Professor Benjamin Ziemann

M.A. (Freie Univ., Berlin), Ph.D. (Bielefeld), Habilitation (Bochum)

School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities

Professor of Modern German History

b.ziemann@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 2585

Jessop West

Full contact details

Professor Benjamin Ziemann
School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities
Jessop West
1 Upper Hanover Street
Sheffield
S3 7RA

Profile

I gained my PhD at the University of Bielefeld and joined the University of Sheffield in 2005. My research covers a broad range of topics in German history during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and in post-1945 Western European history.

I am one of the internationally leading experts on the history of the Weimar Republic and have edited, with Nadine Rossol, The Oxford Handbook of the Weimar Republic, a benchmark companion on the history of Germany’s first republic. A German edition was published with WBG). I am currently editing, jointly with Thomas Kühne, The Oxford Handbook of Nazi Germany (forthcoming in 2025).

My latest book is my biography of Martin Niemöller (1892-1984), published as Hitler’s Personal Prisoner. The Life of Martin Niemöller with OUP in 2024.

Niemöller was an officer in the Imperial Navy who became a Protestant pastor and figurehead of the Confessing Church during the Third Reich. The book offers the fully researched account of the turbulent life of Niemöller, including his eight years in Sachsenhausen and Dachau Concentration Camps as ‘Hitler’s Personal Prisoner’ from 1938 to 1945 and his tireless campaigning for peace and disarmament in the decades since 1945.

Through the prism of Niemöller’s life, the book offers a reflection on continuities in Germany’s twentieth century history and contested issues such as antisemitism, nationalism, religion, guilt and morality.

I have received numerous grants and fellowships, among others from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the British Academy, the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, the Heinrich Böll Foundation, the Gerda Henkel Stiftung, the Volkswagen Foundation and the Ministry for Schools, Science and Research in North Rhine-Westphalia.

I have been a Visiting Professor at the University of Tübingen and a Visiting Scholar at Humboldt-University Berlin, at the University of York, the University of Bielefeld, at Kyoritsu Women’s University in Tokyo, and at the Forum for Contemporary History at the University of Oslo.

My articles have appeared in leading peer-reviewed journals, including Journal of Contemporary History, Contemporary European History, Geschichte und Gesellschaft, German History, Central European History, Historische Zeitschrift and Archiv für Sozialgeschichte.

Parts of my research have been published in other languages than English or German, including French, Spanish, Japanese, Ukrainian, Russian and Serbian.

Research interests

I am currently writing a book on the social history of workers and of the labour movement in Germany during the First World War. for publication in a renowned handbook series on German labour history, published with J.H.W. Dietz publishers in Bonn.

A selection of my publications is available in the 'Publications' section below. For a full list please see my pdf List of Publications.

In these two podcasts, I talk about some of my recent research.

Watch: Violence and the German Solider in the Great War. Killing, Dying, Surviving (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017)

Watch: Understanding the Imaginary War. Culture, thought and nuclear conflict, 1945-90. (Manchester: Manchester UP, 2016)

Publications

Show: Featured publications All publications

Featured publications

Books

Ziemann B (2024) Gesellschaft ohne Zentrum. Deutschland in der differenzierten Moderne. Ditzingen: Reclam Verlag.
Ziemann B (2023) Hitler's Personal Prisoner The Life of Martin Niemöller. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
(2022) The Oxford Handbook of the Weimar Republic. Oxford University Press.
Ziemann B (2019) Martin Niemöller. Ein Leben in Opposition. München: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt.
Ziemann B (2019) Violence and the German Soldier in the Great War. Killing, Dying, Surviving. London: Bloomsbury.
Ziemann B (2014) Encounters with Modernity: The Catholic Church in West Germany, 1945-1975. Oxford: Berghahn.
Ziemann B (2013) Contested Commemorations. Republican War Veterans and Weimar Political Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Edited books

Ziemann B & Rossol N (Ed.) (2021) Aufbruch und Abgründe. Das Handbuch der Weimarer Republik. Darmstadt: wbg.
Grant M & Ziemann B (Ed.) (2016) Understanding the Imaginary War: Culture, Thought and Nuclear Conflict, 1945-90. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
(Ed.) (2008) Reading primary sources: The interpretation of texts from nineteenth and twentieth century history..
Ziemann B & Christophersen A (Ed.) () Martin Niemöller. Gedanken über den Weg der christlichen Kirche. Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus.

