Hartmut Kaelble

Hartmut Kaelble (born on April 12, 1940 in Göppingen, Germany) is a German historian. From 1971 to 1991, he taught Economic and Social history as a professor at the Free University of Berlin and from 1991 to 2008, he taught social history as a professor at Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany. Kaelble is one of the most renowned social historians of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Life and work

Hartmut Kaelble grew up in Pfalzgrafenweiler, Germany and graduated from school in Freudenstadt. Kaelble studied history, sociology, and constitutional law in Tübingen and at the Free University of Berlin from 1959 to 1965. In 1966, he received his doctorate at the Free University of Berlin with a thesis on the Central Association of German Industrialists (Centralverband deutscher Industrieller) from 1896 to 1914, which was supervised by Gerhard A. Ritter. From 1968 to 1971, he was an assistant, and then an assistant professor at the Institute for Economic and Social History at the Free University of Berlin. His habilitation in modern history took place in 1971 at the Free University of Berlin with the topic, Berlin Entrepreneurs during the early Industrialization. Kaelble also taught economic and social history as a professor at the Free University of Berlin from 1971 to 1991 and from 1991 to 2008, he taught social history as a professor at the Humboldt University in Berlin. In 1996/97, he was director of the Institute of History at the Humboldt University of Berlin. Afterwards, he was a senior professor (2008-2010, 2011-2013) at the Institute of History at Humboldt University.