Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Social and Economic History

Dr. habil. Felix Römer

Foto
Name
Dr. habil. Felix Römer
Email
fe.roemer (at) hu-berlin.de

Institution
Humboldt-Universität → Präsidium → Philosophische Fakultät → Institut für Geschichtswissenschaften → Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte

Curriculum Vitae


Felix Römer has joined the Chair of Social and Economic History at Humboldt as a Max Weber research fellow in 2019. From 2012-2019 he served as a research fellow in modern history at the German Historical Institute in London, where he was also a guest teacher at the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2013-2016. From 2008-2012 he was a research fellow and assistant professor at the Chair of Modern History at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. He received his Ph.D. from Kiel University in 2007 and studied Medieval and Modern History, Ancient History and Literary Studies in Kiel and Lyon from 1999-2003.


Research Interests

His research interests lie in the history of contemporary Britain as well as in German history during the era of the world wars. He has published books and articles on the cultural history and the history of violence of the Nazi state, the Second World War and the German armed forces in the Third Reich. His current research revolves around the history of economic inequality since the post-war era.


Recent Publications

- Boris Johnson, Thatcherism, and the Rhetoric of ‚Wealth Creators‘, in: Renewal 28 (2020) 2 (forthcoming).

- Poverty, Inequality Statistics and Knowledge Politics under Thatcher, in: The English Historical Review (forthcoming).

- The Politics of Measurement: Knowledge about Economic Inequality in the United Kingdom and Beyond since 1945, History of Knowledge, June 2, 2019. Link.

- Comrades. The Wehrmacht from Within. Translated by Alex J. Kay (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019). Link.


Books

- Die narzisstische Volksgemeinschaft. Theodor Habichts Kampf, 1914 bis 1944 (Frankfurt / Main: Fischer Verlag, 2017)

- zusammen mit Jörg Döring and Rolf Seubert, Alfred Andersch desertiert. Fahnenflucht und Literatur, 1944-1952 (Berlin: Verbrecher Verlag, 2015)

- Kameraden: Die Wehrmacht von innen (München: Piper Verlag, 2012)

- Der Kommissarbefehl: Wehrmacht und NS-Verbrechen an der Ostfront 1941/42 (Paderborn: Schöningh Verlag, 2008)


Research Project

The Making of Economic Inequality. A History of Knowledge about Income and Wealth Distribution in the United Kingdom since the Post-War Era
The ways in which we think and talk about economic inequality depend on knowledge and statistical measurements, which are not objective, but represent social constructs that have a history. This research project aims to historicise statistics on income and wealth distribution as well as measurements of poverty, and explore the significance of this statistical knowledge in the political culture. The analysis concentrates on the United Kingdom, but it takes a transnational perspective through comparative case studies and the inclusion of international organisations.