Journal articles

Ziemann B (2024) Die Weimarer Republik in der neueren Forschung. Themen und Anregungen für den Unterricht. Geschichte für heute, 17(2), 69-82.
Ziemann B (2023) Massenbewegungen der Arbeiterschaft im Ersten Weltkrieg. Der Aprilstreik 1917. ARCHIV FUER SOZIALGESCHICHTE, 63, 435-462.
Ziemann B & Rossol N (2023) Ausnahmerecht, Gewalt und Selbstgleichschaltung. Die Machtergreifung der NSDAP 1933. Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, 73(4), 18-25.
Baumeister M & Ziemann B (2021) Introduction: Peace Movements in Southern Europe during the 1970s and 1980s. Journal of Contemporary History, 56(3), 563-578.
Ziemann B (2020) Martin Niemöller and the history of anti-nuclear pacifism in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1950-1984. Hiroshima Peace Research Journal, 7, 117-131. View this article in WRRO
Ziemann B (2018) Der Prozess gegen Martin Niemöller vor dem Berliner Sondergericht 1938. Zeitschrift fur Geschichtswissenschaft, 66(4), 299-317.

Chapters

Ziemann B (2023) The Missing Comedy and the Problem of Emplotment. New Perspectives on the German Revolution of 1918/19 In Dillon C & Wünschmann K (Ed.), Living the German Revolution of 1918/19: Expectations, Experiences, Responses (pp. 31-67). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ziemann B (2023) Abseits von Babylon Berlin. Die erste deutsche Republik in der ländlichen Provinz In Kink B & Beaucamp V (Ed.), Goldene 20er? Die Weimarer Republik in der Provinz (pp. 19-37). Fürstenfeldbruck.
Ziemann B (2023) Martin Niemöllers Antisemitismus und die Frage der Schuld nach 1945 In Bormann L (Ed.), Martin Niemöller und seine internationale Rezeption (pp. 49-72). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht.
Ziemann B (2022) Die fehlende Komödie und das Problem der narrativen Strukturierung. Neue Perspektiven auf die deutsche Revolution 1918/19 In Pyta W (Ed.), Krieg und Revolution. Historische Konstellationen seit der Französischen Revolution (pp. 159-189). Kohlhammer
Ziemann B (2020) Between Rome and Godless People. Martin Niemöller’s apologetic moves, 1930-1950 In Weir T & McLeod H (Ed.), Defending the Faith. Global Histories of Apologetics and Politics in the Twentieth Century (pp. 74-94). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

All publications

Books

Ziemann B (2024) Gesellschaft ohne Zentrum. Deutschland in der differenzierten Moderne. Ditzingen: Reclam Verlag.
Ziemann B (2023) Hitler's Personal Prisoner The Life of Martin Niemöller. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
(2022) The Oxford Handbook of the Weimar Republic. Oxford University Press.
Ziemann B (2019) Martin Niemöller. Ein Leben in Opposition. München: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt.
Ziemann B (2019) Violence and the German Soldier in the Great War. Killing, Dying, Surviving. London: Bloomsbury.
Ziemann B (2014) Encounters with Modernity: The Catholic Church in West Germany, 1945-1975. Oxford: Berghahn.
Ziemann B (2014) Veteranen der Republik Kriegserinnerung und demokratische Politik 1918-1933.
Ziemann B (2013) Contested Commemorations. Republican War Veterans and Weimar Political Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ziemann B (2013) Gewalt im Ersten Weltkrieg Töten - Überleben - Verweigern.
Ziemann B & Skinner A (2006) War Experiences in Rural Germany 1914–1923.
Mergel T () European Political History 1870–1913. Routledge.

Edited books

Ziemann B & Rossol N (Ed.) (2021) Aufbruch und Abgründe. Das Handbuch der Weimarer Republik. Darmstadt: wbg.
Grant M & Ziemann B (Ed.) (2016) Understanding the Imaginary War: Culture, Thought and Nuclear Conflict, 1945-90. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
(Ed.) (2008) Reading primary sources: The interpretation of texts from nineteenth and twentieth century history..
Ziemann B & Christophersen A (Ed.) () Martin Niemöller. Gedanken über den Weg der christlichen Kirche. Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus.

