Gerhard Ritter

Gerhard Georg Bernhard Ritter (6 April 1888, Bad Sooden-Allendorf – 1 July 1967, Freiburg) was a nationalist-conservative German historian, who served as a professor of history at the University of Freiburg from 1925 to 1956. He studied under Professor Hermann Oncken. A Lutheran, he first became well known for his 1925 biography of Martin Luther and hagiographic portrayal of Prussia. A member of the German People's Party during the Weimar Republic, he was a lifelong monarchist and remained sympathetic to the political system of the defunct German Empire.

A critic of both democracy and totalitarianism, he supported authoritarian rule and German supremacy in Europe. His vision of history was narrowed to German interests and of little sympathy to foreign nations but full of disdain for Catholicism. He cooperated with Nazi historians on anti-Polish propaganda. Eventually, his conflict with Nazi regime got him arrested by the Nazi regime in 1944.

Following World War II, Professor Ritter worked to restore German nationalism by attempting to separate it from Nazi ideology, and favored pursuit of German national interests rather than reconciliation with victims of German aggression. At the end of his career, he argued against theories of the German historian Fritz Fischer. Ritter was an honorary member of the American Historical Association from 1959.

Ritter was born in Bad Sooden-Allendorf (now in the federal state of Hesse in central Germany). His father was a Lutheran clergyman. The young Ritter was educated at a gymnasium in Gütersloh.

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