Stackelberg, Roderick 1935-

PERSONAL:

Born May 8, 1935, in Munich, Germany; immigrated to the United States, 1946; son of Curt Freiherr (a lawyer) and Ellen (an American farmer) Stackelberg; married Steffi Heuss, October 8, 1965 (marriage ended April 30, 1983); married Sally Ann Winkle, March 30, 1991; children: Katherine Ellen, Nicholas Olaf, Emmet Winkle. Ethnicity: "White." Education: Harvard University, A.B., 1956; University of Vermont, M.A., 1972; University of Massachusetts, Ph. D., 1974. Politics: Democrat. Hobbies and other interests: Chess, tennis.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Spokane, WA. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, lecturer in history, 1974-76; University of Oregon, Eugene, visiting assistant professor of history, 1976-77; University of South Dakota, Vermillion, visiting assistant professor of history, 1977-78; Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA, assistant professor, 1978-81, associate professor, 1981-89, professor of history, 1989—, Robert K. Zann Powers Professor of Humanities, 1997-2004, professor emeritus, 2004—. Taught high school prior to working at universities. Military service: U.S. Army, 1958-60.

MEMBER:

North American Nietzsche Association, American Historical Association, German Studies Association.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Leadership Development fellowship, Ford Foundation.

WRITINGS:

Idealism Debased: From Volkisch Ideology to National Socialism, Kent State University Press (Kent, OH), 1981.

Hitler's Germany: Origins, Interpretations, Legacies, Routledge (New York, NY), 1999.

(Editor) The Nazi Sourcebook: An Anthology of Texts, Routledge (New York, NY), 2002.

The Routledge Companion to Nazi Germany, Routledge (New York, NY), 2007.

Contributor to scholarly journals.

SIDELIGHTS:

Roderick Stackelberg once told CA: "I was born in Germany of an American mother and a German father. They divorced in 1941, the year that Germany went to war against the United States, and my mother returned with her children to the United States in 1946. The war in Europe ended on my tenth birthday, May 8, 1945. Having lived in Germany as a child during the war provided the main motivation for my choice of subjects to write about. After teaching high school for several years I changed careers in my mid-thirties and pursued a Ph.D. in history with the intention of concentrating in German history and in particular the history of National Socialism. The main purpose of my books has been to trace the roots and the causes of a movement that gave rise to unprecedented barbarism in a country famed for its cultural, scientific, and technological achievements. My hope is to educate the public about the history and continuing danger of the radical right.

"My first book, Idealism Debased: From Volkisch Ideology to National Socialism, explores the ideological roots of National Socialism in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. My second book, Hitler's Germany: Origins, Interpretations, Legacies is a wide-ranging historical synthesis that I worked on for twelve years (while teaching and publishing scholarly articles)."

Stackelberg later added: "My third book, The Nazi Sourcebook: An Anthology of Texts, is an edited and illustrated compilation of 148 documents ranging in time from 1850 to 2000. They include official papers, public addresses, diplomatic messages, and ideological tracts, but also eyewitness accounts, diary excerpts, and letters.

"The Routledge Companion to Nazi Germany is a reference guide that includes brief biographies of some 150 Nazi leaders, a guide to the most important historians of National Socialism, a summary of Nazi history, a chronology, glossary, and bibliography, as well as maps and charts."