Georg G. Iggers 

errgo@us.edu.pl


Drs. Georg and Wilma Iggers
Dr. Georg Iggers was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1926. As a German Jew, in October 1938 he
fled Nazi Germany to avoid persecution and moved to the United States, where he studied at the
University of Richmond, Virginia, and obtained his B.A. in French and Spanish. In Richmond,
Georg organized one of the earliest interracial student organizations. He later earned an M.A. in
German Literature from the University of Chicago. After spending a year at the New School of
Social Research in New York City, where he studied philosophy and sociology, Dr. Iggers returned
to the University of Chicago where in 1951 he obtained his Ph.D. in the History of Culture. While
living in Chicago, Georg met his wife, Wilma Abeles, who was born in the German-speaking part
of Czechoslovakia in 1921. Also Jewish, she moved to Canada in 1938 to escape the Nazis after
they occupied Czechoslovakia. After graduating with honors from McMaster University in Canada,
Wilma studied at the University of Chicago where she earned first her A.M. and then, in 1952, her
Ph.D. in Germanics. Wilma and Georg married in 1948.
After graduation, Drs. Georg and Wilma Iggers taught at several historically black colleges in the
South, becoming very active in the civil rights movement. At Philander Smith College in Little
Rock, Arkansas, Georg succeeded in gaining admission for black students to the then segregated
Little Rock Public Library, which opened its doors to all readers in 1954. Thereupon the Little
Rock branch of the NAACP invited him to join its board of directors and to assume the
chairmanship of its education committee. From 1954-1956, Dr. Iggers prepared lawsuits,
including the one against the Little Rock Board of Education to bring about the desegregation of the
public schools in 1956. After teaching at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Dillard
University, and at Tulane University in New Orleans, Georg and Wilma travelled to France and
Germany, returning to the United States to teach at Roosevelt University and at Loyola University
in Chicago.
Since 1965, Georg worked as professor of European Intellectual History at the State University of
New York (SUNY) at Buffalo, while Wilma worked as a professor of German Literature at Canisius
College. In 1965, Georg published his first major work, New Directions in European Historiography
(1965), followed by many other landmark studies including The German Conception of History (1968),
Historiography in the Twentieth Century (1997), and A Global History of Modern Historiography (2008)
with Edward Wang and Suprya Mukherjee. His work became very influential in Germany, and
around the world, with translations appearing in multiple languages including Spanish, Greek,
Turkish, Czech, Korean, Chinese, and Japanese. In 1967, Wilma published a seminal study of Karl
Kraus, followed by numerous articles on Bohemian topics in German and Czech literature. Her
major publications include the anthology The Jews of Bohemia and Moravia (1993, English edition) and
Women of Prague. Ethnic Diversity and Social Change from the Eighteenth Century to the Present (2000).
Besides remaining an active member of the NAACP, Georg negotiated a cooperative agreement
between SUNY/Buffalo and Philander Smith College and then continued to work closely with Dr.
McKinley Newton within the framework of the Title III Program to promote education in
historically black colleges and universities until the 1990s. Also, in Buffalo both Wilma and Georg
were involved in peace activities during the Vietnam War, counseling hundreds of young persons
on conscientious objection. Internationally, during the Cold War Georg organized exchanges
between American and German scholars, not only from West but also from East Germany. Wilma
established contacts with historians in her native Czechoslovakia, including dissidents against the
Communist regime. For this work, Wilma was made an honorary citizen of her hometown
Horšovský Týn in 2002 and in 2004 received a special award from the Czech Foreign Ministry (the
State prize “gratias agit”) for her activities on behalf of the Czech lands. In the 1980s, both Georg
and Wilma developed more contacts across the Iron Curtain with exchanges and travel in Poland,
Hungary, and China. In 1980, Georg became the founder of the International Commission on the
History of Historiography, which includes historians from all over the world, serving as its
president from 1995 to 2000. In 2007, Georg was awarded the Order of Merit by German
President Horst Köhler for his work in civil rights and in establishing bridges between East and
West German scholars during the Cold War.
After their retirement, Georg and Wilma Iggers divided their time between Buffalo and Göttingen,
in Germany. Georg held several visiting appointments in Denmark, Australia, and the University
of Vienna. Georg was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Richmond (2001),
from Philander Smith College (2002), and the Technical University in Darmstadt, Germany
(2006). Their autobiography, Zwei Seiten der Geschichte, was published by Vandenhoeck und
Ruprecht in 2002; a Czech edition, Dvĕ strany dĕjin by Lidové Noviny in 2005, an English edition,
Two Lives in Uncertain Times: Facing the Challenges of the Twentieth Century as Scholars and Citizens by
Berghahn Books in 2006. A Chinese edition appeared in 2008 and a Spanish one in 2011.