Journal articles

Ziemann B (2024) Die Weimarer Republik in der neueren Forschung. Themen und Anregungen für den Unterricht. Geschichte für heute, 17(2), 69-82.
Ziemann B (2024) Trauma, Religion and Spirituality in Germany during the First World War By Jason Crouthamel. London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021. Pp. xiv + 258. Hardcover $115.00. ISBN: 978-1350083707.. Central European History, 57(1), 104-105.
Ziemann B (2023) Massenbewegungen der Arbeiterschaft im Ersten Weltkrieg. Der Aprilstreik 1917. ARCHIV FUER SOZIALGESCHICHTE, 63, 435-462.
Ziemann B & Rossol N (2023) Ausnahmerecht, Gewalt und Selbstgleichschaltung. Die Machtergreifung der NSDAP 1933. Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, 73(4), 18-25.
De Giuseppe M, Ziemann B, Takemoto M, Marzano A, Santese A & Branciforte L (2022) La storia della pace. Riflessioni storiografiche e prospettive future. Contemporanea, 25(1), 99-137.
Ziemann B (2021) Everyday Worries and Longing for Community. Diaries of the Weimar Republic (1913-1934). GERMAN HISTORY, 39(4), 641-643.
Ziemann B (2021) Sönke Neitzel, Deutsche Krieger. Vom Kaiserreich zur Berliner Republik – eine Militärgeschichte. Berlin, Propyläen 2020. Historische Zeitschrift, 313(2), 542-544.
Ziemann B (2021) Protest, Planning and Participation. The Catholic Church in West Germany after 1968. yo-roppa bunka kenkyu, 40, 115-149.
Baumeister M & Ziemann B (2021) Introduction: Peace Movements in Southern Europe during the 1970s and 1980s. Journal of Contemporary History, 56(3), 563-578.
Ziemann B (2021) Richard Walther Darré. Der “Reichsbauernführer”, die nationalsozialistische “Blut und Boden”-Ideologie und Hitlers Machteroberung. German History, 39(2), 319-321.
Ziemann B (2021) Die Reichskriegsflagge: Geschichte und politische Verwendung nach 1945. Zeitschrift fur Geschichtswissenschaft, 69(3), 211-223.
Ziemann B (2020) Thomas Brodie. German Catholicism at War, 1939–1945; Jeffrey T. Zalar. Reading and Rebellion in Catholic Germany, 1770–1914; Michael E. O’Sullivan. Disruptive Power: Catholic Women, Miracles, and Politics in Modern Germany, 1918–1965.. The American Historical Review, 125(5), 2004-2006.
Ziemann B (2020) Generationen im 20. und 21. Jahrhundert: Zur Kritik eines problembeladenen Begriffs. Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, 2020(52-53), 4-9.
Ziemann B (2020) Reading and Rebellion in Catholic Germany, 1770-1914. AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW, 125(5), 2004-2006.
Ziemann B (2020) German Catholicism at War, 1939-1945. AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW, 125(5), 2004-2006.
Ziemann B (2020) Disruptive Power: Catholic Women, Miracles, and Politics in Modern Germany, 1918-1965. AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW, 125(5), 2004-2006.
Ziemann B (2020) Militärgeschichte. Perspektiven auf Militär und Gesellschaft im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, 70 (2020)(16-17), 4-10. View this article in WRRO
Ziemann B (2020) German women in the First World War－an emancipation? Rural society as a case study. The Kyoritsu Journal of International Studies, 37 (2020)(03), 37-51. View this article in WRRO
Ziemann B (2020) Martin Niemöller and the history of anti-nuclear pacifism in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1950-1984. Hiroshima Peace Research Journal, 7, 117-131. View this article in WRRO
Ziemann B (2019) Ignaz Miller, 1918 – der Weg zum Frieden. Europa und das Ende des Ersten Weltkriegs, Zürich: NZZ Libro 2019, 459 S., EUR 39,00 [ISBN 978‑3‑03810‑372‑1]. Militaergeschichtliche Zeitschrift, 78(2), 527-529.
Ziemann B (2019) Martin Niemöller als völkisch-nationaler Studentenpolitiker in Münster 1919-1923. Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 67(2), 209-234. View this article in WRRO
