Prof Nikolaus Wachsmann — Birkbeck, University of London

Overview

Biography

Professor Wachsmann joined the department in 2005. He previously worked as a research fellow at Downing College (University of Cambridge) and as a lecturer at the University of Sheffield.

Office hours

Office hours by arrangement

Qualifications

BSc Government and History, London School of Economics and Political Science
MPhil Political Thought and Intellectual History, University of Cambridge
PhD in History, University of London

Administrative responsibilities

MA Contemporary History and Politics, Course Director
HCA Research Committee

Visiting posts

Visiting Professor in Holocaust Studies, Northwestern University, 03-2019 to 04-2019

Professional activities

Academic Advisory Board, Sachsenhausen and Ravensbrück Memorial

Academic Advisory Board, Mauthausen Memorial

International Advisory Board, The Persecution and Murder of the European Jews by Nazi Germany, 15 vols. (Oldenbourg: De Gruyter, 2019-)

Editorial Panel, European History Quarterly

Editorial Board, Central European History

Professional memberships

Royal Historical Society

Honours and awards

Wolfson History Prize , Wolfson Foundation, November 2016
Mark Lynton History Prize , Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard; Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism , November 2016
JQ Wingate Literary Prize , Jewish Quarterly, Wingate , November 2016
Book of the Year Award, Longman-History Today, November 2005
Gladstone History Book Prize , Royal Historical Society, November 2004
Fraenkel Prize in Contemporary History, The Wiener Holocaust Library , November 2001

Research

Research interests

Concentration camps in Germany and beyond
Law, prisons and policing in modern Germany
Auschwitz and the history of the Holocaust
Holocaust Memory
Deviance and discipline in modern Germany
Public history

Research overview

I have long been interested in deviance and discipline in modern Germany, with a particular focus on Nazi terror and the Holocaust, writing about legal terror and the concentration camps.

Research clusters and groups

Difference, race and inequality
Conflict and violence
Public history
Mind and Body

Research projects

The Nazi concentration camps: an online resource.

Funded by

Supervision and teaching

Supervision

I have supervised numerous successful dissertations on German and European history, and welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students who are interested in undertaking research in any of my areas of research interest.

Current Supervisions

Principal Supervisor for 2 Birkbeck students
Second Supervisor for 3 Birkbeck students

Teaching

I currently convene the MA in Contemporary History and Politics, and teach on a number of modules at BA and MA level, including:

The Modern World (BA)
The Contemporary World (BA)
The Birth of Modern Germany (BA)
The Third Reich (BA)
Exploring the Past (BA)
Mastering Historical Research (MA)
The Nazi Capture of Power (MA)
The Holocaust (MA)
Auschwitz in History and Memory (MA)

Publications

Article

Goeschel, Christian and Wachsmann, Nikolaus (2010) Before Auschwitz: the formation of the Nazi concentration camps, 1933-9. Journal of Contemporary History 45 (3), pp. 515-534. ISSN 0022-0094.
Wachsmann, Nikolaus (2010) La dinámica de la destrucción: la evolución de los campos de concentración. Historia Social 66, pp. 119-139. ISSN 0214-2570.
Wachsmann, Nikolaus (2006) Looking into the abyss: historians and the Nazi concentration camps. European History Quarterly 36 (2), pp. 247-278. ISSN 0265-6914.
Wachsmann, Nikolaus (2002) Between reform and repression: imprisonment in Weimar, Germany. The Historical Journal 45, pp. 411-432. ISSN 0018-246X.
Wachsmann, Nikolaus (1999) "Annihilation through labor": the killing of state prisoners in the Third Reich. Journal of Modern History 71 (3), pp. 624-659. ISSN 0022-2801.
Wachsmann, Nikolaus (1999) After Goldhagen: recent work on the genesis of Nazi Genocide. Journal of Contemporary History 34 (3), pp. 477-487. ISSN 0022-0094.
Wachsmann, Nikolaus (1998) Marching under the Swastika? Ernst Jünger and National Socialism in the Weimar Republic. Journal of Contemporary History 33 (4), pp. 573-589. ISSN 0022-0094.
Wachsmann, Nikolaus (1998) Marching under the swastika? Ernst Jünger and national socialism, 1918-33. Journal of Contemporary History 33 (4), pp. 573-589. ISSN 0022-0094.

Book

Rueger, Jan and Wachsmann, Nikolaus, eds. (2015) Rewriting German history: new perspectives on modern Germany. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781137347787.
Wachsmann, Nikolaus (2015) KL: a history of the Nazi concentration camps. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 9780374535926.
Wachsmann, Nikolaus and Steinbacher, S., eds. (2014) Die linke im visier: zur errichtung der konzentrationslager 1933. Dachauer Symposien zur Zeitgeschichte (Dachau symposia on Contemporary History). 14, Gottingen, Germany: Wallstein Verlag. ISBN 9783835314948.
Wachsmann, Nikolaus and Goeschel, Christian, eds. (2012) The Nazi concentration camps, 1933-1939: a documentary history. Lincol, U.S.: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 9780803227828.
Wachsmann, Nikolaus and Caplan, J. (2010) Concentration camps in Nazi Germany: the new histories. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9780415426510.
Wachsmann, Nikolaus, ed. (2007) Le prigioni di Hitler: il sistema carcerario del Terzo Reich. Milan, Italy: Edizioni Mondadori. ISBN 9788804573159.
Wachsmann, Nikolaus (2006) Gefangen unter Hitler: justizterror und Strafvollzug im NS-Staat. Munich, Germany: Siedler. ISBN 9783886808281.
Wachsmann, Nikolaus (2004) Hitler's prisons: legal terror in Nazi Germany. London: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300102505.

