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Gerald Feldman: Berkeley historian dies at age 70

On November 1, 2007, Professor Gerald Feldman, of the Department of History at the University of California, Berkeley died at the age of seventy his home in Berkeley following a protracted battle with cancer.

Gerald Feldman's death is a great loss for the international historical profession, for his friends and colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley and for his many colleagues and friends here in Germany where he was a frequent visitor. He was one of the preeminent historians in the world working on the intersection of economics and politics in modern German history. He was a faculty member of the Department of History in Berkeley since 1964 and held the Jane K. Sather Chair there. With twelve books, fifteen edited books and over 130 scholarly articles, numerous distinguished fellowships and extensive service to the historical profession on editorial boards and historical commissions, Gerald Feldman became one of the most respected and influential historians of his generation. He co-edited works with numerous German colleagues and had important professional and personal connections to the German speaking scholarly and intellectual world. He was a Berlin Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin in 1998-1999. In September 2000, in recognition of his scholarly contributions, he was awarded the Grosse Verdienstkreuz des Verdienstordens der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany).

His published work will continue to influence the our understanding of modern German and European history for decades to come. _Army, Industry and Labor in Germany, 1914-1918_ (1966) and _The Great Disorder: Politics, Economics and Society in the German Inflation, 1914-1924_ (1993) in particular have become classic works. _Allianz and the German Insurance Business, 1933-1945_ (2001) was yet another prize winning book that may assume that status as well. Feldman was a tireless historian whose passion for work in the archives and for original research never wavered. Before he became ill earlier in 2007, he was deeply engaged in research on the Austrian and German banks during the period of National Socialism. In recent years, he had charted new paths in his work on German banks and the insurance business, also in the Nazi era. This scholarship will also have an enduring impact. Gerald Feldman spent a great deal of time in Berlin and in Germany. He co-edited or co-authored books and essays with the German scholars including Otto Baesch, Carl Ludwig Holtfrerich, Gerhard A. Ritter, and Peter Christian Witt, Elisabeth Maeller Luckner, Klaus Tenfelde, Manfred F. Boemeke and Elisabeth Glaser, Manfred Rasch, and Wolfgang Seibel. His colleagues in the United States, Europe and elsewhere knew the personal side of this brilliant historian, namely his warmth, irony, kindness and wonderful sense of humor. Those who have known him for a longer time recall his courage, independent spirit and profound commitment to the values of a free and pluralistic world of scholarship and politics. Gerald Feldman was a very young seventy years old when he died. Those of us who were fortunate to know him are grateful that he enriched our world for so many years.

He is survived by his wife, Norma von Ragenfeld and his children, Deborah and Aaron. Condolences can be sent to Richard Hill at: Richardforcehill@aol.com

[Ed. note: Feldman's colleague at UC Berkeley, Margaret Lavinia Anderson, observes that a commentary on Feldman in the _Frankfurter Allgemeine_ bears the perfect title:"Der Unbestechliche". (The editorial, which bears tomorrow's date, is available on-line at www.faz-net.de but may only be accessible to subscribers or users of LEXIS-NEXIS.)]

Read entire article at H-GERMAN@H-NET.MSU.EDU