Ian Kershaw
English historian of Nazi Germany (born 1943)
Sir Ian Kershaw (born 29 April 1943) is an English historian whose work has chiefly focused on the social history of 20th-century Germany. He is regarded by many as one of the world's foremost experts on Nazi Germany and noted for his biography of Adolf Hitler.
Kershaw worked at the University of Sheffield. He has called German historian Martin Broszat an "inspirational mentor" who did much to shape his understanding of Nazi Germany. Kershaw has served as historical adviser on numerous BBC documentaries, notably The Nazis: A Warning from History and War of the Century.
Background
Ian Kershaw was born on 29 April 1943 in Oldham, Lancashire, England, to Joseph Kershaw, a musician, and Alice (Robinson) Kershaw. He was educated at Counthill Grammar School, St Bede's College, Manchester, where he was taught by Father Geoffrey Burke, the University of Liverpool (BA), and Merton College, Oxford (DPhil). He was originally trained as a medievalist but turned to the study of modern German social history in the 1970s.
At first, he was mainly concerned with the economic history of Bolton Abbey. As a lecturer in medieval history at Manchester, Kershaw learnt German to study the German peasantry in the Middle Ages.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Ian Kershaw” as english historian of Nazi Germany (born 1943). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as english historian of Nazi Germany (born 1943). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q312532. VIAF identifies the subject as 36930589. The Library of Congress control number is n82090901. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1943.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ian Kershaw” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.