Ziemann B (2019) Then They Came for Me: Martin Niemöller, the Pastor Who Defied the Nazis. German History, 37(2), 257-259.
Ziemann B (2019) Jens Oboth. Pax Christi Deutschland im Kalten Krieg 1945-1957. Gründung, Selbstverständnis und “Vergangenheitsbewältigung.” Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh, 2017.. Peace & Change, 44(1), 115-118.
Ziemann B (2018) Martin Niemöller als Geschäftsführer des westfälischen Provinzialverbandes der Inneren Mission 1924-1931. Westfälische Forschungen, 68, 357-380. View this article in WRRO
Ziemann B (2018) Ulrich Keller, Schuldfragen. Belgischer Untergrundkrieg und deutsche Vergeltung im August 1914. Mit einem Vorw. von Gerd Krumeich, Paderborn [u. a.]: Schöningh 2017, 435 S., EUR 44,90 [ISBN 978-506-78744-6]. Militaergeschichtliche Zeitschrift, 77(2), 581-584.
Ziemann B (2018) Ambivalente Männlichkeit. Geschlechterbilder und -praktiken in der kaiserlichen Marine am Beispiel von Martin Niemöller. L'Homme. Europäische Zeitschrift für Feministische Geschichtswissenschaft, 29(2), 91-108.
Ziemann B (2018) Larry Eugene Jones, Hitler versus Hindenburg: The 1932 Presidential Elections and the End of the Weimar Republic. Journal of Contemporary History, 53(4), 892-894.
Ziemann B (2018) Der Prozess gegen Martin Niemöller vor dem Berliner Sondergericht 1938. Zeitschrift fur Geschichtswissenschaft, 66(4), 299-317.
Ziemann B (2018) The trial of Martin Niemöller before the Berlin Special Court in 1938. Zeitschrift fur Geschichtswissenschaft, 66(4), 299-317.
Ziemann B (2018) The Trial against Martin Niemoeller in front of the Berlin Special Court in 1938. ZEITSCHRIFT FUR GESCHICHTSWISSENSCHAFT, 66(4), 299-317.
Ziemann B (2017) Martin Niemöller und die Wartestandsaffäre 1939/40. Ein Kapitel aus der Geschichte des Kampfes gegen die Bekennende Kirche. Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Religions- und Kulturgeschichte, 111 (2017), 317-338. View this article in WRRO
Ziemann B (2017) Regina Illemann, Katholische Frauenbewegung in Deutschland 1945–1962. Politik, Geschlecht und Religiosität im Katholischen Deutschen Frauenbund. Paderborn/München/Wien, Schöningh 2016. Historische Zeitschrift, 305(3).
Ziemann B (2017) Gesellschaftswandel und Modernisierung, 1800–2000. Zur Einführung. Archiv fur Sozialgeschichte, 57, 3-20. View this article in WRRO
Ziemann B (2017) Max Weber and the Protestant Ethic: Twin Histories. German History, 35(2), 304-309.
Ziemann B (2017) German Intellectuals and the Challenge of Democratic Renewal: Culture and Politics after 1945. By Sean A. Forner.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. Pp. xii+384. $99.00 (cloth); $79.00 (Adobe e-Book).. The Journal of Modern History, 89(2), 484-485.
Ziemann B (2017) Sacrifice and Rebirth: The Legacy of the Last Habsburg War. Edited by Mark Cornwall and John Paul Newman . Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2016. Pp. viii + 295. Cloth $120.00. ISBN 978-1782388487.. Central European History, 50(2), 279-280.
Ziemann B (2017) Adam Tooze, The Deluge. The Great War and the Remaking of Global Order, 1916–1931, London: Allen Lane 2014, XXIII, 644 S., £ 30.00 [ISBN 978-1-846-14034-1]. Militaergeschichtliche Zeitschrift, 76(1), 317-320.
Ziemann B (2017) Martin Niemöller and the <wartestand>-Affair 1939/10. A chapter in the history of the fighting against the Confessing Church. Schweizerische Zeitschrift fur Religions- und Kulturgeschichte, 111, 317-338.
Ziemann B (2016) Schiffe versenken. Martin Niemöllers Bericht über die deutsche U-Bootflotte im Ersten Weltkrieg. Krieg und Literatur/War and Literature, 23, 21-46. View this article in WRRO
Ziemann B (2016) 'Resistance to War in Germany 1914-1918: The Traces of the German “Schwejkiade”’. ČESKÝ ČASOPIS HISTORICKÝ, 114(3), 717-734. View this article in WRRO
Ziemann B (2016) Emil Ludwig als politischer Publizist in der Weimarer Republik. NonFiktion: Arsenal der anderen Gattungen, 11(2), 97-118. View this article in WRRO