Book Section

Rueger, Jan (2015) Germany’s boundaries and the politics of defeat: Heligoland, 1918–1933. In: Rueger, Jan and Wachsmann, Nikolaus (eds.) Rewriting German History: New Perspectives On Modern Germany. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 52-67. ISBN 9781137347787.
Rueger, Jan (2015) The Nazi concentration camps in international context: comparisons and connections. In: Rueger, Jan and Wachsmann, Nikolaus (eds.) Rewriting German History: New Perspectives On Modern Germany. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 306-325. ISBN 9781137347787.
(2014) Terror gegen Links: das NS-Regime und die frühen lager. In: Wachsmann, Nikolaus and Steinbacher, S. (eds.) Die Linke im Visier Zur Errichtung der Konzentrationslager 1933. Dachauer Symposien zur Zeitgeschichte (Dachau symposia on Contemporary History). Gottingen, Germany: Wallstein Verlag. ISBN 9783835314948.
Wachsmann, Nikolaus (2014) Rewriting resistance and repression under the Nazi regime. In: Hachtmann, R. and Reichardt, S. (eds.) Detlev Peukert und die NS-Forschung. Beiträge zur Geschichte des Nationalsozialismus. Wallstein Verlag. pp. 102-114. ISBN 9783835317314.
Wachsmann, Nikolaus (2009) The dynamics of destruction: the development of the concentration camps, 1933–45. In: Wachsmann, Nikolaus and Caplan, J. (eds.) Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany: The New Histories. Oxon, UK: Routledge. pp. 17-43. ISBN 9780415426510.
Wachsmann, Nikolaus (2009) Introduction. In: Buber-Neumann, M. (ed.) Under Two Dictators: Prisoner of Stalin and Hitler. London, UK: Random House. pp. vii-xxii. ISBN 9781845951030.
Wachsmann, Nikolaus (2008) The policy of exclusion: repression in the Nazi state, 1933-9. In: Caplan, J. (ed.) Nazi Germany. Short Oxford History of Germany. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 122-145. ISBN 9780199276868.
Wachsmann, Nikolaus (2008) Introduction. In: Buber-Neumann, M. (ed.) Under Two Dictators: Prisoner of Stalin and Hitler. London, UK: Pimlico. pp. vii-xxii. ISBN 9781845951023.
Wachsmann, Nikolaus (2007) Strafvollzug und zwangsarbeit im dritten Reich. In: Kramer, H. and Uhl, K. and Wagner, J.-C. (eds.) Zwangsarbeit im Nationalsozialismus und die Rolle der Justiz : Täterschaft, Nachkriegsprozesse und die Auseinandersetzung um Entschädigungsleistungen. Nordhäuser Hochschultexte. Allgemeine Schriftenreihe. Nordhausen, Germany: Fachhochschule Nordhausen, University of Applied Sciences. pp. 32-47. ISBN 9783980939195.
Wachsmann, Nik (2006) Writing about the SS-State: Eugen Kogon, Buchenwald and the Nazi camps. In: Kogan, E. (ed.) The Theory and Practice of Hell: The German Concentration Camps and the System Behind Them. New York, USA: Farrar Straus Giroux. pp. 11-23. ISBN 9780374529925.
Wachsmann, Nikolaus (2005) Soldiers of the home front: jurists and legal terror during the Second World War. In: Gregor, Neil (ed.) Nazism, war and genocide : essays in honour of Jeremy Noakes. Exeter: University of Exeter Press. pp. 75-93. ISBN 0 85989 745 1.
Wachsmann, Nikolaus (2001) From indefinite confinement to extermination: "habitual criminals" in the Third Reich. In: Gellately, Robert and Stoltzfus, Nathan (eds.) Social outsiders in Nazi Germany. Princeton, N. J. & Woodstock, Oxfordshire, UK: Princeton University Press. pp. 165-191. ISBN 0 691 00748 9.
Wachsmann, Nikolaus and Burgmair, W. and Weber, M.M. (1999) 'Die soziale prognose wird damit sehr trübe': Theodor Viernstein und die kriminalbiologische sammelstelle in Bayern. In: Farin, M. (ed.) Polizeireport München 1799-1999. München, Germany: Taschenbuch. ISBN 9783933510259.

Monograph

Wachsmann, Nikolaus (2018) Concentration Camps: the limits of representing History. US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Business and community

Media

I am happy to receive enquiries from the media on the following topics:

Nazi terror
Auschwitz and the Holocaust
Concentration camps

Outreach

The Nazi Concentration Camps. A Teaching and Learning Resource (educational website)

Auschwitz and the End of the Second World War (video, public lecture, Gresham College, 2020)

'Being in Auschwitz: Lived experience and the Holocaust', Times Literary Supplement, 24 January 2020

Concentration Camps - The Limits of Representing History (video, public lecture, US Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2018)

The origins of Auschwitz concentration camp (video, Pilecki Institute, 2020, discussion with Dr. P. Setkiewicz)

The liberation of Auschwitz, 75 years on, BBC World Histories, 2020

Interview with László Nemes, Oscar-winning director of 'Son of Saul' (video, Curzon Cinema, Soho, 2016)

Historians and educators discuss the challenges of Holocaust education (video, Senate House, London 2016, discussion with Prof. Richard J. Evans, Prof. David Feldman, Dr. Tom Haward, Yiftach Meiri and Dr. Kim Wünschmann)

BBC History, Wolfson History Prize (podcast, 2016, with Prof. Lane Fox)

Uncovering the History of Nazi Concentration Camps (podcast, WNYC, interview with Leonard Lopate, 2016)

After Liberation: Legacies of the Nazi Concentration Camps (podcast, lecture, 2015)