Harry Weibel (born 20 June 1946) is a German historian. His main topics are neo-Nazism, right-wing extremism and antisemitism in the GDR and racism in Germany from 1945 to the present.
Harry Weibel (born 20 June 1946) is a German historian. His main topics are neo-Nazism, right-wing extremism and antisemitism in the GDR and racism in Germany from 1945 to the present.
Born in Lörrach, Waibel comes from a working-class family. He graduated in 1962 with mittlere Reife and then completed an apprenticeship as an industrial clerk. After his discharge from the Bundeswehr he worked in different companies as a commercial clerk. According to his own statements he took part in actions of the extra-parliamentary opposition in Lörrach in the Republikanischer Club and in Basel and was active in 1969 against the NPD Baden-Württemberg, which had been elected to the Baden-Württemberg State Parliament since 1968.
Via the Zweiter Bildungsweg, Waibel began a Teacher training at the Pädagogische Hochschule Freiburg. As a member of the Sozialistisches Büro and the Sozialistischer Bund (1962) he was politically active in Freiburg im Breisgau, among other things also in favor of squatting. Waibel wrote for Alternativpresse "Sumpfblüte" and "Links unten".
He continued his studies at the Free University of Berlin and finished them with a diploma in education. In 1993 he was awarded a doctorate by Wolfgang Benz at the Center for Research on Antisemitism of Technische Universität Berlin with a study on neo-Nazism, antisemitism and racism in the GDR under the title Rechtsextremisten in der DDR bis 1989. Both courses of study and the doctorate were financially supported by the union's own Hans-Böckler-Stiftung.
Waibel researches in the archives of the Stasi Records Agency and the German Federal Archives (SAPMO) on racism in the GDR.
He lives and works as a freelance journalist and historian in Berlin.
In his book Rechtsextremisten in der DDR bis 1989, Waibel argues, among other things, that the authoritarian structure of the GDR was particularly effective against young people and was an essential prerequisite for young people to adopt xenophobic and profascist attitudes. Bureaucracy and centralism had been the ideal breeding ground for right-wing extremist attitudes. The GDR leadership had created an authoritarian state that made it easy for right-wing extremists to find social connections.
In 2011 Waibel published the book Diener vieler Herren. Critics note that the early entry of young people into the NSDAP does not allow any conclusions to be drawn about their actual later attitudes.[citation needed]
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