Ziemann B (2016) The Practical Sociologist: Role and Performance of Pastoral Sociologists in the West German Catholic Church, 1945–1970. Journal of Religion in Europe, 9(2-3), 133-156. View this article in WRRO
Ziemann B (2016) Review of Timothy Snyder, Black Earth. Der Holocaust und warum er sich wiederholen kann, München 2015. Neue Politische Literatur, 61(1), 143-144. View this article in WRRO
Ziemann B (2016) Violence as a subject for study in recent research into the First World War. Historia Social(84), 141-159.
Ziemann B (2015) Peter Keller, »Die Wehrmacht der Deutschen Republik ist die Reichswehr«. Die deutsche Armee 1918–1921, Paderborn [u. a.]: Schöningh 2014, 310 S. (= Krieg in der Geschichte, 82), EUR 39,90 [ISBN 978-3-506-77969-4]. Militaergeschichtliche Zeitschrift, 74(1-2), 311-314.
Dols C & Ziemann B (2015) Progressive Participation and Transnational Activism in the Catholic Church after Vatican II: The Dutch and West German Examples. Journal of Contemporary History, 50(3), 465-485.
Ziemann B (2015) Collar, P. (2013).The Propaganda War in the Rhineland: Weimar Germany, Race and Occupation after World War I.. Diplomacy & Statecraft, 26(1), 181-183.
Ziemann B (2015) German Pacifism in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Neue Politische Literatur, 2015(3), 415-437. View this article in WRRO
(2014) Corrigendum. Cold War History, 14(3), 454-454.
Ziemann B (2013) Christian religious practice in Germany and Western Europe, 1900-1960. Kolner Zeitschrift fur Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, 65(1 SUPPL.), 99-122.
Ziemann B (2013) The Holy Zeitgeist: Studies on the History of Ideas of Protestant Theology in the Weimar Republic. JOURNAL OF MODERN HISTORY, 85(4), 978-980.
Ziemann B & Szejnmann C-CW (2013) ‘Machtergreifung’. The Nazi Seizure of Power in 1933. Politics, Religion & Ideology, 14(3), 321-337.
Ziemann B (2013) Linke Parteien in Deutschland und Europa seit 1860. Einleitung. Archiv für Sozialgeschichte, 53, 3-18.
Ziemann B (2013) Hans Ansgar Reinhold, Schriften und Briefwechsel – eine Dokumentation. Hrsg. v. Gerhard Besier u. Peter Schmidt-Eppendorf unt. Mitarb. v. Melanie Klughardt u. Ronald Lambrecht. Münster, Aschendorff 2011. Historische Zeitschrift, 296(3), 853.
Ziemann B (2013) Hitler's turncoat tutor. History Today, 63(1).
Ziemann B (2012) 'Republic, which is not much': The Party and Youth in the Crisis of Weimar Socialism. GERMAN HISTORY, 30(4), 616-617.
Ziemann B (2012) Youth in the fatherless land: war pedagogy, nationalism, and authority, 1914–1918. First World War Studies, 3(1), 114-115.
Nehring H & Ziemann B (2012) Do all paths lead to Moscow? The NATO dual-track decision and the peace movement – a critique. Cold War History, 12(1), 1-24.
Sabanci Z, Detering N, Töppel R, Ziemann B & Bresselau von Bressensdorf A (2011) Nachrichten aus der Forschung. Militärgeschichtliche Zeitschrift, 70(1), 85-115.
Ziemann B (2011) Säkularisierung und Neuformierung des Religiösen. Religion und Gesellschaft in der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts. Archiv für Sozialgeschichte, 51, 3-36. View this article in WRRO
Ziemann B (2011) Shell Shock Cinema: Weimar Culture and the Wounds of War. GER HIST, 29(2), 328-329.
Ziemann B (2011) Unthinking the Imaginary War. Intellectual Reflections of the Nuclear Age, 1945-1990. MILITARGESCHICHTLICHE ZEITSCHRIFT, 70(1), 105-109.
Nehring H & Ziemann B (2011) Do all roads lead to Moscow? The NATO double-track decision and the peace movement - A critique. Vierteljahrshefte fur Zeitgeschichte, 59(1), 81-100.
Ziemann B (2010) Weimar was Weimar: Politics, Culture and the Emplotment of the German Republic. GER HIST, 28(4), 542-571. View this article in WRRO
Ziemann B (2009) Anthrax: Bioterror as Fact and Fantasy. ENGL HIST REV, 124(511), 1549-1552.
