Richard Germann
Richard Germann is an expert on Austria in the 20th century (late monarchy to present), critically exploring military, social and political history. A particular specialisation of his research is the era of the world wars. In 2006, Germann completed his doctorate thesis on the topic of "Austrian soldiers in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe 1941-1944: German warriors - National Socialist criminals - Austrian victims?". Since then, he has continued his research on "Austrian" members of the Wehrmacht during the Second World War, using various methodological approaches (e. g. FWF project on perception and interpretation of war together with Gerhard Botz and Sönke Neitzel 2009 to 2014).
Richard Germann is lecturer at the Institute of Contemporary History at the University of Vienna (including Univ. Ass. (Post-Doc) 10/2022 – 05/2023, visiting professor in summer semester 2024) and member of the Scientific Commission at the Federal Ministry of Defence / Military History Advisory Board.
Main research areas
- Austrian contemporary history
- critical military history in the age of the world wars
- biographical and network research
- structural history and social profiles of military units
- hunting and fishing history as social, representational and economic history
Current research
As part of an international research project, Germann is currently working with Dr Ottmar Traşcă (Romanian Academy of Sciences/Cluj) on a critically annotated edition of the memoirs of Colonel Erich Rodler, who worked as an Austrian intelligence officer in foreign reconnaissance from 1914 to 1944. During the First World War and in the interwar period that followed, Italy was Rodler's main area of reconnaissance. He was an officer in the Austro-Hungarian army from 1914 to 1918 and then served simultaneously for the Tyrolean Heimwehr movement and the German Reichswehr (Abwehr). From 1940, Rodler - in the meantime transferred to the military intelligence service of the German Wehrmacht - headed an Abwehrstelle (military intelligence station) in Romania, tasked with reconnaissance of the southern Soviet Union and sustainably securing the Danube transport route for Romanian oil to the German Reich (keyword: mechanised warfare).
This office, headquartered in Bucharest and authorised by the Romanian government, was essentially made up of former Austro-Hungarian general staff officers who had maintained excellent networks in the successor states of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Erich Rodler knew the Romanian War Minister and later chief of the Romanian general staff, General Iosif Iacobici, as well as the Chief of the Hungarian General Staff, Ferenc Szombathelyi, from school. He was also good friends with former Austro-Hungarian general staff officer, later Chief of the General Staff, Ferenc Szombathelyi, and knew the former Austro-Hungarian general staff officer, later Romanian general and then Waffen-SS general Artur Phleps (7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division "Prinz Eugen"). Main focus is on the question of how members of the Abwehrstelle in Romania projected German political and military ideas onto their Romanian ally and how they utilised their relatively large network of personal relationships and friendships that had grown over decades.
Most important publications
Richard Germann, Entziehungen im Feld. Spruch- und Vollstreckungspraxis von Todesurteilen im Spiegel von Militärakten zweier „ostmärkischer“ Divisionen 1942 – 1943; in: Kerstin von Lingen – Peter Pirker (Hg.), Deserteure der Wehrmacht und der Waffen-SS. Entziehungsformen, Solidarität, Verfolgung, Paderborn 2023, 225 – 240.
Richard Germann, Alois Musil und der k. u. k. Anteil am „Wüstenkrieg“ 1914/15; in: Collinet, Benedikt J. – Hiepel, Ludger – Veselá, Martina – Weigl, Michael (Hg.), Alois Musil. Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven auf eine vielschichtige Persönlichkeit, Münster 2021, 275 – 284.
Richard Germann – Ottmar Traşcă, Deutscher militärischer Nachrichtendienst in Rumänien. Struktur und Innenansicht der Kriegsorganisation/Abwehrstelle Rumänien 1940 – 1944; in: Journal for intelligence, propaganda and security studies (Vol. 11, Nr. 2/2017, Graz), 48 – 63.
Richard Germann, Angezapftes Wissen. Abgehörte Gespräche „österreichischer“ Wehrmachts- und Waffen-SS-Angehöriger in britischer und amerikanischer Kriegsgefangenschaft; in: Konrad, Helmut – Botz, Gerhard – Karner, Stefan – Mattl, Siegfried (Hg.), Terror und Geschichte, Wien 2012, 169 – 180.
Richard, Germann, Neue Wege in der Militärgeschichte. Regionale Zusammensetzung „ostmärkischer“ Einheiten am Beispiel dreier Kompanien; in: Berger, Heinrich – Dejnega, Melanie – Fritz, Regina – Prenninger, Alexander (Hg.), Politische Gewalt und Machtausübung im 20. Jahrhundert. Zeitgeschichte, Zeitgeschehen und Kontroversen. Festschrift für Gerhard Botz, Wien 2011, 175 – 191.
Richard Germann, „Österreichische“ Soldaten im deutschen Gleichschritt?; in: Welzer, Harald – Neitzel, Sönke – Gudehus, Christian (Hg.), „Der Führer war wieder viel zu human, viel zu gefühlvoll". Der Zweite Weltkrieg aus der Sicht deutscher und italienischer Soldaten, Frankfurt a. M. 2011, 217 – 233.
Richard Germann, Austrian Soldiers and Generals in World War II; in: Bischof, Günter – Plasser, Fritz – Stelzl-Marx, Barbara (ed.), New Perspectives on Austrians and World War II (= Contemporary Austrian Studies, vol. XVII), New Brunswick/New Jersey 2009, 29 – 44.
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