Henrik Eberle
{{short description|German historian|bot=PearBOT 5}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Henrik Eberle
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| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1970|5|3|mf=y}}
| birth_place = Karl-Marx-Stadt, East Germany
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| occupation = Historian
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| education = Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
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| known_for = The Hitler Book
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Henrik Eberle (born 3 May 1970) is a German historian. During the first decade of the twenty-first century he came to prominence beyond the confines of the German academic community with compilations, books, articles and interviews concerned with Adolf Hitler. Some of these have been translated into English.{{cite web|url=https://portal.dnb.de/opac.htm?method=simpleSearch&query=120134756|title=Eberle, Henrik publications|publisher=Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, Frankfurt am Main |accessdate=14 January 2016}}{{cite web|url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/medicating-a-madman-a-sober-look-at-hitler-s-health-a-675991.html|title= Medicating a Madman: A Sober Look at Hitler's Health|author=Christoph Gunkel|publisher=Der Spiegel (online)|date=4 February 2010|accessdate=14 January 2010}}
Life
Henrik Eberle was born in Karl-Marx-Stadt (as Chemnitz was known between 1953 and 1990). His father was an engineer and his mother was a pharmacist.
Eberle studied history at Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, receiving his doctorate for a substantial work on the Martin Luther University under Nazism ("Die Martin-Luther-Universität in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus"){{cite web|url=http://www.geschichte.uni-halle.de/mitarbeiter/eberle/|title=Dr. Henrik Eberle - Lehrstuhl für Zeitgeschichte: Kurzbiographie|publisher=Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Halle|accessdate=14 January 2016|archive-date=29 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181029113356/https://www.geschichte.uni-halle.de/mitarbeiter/eberle/|url-status=dead}} which was published as a book in 2002.{{cite book|title=Die Martin-Luther-Universität in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus|author=Henrik Eberle|isbn=978-3-89812-150-7|year=2002|publisher=Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle}} By this time he had embarked on a career as a freelance writer and contributing editor. Media channels to which he contributed included Die Zeit and ZDF. A biographical work on Erich Honecker appeared in 2000{{cite book|title=Anmerkungen zu Honecker|author=Henrik Eberle|date=2000|publisher=Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf|isbn=978-3-89602-318-6}} and broke new ground, providing thoughtful and well-informed insights. It was considered controversial in some quarters. Eberle himself insisted that it could not be classified as a satisfactory biography because it had not been possible to access Soviet archives from the 1950s and 1960s, a period crucial in Honecker's rise to power, and one during which within the party politburo Central Committee he had apparently been promoting plans for the invasion of West Germany.{{cite web|url=http://www.deutschlandfunk.de/henrik-eberle-anmerkungen-zu-honecker.730.de.html?dram:article_id=101536|title=Henrik Eberle: Anmerkungen zu Honecker (review)|author=Thomas Franke|date=15 January 2001|publisher=Deutschlandradio, Köln|accessdate=14 January 2016}}
Produced jointly by Eberle and his colleague Matthias Uhl,{{cite web|url=http://www.dhi-moskau.org/de/institut/mitarbeiter-innen/wissenschaft/dr-matthias-uhl.html|title=Dr. Matthias Uhl: Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter|publisher=Deutsches Historisches Institut Moskau|accessdate=14 January 2016|archive-date=24 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171024124921/http://www.dhi-moskau.org/de/institut/mitarbeiter-innen/wissenschaft/dr-matthias-uhl.html|url-status=dead}} The Hitler Book has now been translated into more than 30 languages.{{cite book|url=https://www.luebbe.de/bastei-luebbe/autoren/henrik-eberle/id_2677219|title=Henrik Eberle|publisher=Bastei Lübbe AG, Köln|accessdate=14 January 2016}} It consists of a lengthy secret report prepared by senior NKVD officers and presented in 1949 to Joseph Stalin. The report had been inaccessible to western researchers for many years, and after 1991 apparently overlooked for another decade. The Soviet compilers had been able to access large amounts of documentary material obtained when the Soviets had captured Berlin (including the Reich Chancellery and the bunker in which Hitler had killed himself), and from the extensive interrogations of the Nazi leader's valet Heinz Linge and personal adjutant Otto Günsche.{{cite web|url=http://8weekly.nl/special/boeken-specials/henrik-eberle-en-matthias-uhl-een-interview-met-de-historici-henrik-eberle-en-matthias-uhl-hitler-wist-meer-van-gaskamers-dan-men-denkt/|title='Hitler wist meer van gaskamers dan men denkt' - Een interview met de historici Henrik Eberle en Matthias Uhl (interview transcription)|last1=van Soest|first1=Arnoud (interviewer)|last2=Eberle|first2=Henrik|last3=Uhl|first3=Matthias|date=26 November 2005|language=Dutch|accessdate=14 January 2016|publisher=8WEEKLY Webmagazine, Utrecht}}
Two years later, Eberle followed up The Hitler Book with "Briefe an Hitler", a 434-page compilation of hitherto unpublished letters received by Hitler,{{cite web|url=http://www.new-books-in-german.com/english/85/92/92/129002/design1.html|title=Briefe an Hitler. Ein Volk schreibt seinem Führer. Unbekannte Dokumente aus Moskauer Archiven (Letters to Hitler: A People Writes To Its Führer)|work=New Books in German - A selection from Austria, Germany and Switzerland|volume=38/2015|publisher=Charlotte Ryland i.A. Goethe-Institut, London|access-date=2016-01-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304092104/http://www.new-books-in-german.com/english/85/92/92/129002/design1.html|archive-date=2016-03-04|url-status=dead}} which makes extensive use of material found during searches of the Russian Defence Ministry archives along with other sources including the files of the estranged younger brother of Martin Bormann, Albert Bormann, who had handled much of their leader's routine correspondence.{{cite book|date=16 October 2007|title=Briefe an Hitler: Ein Volk schreibt seinem Führer. Unbekannte Dokumente aus Moskauer Archiven - zum ersten Mal veröffentlicht|author=Henrik Eberle|publisher=Bastei Lübbe AG, Köln|isbn=978-3-78572-310-4}}
For 2009 Henrik Eberle joined up with the physician and writer {{Interlanguage link multi|Hans-Joachim Neumann|de}} and together they produced a book entitled War Hitler krank? ("Was Hitler ill?"). The two of them revisited various sources, paying particular attention to papers from Hitler's private physician, Theo Morell, and produced a contribution on the psychopathography of Adolf Hitler.{{cite web|url=https://www.welt.de/kultur/article5402073/Hitler-war-nicht-geisteskrank-medizinisch-gesehen.html|title= Hitler war nicht geisteskrank – medizinisch gesehen: Er litt an vielen Dingen: Das Buch "War Hitler krank?" versucht, einen "abschließenden Befund" über die Krankheiten des Diktators zu geben.|author=Sven Felix Kellerhoff| authorlink = Sven Felix Kellerhoff| publisher=Die Welt|date=2 December 2009|accessdate=14 January 2016}} The book lists 82 different medications that Hitler used while he was in charge of Germany, and debunks various popular myths along the way, while also concluding that towards the end of his life he began to suffer from Parkinson's disease. The authors concluded that Hitler suffered from various conventional ailments, but was not mentally ill.
References
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Category:German opinion journalists
Category:Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg alumni