Ziemann B (2009) Historical Discourse Analysis: Genealogy, Theory, Expressions. ENGL HIST REV, 124(511), 1549-1552.
Ziemann B (2009) Historische Diskursanalysen: Genealogie, Theorie, Anwendungen * Anthrax: Bioterror as Fact and Fantasy. The English Historical Review, CXXIV(511), 1549-1552.
Ziemann B (2009) A Quantum of Solace? European Peace Movements during the Cold War and their Elective Affinities. Archiv für Sozialgeschichte, 49, 351-389. View this article in WRRO
Ziemann B (2009) Hindenburg. Rule between high tariff and Hitler. MILITARGESCH Z, 68(1), 149-152.
Ziemann B (2008) Ludwig Quidde (1858-1941): Eine Biographie- by Karl Holl. Peace & Change, 33(4), 606-609.
Ziemann B (2008) Also member of the educated classes: Catholic scholar and academician in the empire. J MOD HIST, 80(2), 453-455.
Ziemann B (2008) The Great War and urban life in Germany: Freiburg, 1914-1918. AM HIST REV, 113(3), 931-932.
Ziemann B (2008) The Code of Protest: Images of Peace in the West German Peace Movements, 1945-1990. CONTEMP EUR HIST, 17(2), 237-261. View this article in WRRO
Ziemann B (2008) End of Weimar Republic: civil war and politics, 1930-1933. ENGL HIST REV, 123(501), 512-514.
Ziemann B (2008) Dynamic of destruction: Culture and mass killing in the First World War. Z GESCHICHTSWISS, 56(2), 173-175.
Ziemann B (2007) The Theory of Functional Differentiation and the History of Modern Society. Reflections on the Reception of Systems Theory in Recent Historiography. Soziale Systeme, 13(1-2).
Ziemann B (2006) Opinion polls and public dynamic. The Catholic Church in the Federal Republic after 1968. Historisches Jahrbuch, 126, 493-520.
Ziemann B (2006) The gospel of psychology: Therapeutic concepts and the scientification of pastoral care in the west German Catholic Church, 1950-1980. CENT EUR HIST, 39(1), 79-106. View this article in WRRO
Ziemann B (2006) Opinion polls and the dynamics of the public sphere: The Catholic Church in the Federal Republic after 1968. German History, 24(4), 562-586.
Ziemann B (2006) Opinion surveys and the dynamics of publicity. The Catholic Church in the Federal Republic after 1968. HIST JAHRB, 126, 493-520.
Ziemann B (2006) Absolute destruction. Military culture and the practices of war in imperial Germany. MILITARGESCH Z, 65(2), 629-631.
Ziemann B (2005) Dagger thrust legend and political disintegration. The trauma of the German defeat in the First World War 1914-1933. MILITARGESCH Z, 64(1), 246-248.
Ziemann B (2005) Confronting the war machine: Draft resistance during the Vietnam War. MILITARGESCH Z, 64(1), 304-306.
Ziemann B (2004) Between social movement and service for the individual. Catholics and the catholic church in the therapeutic decade. Archiv fur Sozialgeschichte, 44.
Ziemann B (2003) Thoughts on the form of society's history in view of the cultural turnaround. Archiv fur Sozialgeschichte, 43, 600-616.
Ziemann B (2003) In search of reality: Sociography and social classes in the German Catholicism 1945-1970. Geschichte und Gesellschaft, 29(3), 409-440.
Ziemann B (1999) „Gedanken eines Reichsbannermannes auf Grund von Erlebnissen und Erfahrungen.“ Politische Kultur, Flaggensymbolik und Kriegserinnerung in Schmalkalden 1926. Dokumentation. Zeitschrift des Vereins für Thüringische Geschichte, 53, 201-232.
Ziemann B (1998) Republikanische kriegserinnerung in einer polarisierten öffentlichkeit: Das reichsbanner schwarz-rot-gold als veteranenverband der sozialistischen arbeiterschaft. Historische Zeitschrift, 267(1), 357-398.
Ziemann B () Pionier und Außenseiter: Gustav Mayer. Deutsch-jüdischer Historiker des Sozialismus. German History.
Ziemann B () Alltagssorgen und Gemeinschaftssehnsüchte. Tagebücher der Weimarer Republik (1913–1934)Zur Erinnerung: Das Aufschreibebuch des Krupparbeiters Paul Maik. German History.
Ziemann B () Political Violence and Democracy in Western Europe, 1918–1940. French History, crv080-crv080.

