness and his view of the vulnerability of liberal orders.

Cultural despair and German thought

In 1961 The Politics of Cultural Despair appeared. In it Stern examined writers such as Paul de Lagarde, Julius Langbehn and Arthur Moeller van den Bruck and asked how antimodern, völkisch and authoritarian patterns of thought became effective in Germany. The book belongs to the study of political ideas that cannot fully explain National Socialism, but make intellectual precursors and resonances visible.

Gold and Iron

In 1977 Stern published Gold and Iron: Bismarck, Bleichröder, and the Building of the German Empire. The book connected the history of Otto von Bismarck with that of the Jewish banker Gerson von Bleichröder. Stern used this story to examine political power, finance, emancipation, antisemitism and the limits of bourgeois integration in the German Empire. The German edition appeared as Gold und Eisen.

Public voice

Stern wrote essays, gave speeches and repeatedly entered German debates about memory, democracy and nationalism. In 1999 he received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. In his speech at Frankfurt's Paulskirche he spoke about Germany's past, historical responsibility and the need for an alert democratic culture. His later books included Five Germanys I Have Known.

Farewell

Fritz Stern died in New York on 18 May 2016. He was 90 years old. His career connects exile experience, American university history, research on modern Germany and public engagement with the ruptures of German history.