Gerhard Weinberg

An acclaimed scholar and expert on World War II, recipient of the 2009 Pritzker Literature Award, and U.S. Army veteran, Gerhard Weinberg's service is honored by the Pritzker Military Museum & Library.

Gerhard Weinberg was born in Hanover, Germany on January 1, 1928. He attended school there, but was expelled for being Jewish in 1938, and went to England. In 1940, his family moved to the United States. 

He served in the U.S. Army in occupied Japan from 1946-1947, teaching American GIs U.S. history and government as well as literacy classes. Weinberg graduated with a B.A. from the New York State College for Teachers (now University at Albany) in 1948, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1949 and 1951, respectively.

From 1951-54 Weinberg worked as a Research Analyst on the War Documentation Project, an air force contract with Columbia University for research in the captured German World War II documents.  Subsequently he taught at the Universities of Chicago, Kentucky, Michigan, and North Carolina, with visiting appointments at Bonn University in Germany and the US Air Force Academy.  He has frequently lectured for the Extension Program of the Naval War College as well as at the Marine Corps University and West Point. 

He is author of many books including A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II (Cambridge University Press); World in the Balance: Behind the Scenes of World War II (University Press of New England); Germany, Hitler, and World War II: Essays in Modern German and World History (Cambridge University Press); Hitler's Foreign Policy 1933-1939: The Road to World War II (Enigma Books); The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany (Prometheus Books);and Visions of Victory: The Hopes of Eight World War II Leaders (Cambridge University Press).

Weinberg serves as the William Rand Kenan, Jr. Professor Emeritus of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he has been a member of the history faculty since 1974. He lives with his wife in Efland, North Carolina. 

Book dedicated: A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II by Gerhard Weinberg