Chapters

Ziemann B (2023) The Missing Comedy and the Problem of Emplotment. New Perspectives on the German Revolution of 1918/19 In Dillon C & Wünschmann K (Ed.), Living the German Revolution of 1918/19: Expectations, Experiences, Responses (pp. 31-67). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ziemann B (2023) Abseits von Babylon Berlin. Die erste deutsche Republik in der ländlichen Provinz In Kink B & Beaucamp V (Ed.), Goldene 20er? Die Weimarer Republik in der Provinz (pp. 19-37). Fürstenfeldbruck.
Ziemann B (2023) Gewalt in der deutschen Revolution 1918/19 In Martin S (Ed.), Gewalt gegen Weimar. Zerreißproben der frühen Republik 1918-1923 (pp. 43-62). Göttingen: Wallstein.
Ziemann B (2023) Martin Niemöllers Antisemitismus und die Frage der Schuld nach 1945 In Bormann L (Ed.), Martin Niemöller und seine internationale Rezeption (pp. 49-72). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht.
Ziemann B (2022) Die fehlende Komödie und das Problem der narrativen Strukturierung. Neue Perspektiven auf die deutsche Revolution 1918/19 In Pyta W (Ed.), Krieg und Revolution. Historische Konstellationen seit der Französischen Revolution (pp. 159-189). Kohlhammer
Ziemann B (2022) Agriculture and Rural Society In Rossol N & Ziemann B (Ed.) (pp. 497-520). Oxford University Press
Rossol N & Ziemann B (2022) Introduction In Rossol N & Ziemann B (Ed.) (pp. xviii-24). Oxford University Press
Ziemann B (2022) The Reichswehr and Armament Policies In Rossol N & Ziemann B (Ed.) (pp. 217-241). Oxford University Press
Ziemann B (2021) Martin Niemöller. Protestantismus als Protest In Hermle S & Schneider TM (Ed.), Protestantische Impulse. Prägende Gestalten in Deutschland nach 1945 (pp. 117-124). Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt.
Ziemann B (2021) CONVERSION AS A CONFESSIONAL IRRITANT: Examples from the Third Reich, Germany and the Confessional Divide: Religious Tensions and Political Culture, 1871-1989 (pp. 145-169).
Ziemann B (2020) Between Rome and Godless People. Martin Niemöller’s apologetic moves, 1930-1950 In Weir T & McLeod H (Ed.), Defending the Faith. Global Histories of Apologetics and Politics in the Twentieth Century (pp. 74-94). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ziemann B (2020) Martin Niemöller als Leiter des Kirchlichen Außenamtes 1945-1956 In Gestrich A, Hermle S & Pöpping D (Ed.), Evangelisch und deutsch? Auslandsgemeinden im 20. Jahrhundert. Zwischen Nationalprotestantismus, Volkstumspolitik und Ökumene (pp. 323-343). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Ziemann B (2020) Wanderer zwischen den Welten. Der Militärkritiker und Gegner des entschiedenen Pazifismus Major a.D. Karl Mayr (1883-1945) In Wette W (Ed.), Weiße Raben. Pazifistische Offiziere in Deutschland vor 1933 (pp. 303-319). Bremen: Donat Verlag.
Ziemann B (2018) Ambivalente Männlichkeit. Geschlechterbilder und -praktiken in der kaiserlichen Marine am Beispiel von Martin Niemöller, 1914/18 – revisited (pp. 91-108). V&R unipress
Grant M & Ziemann B (2016) Introduction: The cold war as an imaginary war, Understanding the Imaginary War: Culture, Thought and Nuclear Conflict, 1945-90 (pp. 1-29).
Ziemann B (2016) German angst? Debating Cold War anxieties in West Germany, 1945-90, Understanding the Imaginary War: Culture, Thought and Nuclear Conflict, 1945-90 (pp. 116-139).
Ziemann B (2016) German angst? Debating Cold War anxieties in West Germany, 1945-90, UNDERSTANDING THE IMAGINARY WAR: CULTURE, THOUGHT AND NUCLEAR CONFLICT, 1945-90 (pp. 116-139).
Ziemann B (2015) Militarism, The Ashgate Research Companion to Imperial Germany (pp. 367-382).
Ziemann B (2014) “No more war!” Pacifist War Veterans in Germany, 1918-1923 In Valente I (Ed.), PELA PAZ! FOR PEACE! POUR LA PAIX ! (1849-1939) (pp. 377-389). Bruxelles. Bern. Berlin: Peter Lang Pub Incorporated.
Ziemann B (2014) Der Schützengraben als Zone der Gewalt. Frontalltag im Ersten Weltkrieg, Zeitenwende. 100 Jahre Erster Weltkrieg (pp. 89-104). Mainz: Landeszentrale für politische Bildung rheinland-Pfalz.
Ziemann B (2014) Agrarian society, The Cambridge History of the First World War (pp. 382-407). Cambridge University Press
(2012) Engineering Society In Brückweh K, Schumann D, Wetzell RF & Ziemann B (Ed.) Palgrave Macmillan UK
Ziemann B, Wetzell RF, Schumann D & Brueckweh K (2012) Introduction: The Scientization of the Social in Comparative Perspective, ENGINEERING SOCIETY: THE ROLE OF THE HUMAN AND SOCIAL SCIENCES IN MODERN SOCIETIES, 1880-1980 (pp. 1-40).
Kruke A & Ziemann B (2012) Observing the Sovereign: Opinion Polls and the Restructuring of the Body Politic in West Germany, 1945-1990, ENGINEERING SOCIETY: THE ROLE OF THE HUMAN AND SOCIAL SCIENCES IN MODERN SOCIETIES, 1880-1980 (pp. 234-251).
Ziemann B & Dols C (2012) Catholic Church Reform and Organizations Research in the Netherlands and Germany, 1945–1980, Engineering Society (pp. 293-312). Palgrave Macmillan UK
Ziemann B (2011) The impossible vanishing point: Societal differentiation in imperial Germany, Imperial Germany Revisited: Continuing Debates and New Perspectives (pp. 37-50). View this article in WRRO
Ziemann B (2011) Germany 1914-1918. Total War as a Catalyst of Change In Smith HW (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Modern German History Oxford: OUP.
Ziemann B & Dobson M (2009) READING PRIMARY SOURCES THE INTERPRETATION OF TEXTS FROM 19TH and 20TH CENTURY HISTORY Introduction, READING PRIMARY SOURCES: THE INTERPRETATION OF TEXTS FROM NINETEENTH- AND TWENTIETH-CENTURY HISTORY (pp. 1-18).
Ziemann B () The First World War and National Socialism, A Companion to Nazi Germany (pp. 47-61). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
Ziemann B & Dols C () Catholic Church Reform and Organizations Research in the Netherlands and Germany, 1945â1980, Engineering Society Palgrave Macmillan
() Reading Primary Sources In Dobson M & Ziemann B (Ed.) Routledge
Dobson M () Reading Primary Sources Routledge

