Karl Obermann

Karl Obermann (22 September 1905 – 10 July 1987) was a German historian. He became the first director of the Historical Institute of the (East) German Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

Life Karl Obermann was born in Cologne. His father was a factory worker. There was no money for him to progress to a university level education so after leaving secondary school he undertook an apprenticeship in technical drawing. Obermann became unemployed in 1928. He was able to attend lectures at the university in Sociology and Economic History as a "guest attendee". During this time he was supporting himself, at least in part, through freelance journalism. He was able to do this on a ship sailing from Marseille, a well worn channel for German refugees, not yet fully closed off by the French authorities, which avoided the visa issues involved in trecking across Spain and Portugal.

In the USA he came into contact with the "Council for a Democratic Germany" and became a contributing editor to the council's antifascist news magazine "The German American" between 1943 and 1946. In October 1946 he returned to Germany, travelling via the Soviet Union and arriving in the central part of Germany that had been administered, since May 1945, as the Soviet occupation zone. Early on he became a member of the Socialist Unity Party ("Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands" / SED) which had been created under contentious circumstances in April 1946 and which, by the time the Soviet occupation zone was relaunched as the Soviet sponsored German Democratic Republic in October 1949, was emerging as the ruling party in a new kind of German one-party dictatorship. Between 1947 and 1949 he was a contributing editor of the university news magazine, "Forum". He combined this with study at what came to be known, in 1949, as the Humboldt University of Berlin. Again, his subject was History. The focus of his work was on the history of Germany during the nineteenth century, and within that century he imputed particular importance to the defining events of 1848. He belonged to numerous national and international academic committees, notably of the East German Historical Association.

Awards and honours

1961 National Prize of the German Democratic Republic 1965 Medal of Honour from the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences 1975 Patriotic Order of Merit 1985 Star of People's Friendship

Publications (not necessarily a complete list)

Joseph Weydemeyer: Pioneer of American Socialism. International Publishers, New York 1947. Einheit und Freiheit. Die deutsche Geschichte von 1815 bis 1849 in zeitgenössischen Dokumenten. Dietz, Berlin 1950. Die deutschen Arbeiter in der ersten bürgerlichen Revolution. Dietz, Berlin 1950 (2nd edition, 1953). Die Beziehungen des amerikanischen Imperialismus zum deutschen Imperialismus in der Zeit der Weimarer Republik (1918–1925). Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1952. Zur Geschichte des Bundes der Kommunisten 1849 bis 1852. Dietz, Berlin 1952. Joseph Weydemeyer. Ein Lebensbild. 1818–1866. Dietz, Berlin 1968. Flugblätter der Revolution. Eine Flugblattsammlung von 1848/49 in Deutschland. Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1970. (together with Benczédi László; compiler-editors): Die Ungarische Revolution von 1848/49 und die demokratische Bewegung in Deutschland. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest 1971. Heinrich Billstein: Marx in Köln. Mit einem Beitrag von Karl Obermann. Pahl-Rugenstein, Köln 1983 (Kleine Bibliothek 287), pp. 138–218 Exil Paris. Im Kampf gegen Kultur- und Bildungsabbau im faschistischen Deutschland (1933–1939). Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1984. Die Wahlen zur Frankfurter Nationalversammlung im Frühjahr 1848. Die Wahlvorgänge in den Staaten des Deutschen Bundes im Spiegel zeitgenössischer Quellen. Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1987.