Fritz Fischer

Fritz Fischer (March 5, 1908- December 1, 1999) was a German historian best known for his analysis of the causes of World War I. Fischer was born in Ludwigstadt in Bavaria. His father was a railroad inspector. Educated at grammar schools in Ansbach and Eichstätt, Fischer attended the University of Berlin and the University of Erlangen, where he studied history, pedagogy, philosophy and theology. In 1942, Fischer married Margarete Lauth-Volkmann, with whom he fathered two children. Fischer served in the Wehrmacht in World War II. After his release from an POW camp in 1947, Fischer began serving as professor at the University of Hamburg, where he stayed until his retirement in 1978. In 1949, at the first post-war German historians' congress, in Munich, Fischer strongly criticized the Lutheran tradition in German life, accusing the Lutheran church of glorifying the state at the expense of individual liberties and thus helping to bring about Nazi Germany.

Work

• Moritz August von Bethmann-Holllweg und der Portestantismus, 1938.
• Ludwig Nikolvius: Rokoko, Reform, Restauration, 1942.
• Griff nach der Weltmacht: die Kriegszielpolitik des Kaiserlichen Deutschland, 1914-18, 1961.
• Krieg der Illusionen: Die deutsche Politik von 1911 bis 1914, 1969.
• Bündnis der Eliten: Zur Kontinuität der Machstrukturen in Deutschland, 1871-1945, 1979.
• Hitler war kein Betriebsunfall: Aufsätze, 1992.