Book reviews

Ziemann B (2024) Gottfried Niedhart, Pionier und Außenseiter. Gustav Mayer. Deutsch-jüdischer Historiker des Sozialismus. Bonn: J.H.W. Dietz Nachf. 2023. German History, 42(3), 452-454.
Ziemann B (2016) Normalität und Fragilität: Demokratie nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg. German History, 34(3), 494-496.
Ziemann B (2016) Von Städten, Gütern und Dörfern: Kommunale Strukturen in Mecklenburg-Schwerin 1918–1945, by Martin Buchsteiner. The English Historical Review, 131(549), 494-496.
Ziemann B (2015) Vertrauen und Politik im Alltag. Die Arbeiterbewegung in Leipzig und Lyon im Moment der Krise 1929-1933/38. French History, 29(1), 127-128.
Ziemann B (2014) Der Sozialstaat hinter dem Haus. Wirtschaftliche Zukunftserwartungen, Selbstversorgung und regionale Vorbilder: Westfalen und Sudwestdeutschland 1920-1960. German History, 32(2), 326-327.
Ziemann B (2014) Der Weltkrieg als Erzieher: Jugend zwischen Weimarer Republik und Nationalsozialismus. German History, 32(1), 147-149.
Ziemann B () Abschied vom Kalten Krieg? Die Sozialdemokraten und der Nachrüstungsstreit (1977–1987). German History, ghw099-ghw099.

Other

Ziemann B (2024) '100 Jahre Reichsbanner', in: Erinnern! Aufgabe, Chance, Herausforderung, issue 1 (2024), pp. 33-44 (edited by Stiftung Gedenkstätten Sachsen-Anhalt).

Research group

Research supervision

I have supervised Brendan Murphy, who completed his PhD on Killing in the German Army: Organising and Surviving Combat in the Great War and 'Meryn McLaren, who completed her PhD on 'Refugee Camps in the Federal Republic, 1945-1960. Community Building and Integration' in 2009. Benjamin has also acted as external supervisor for Daniel Gerster, who gained his PhD from the European University Institute in Florence in 2011 with a book on changing Catholic discourses on war and peace in the Federal Republic.

Current Students

Rory Hanna

Tutor for German
School of Languages and Cultures

Email: r.hanna@sheffield.ac.uk

R H

Maria Neumann, Religion in Berlin during the Cold War (external supervisor, Humboldt University Berlin)
Andrea Schweizer, The Swiss Peace Movement during the 1970s and 1980s (external supervisor, University of Zurich)

All current students

Find out more about PhD study in History

Teaching activities

Undergraduate

HST283 - Imperial Germany, 1871-1918
HST3071/2 - The Weimar Republic: Laboratory of Modernity

Postgraduate

HST6072 - Voices of the Great War: Gender, Experience and Violence in Great Britain and Germany 1914-1918
HST6603 - Modernity and Power: Individuals & The State in the Modern World

Professional activities and memberships

From 2002 to 2012, I have served as a review editor for peace history and military history for H-Soz-u-Kult, a part of H-Net. From 2011 to 2017, I was one of the editors of the Archiv für Sozialgeschichte.

I am currently serving as one of the editors of the Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft and on the editorial boards of the journals First World War Studies, the Swiss Journal for Religious and Cultural History (Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Religions und Kulturgeschichte) and the Spanish journal Revista Universitaria de Historia Militar.

Administrative roles

Within the department, I have served in various administrative roles, including Exams Officer.

Public engagement

Public engagement

I am a very experienced public speaker. Over the past 15 years, I have given numerous invited lectures and papers at universities in the UK, eleven other European countries, Japan and the USA.

I have also held many public lectures at various institutions in the UK, Germany and Norway. I am also giving talks to A-level and GSCE students at various schools.

In the media

My biography of Martin Niemöller, published in the autumn of 2019, has sparked extensive interest in the German media. Apart from various reviews in newspapers, I was interviewed for public broadcast radio, including a long interview with Deutschlandfunk, and a shorter one for rbb Kulturradio.

My book is also a crucial reference point in ongoing historical reflections on the course of German history during the Weimar Republic, for instance here.

I have intervened in the ensuing debates on Niemöller’s historical relevance myself, for instance in a widely debated article for the Protestant journal Zeitzeichen, and in a joint interview with the theologian Alf Christophersen, with whom I have edited a manuscript that Niemöller wrote while he was detained in the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp.

This interview was recorded for the science portal of the Gerda Henkel Foundation.