Être historien en RDA : entre fidélité et marxisme critique

Résumé Fr En

L’interview retrace la carrière universitaire de l’historien Mario Kessler, né en RDA. Il a étudié l’histoire à Iéna et à Leipzig, a rédigé ses thèses de doctorat et de post-doctorat alors qu’il se trouvait encore en RDA, mais a dû trouver sa voie dans un système universitaire entièrement nouveau en 1990. Il y est parvenu sans changer sa position politique de socialiste critique. Grâce à la formation universitaire de sa famille et à sa connaissance de la littérature occidentale, il disposait déjà avant 1989 d’une avance en matière de connaissances, qu’il a pu mettre à profit, par exemple lors de ses nombreux postes de professeur invité et de ses séjours de recherche aux États-Unis. Il n’a jamais oublié ce qu’il devait à ses professeurs et compagnons universitaires de l’Est et de l’Ouest.

The interview outlines the academic career of historian Prof. Dr Mario Kessler, born in the GDR, against the background of political upheavals. Kessler studied history in Jena and Leipzig, wrote his doctoral and postdoctoral dissertations while still in the GDR, but had to find his way in a completely new academic system in 1990. He succeeded in doing so, albeit not in a straight line, never changing his political stance of a critical socialist. However, due to his family’s academic background and his knowledge of Western literature, he had a head start in knowledge even before 1989, which he was then able to use, for example during his numerous guest professorships and research stays in the U.S. His numerous books in German and English eventually won him recognition even in academic circles that did not share his political views. He never forgot what he owed to his academic teachers and companions in East and West.