Heinz A. Richter

Heinz A. Richter
Born 18 March 1939
Heilbronn, Germany
Occupation Historian; professor; author
Language German; Greek
Nationality German
Subject World War II in the Balkans; history of modern Greece; modern history of Cyprus

Heinz A. Richter (born 1939) is a German historian, known for his work on the history of World War II in the Balkans, the history of modern Greece and the modern history of Cyprus.

Biography

Heinz A. Richter was born on 18 March 1939, in Heilbronn, in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. He started reading Greek mythology at a very young age and, in high school, his professor of History "excited his interest for classical Greek antiquity."[1] Richter studied History, Political Science and English Literature at the Heidelberg University. He was professor of Greek and Cypriot modern history at the University of Mannheim from 1991 up to 2003.

In his book Griechenland im Zweiten Weltkrieg 1939-1941, Richter provided a narrative account of the war in the Balkans from the Greek and Allied side, using published sources only.[2]

Richter has commented also on the current state of the affairs of Greece,[3] as well as Cyprus.[4]

Controversy

In November 2014, the University of Crete awarded Richter with a honoris Ph.D. for his historical work. The award provoked protests by historians and the Greek public who claimed that Richter, in his work, has smeared the reputation of Cretan resistance and assigned noble incentives to the Nazi invaders. In his book on the Battle of Crete, Richter describes Nazi paratroopers as "brave knights" and "idealistic".[5] Furthermore, he was criticized for his statements in an interview he gave to the Greek newspaper Kathimerini, where he spoke of destruction in Greek islands and villages by "the Germans, the Italians, the communists and the nationalists"; this was seen as moral relativism, attempting to assign equal weight to the actions of the occupation forces and the local Greek guerrillas.[6][7]

The claims were rejected by the University's authorities.[7]

Awards

Richter was presented by the Greek President, for his "services to Greek history," with the Gold Cross of the Order of the Phoenix, in 2000.

Selected works

References

External links

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