Prof. Dr. Sönke Neitzel
Note: office hours during the semester break
Professor Neitzel's office hours are as follows:
Wed 20.9.2023 14:00 - 16:00 (Attention: changed date)
Tue 10.10.2023 15:00 - 17:00 (Attention: changed time)
We recommend that you register for a consultation hour by e-mail (sekretariat-militaergeschichte@uni-potsdam) so that we can inform you in good time if there are any changes to the dates.
In the winter semester 2023/24, Professor Neitzel is in a research semester and does not give any lectures.
Background
Contact details

Prof. Dr. Sönke Neitzel
Chair of War Studies
Campus Am Neuen Palais
Bld. 11, 1.01
(2nd floor)
consulting hours
Tuesday 16:00-17:30,
changed office hours during the semester break
Vita
- Since 19/2015: Chair of War Studies at the University of Potsdam.
- 2012–2015: Chair of International History, London School of Economics and Political Science.
- 2011/2012: Chair of Modern History / Global Security, University of Glasgow.
- 2008–2011: Interim Professor at the University of Bern und University of Saarbrücken, Senior Fellow at the Kulturwissenschaftlichen Institut in Essen (KWI).
- 1999–2008: Hochschuldozent auf Zeit at the History Department (University of Mainz).
- 1994–1998: Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter at the History Department (University of Mainz).
- 1998: Habilitation (University of Mainz), entitled ’Die Weltreichslehre im späten 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhundert’.
- 1994: PhD entitled ’Der Einsatz der Luftwaffe über dem Atlantik und der Nordsee 1939–1945’.
- 1988–1994: Magister in History, Media Studies and Political Science at the Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz.
- 1987/88: Military Service.
- 1987: German A-Levels (Allgemeine Hochschulreife).
Research interests
- History of War and Organised Violence in the Modern Era
- International History of the 19th and 20th Century
- History of the German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) in an international perspective
Scholarships and awards
- 2010: Research fellow at the Gerda-Henkel-Stiftung of the KWI Essen.
- 1996: Werner-Hahlweg Dissertation Prize.
Memberships and advisory boards
- Advisory Board of the Clausewitz-Society.
- Advisory Board of the Federal Academy for Security Policy.
- Advisory Board of the Gemeinsame Kommission für die Erforschung der jüngeren Geschichte der deutsch-russischen Beziehungen (Vertrauensbildung durch wissenschaftliche Zusammenarbeit).
- Advisory Board of Heeresgeschichtlichen Museums / Militärhistorischen Instituts in Wien.
- Board of Trustees of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
- Board of Trustees of Stiftung 20. Juli 1944.
- Advisory Board of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge (Member 2011–2020, Chairman 2016–2020).
- Advisory Board of War in History.
- Arbeitskreis Militärgeschichte (Board Member 2003–2015).
- Deutsche und Internationale Kommission für Militärgeschichte.
- European Academy of Sciences and Arts
- Evaluationskommission der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaftlichen Programme des BMBF (2016/17).
- Preußische Historische Kommission.
- Ranke-Gesellschaft.
- Verband der Historiker und Historikerinnen Deutschlands.