SCHISSLER, Hanna 1946-

PERSONAL: Born May 3, 1946, in Bad Kreuznach, Germany. Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: University of Bielefeld, D.Phil., 1978; attended University of Hannover, 1994.

ADDRESSES: Home—Cranachstrasse 1, 12157 Berlin, Germany. Office—Georg-Eckert-Institut für internationale Schulbuchforschung in Braunschweig, Cellestrasse 3, 38114 Braunschweig, Germany; fax: 44-531-590-9999. E-mail—schissler@gei.de.

CAREER: Georg-Eckert-Institut für internationale Schulbuchforschung in Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany, senior research fellow, 1981—. German Historical Institute, Washington, DC, senior research fellow, 1988-92; University of Minnesota, associate professor of history, 1992-97; New York University, Max Weber Professor of German Studies, 1999-2000.

MEMBER: American Historical Association, German Studies Association, Verband des Historikerinnen und Historikes in Deutschland.

WRITINGS:

Preußische Agrargesellschaft im Wandel: Wirtschaftliche, gesellschaftliche und politische Transformationsprozesse von 1763 bis 1847, Vandenhoek & Ruprecht (Göttingen, Germany), 1978.

(With others) Deutschlandstudien, Volume 1, edited by Robert Picht, [Bonn, Germany], 1978.

(Editor, with Karl-Ernst Jeismann) Englische und deutsche Geschichte in den Schulbüchern beider LänderL Wahrnehmungsmuster und Urteilsstrukturen in Darstellungen zur Neueren Geschichte, [Braunschweig, Germany], 1982.

(With others) Die Bundesrepublik Deutschland und die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika: Empfehlungen zue Behandlung ihrer Geschichte nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg, edited by Karl-Ernst Jeismann, [Braunschweig, Germany], 1983.

(Editor, with Hans-Ulrich Wehler, and author of introduction) Preußische Finanzpolitik 1806-1810: Quellen zur Verwaltung der Ministerien Stein und Altenstein, Vandenhoek & Ruprecht (Göttingen, Germany), 1984.

(Editor and contributor) Schulbuchverbesserung durch internationale Schulbuchforschung? Probleme der Vermittlung zwischen Schulbuchkritik und Geschichtsbuch am Beispiel englischer Geschichte, [Braunschweig, Germany], 1985.

(Editor, with Volker R. Berghahn) National Identity and Perceptions of the Past: International Textbook Research in Britain, the United States, and West Germany, Berg Publishers (Oxford, England), 1987.

(Editor, with Jürgen C. Heß) Nachbarn zwischen Nähe und Distanz: Deutschland und die Niederlande, Diesterweg (Frankfurt, Germany) 1988.

(Editor and contributor) Geschlechterverhältnisse im historischen Wandel, Campus (Frankfurt, Germany), 1993.

(Editor and contributor) The Miracle Years: West German Society from 1949 to 1968; A Cultural History, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 2001.

(Editor, with Yasemin Soysal) The Nation, Europe, the World: Textbooks in Transition, Berghahn Publishers (Providence, RI), 2003.

Contributor to books, including An Interrupted Past: German-Speaking Refugee Historians in the United States after 1933, edited by Hartmut Lehmann and James J. Sheehan, Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, England), 1991; Landownership and Power in Europe, edited by Martin Blinckhorn and Ralph Gibson, HarperCollins (London, England), 1991; From Bundesrepublik to Deutschland: German Politics after Unification, edited by Michael Huelshoff, Andrei S. Markovits, and Simon Reich, University of Michigan Press (Ann Arbor, MI), 1993; Between Reform and Revolution: Studies in the History of German Socialism and Communism from 1840 to 1990, edited by David E. Barclay and Eric D. Weitz, Berghahn Publishers (Providence, RI), 1998; and Germany and the United States in the Era of the Cold War, 1945-1990, edited by Detlev Junker, Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, England), 2001. Contributor of articles and reviews to academic journals, including International Journal of Social Education, German Studies Review, Central European History, and German Politics and Society. Coeditor, Internationale Schulbuchforschung, 1981-88, 1997—.

SIDELIGHTS: Hanna Schissler told CA:"Iam fascinated by the different ways in which people approach and make sense of the world. To look at the world through the historical lens has always appealed to me. I have come a long way from structural approaches in history writing (very unpersonal, very 'objectified') to what today, rather vaguely, is called cultural history. In my first book on agrarian society I attempted a secularized explanation of broad developments, basically of the transition from traditional to 'modern' society in Germany. In my book The Miracle Years: West German Society from 1949 to 1968; A Cultural History, I pondered the idea of what it means to write about one's own time. Writing about one's own time is a particular challenge, since there is so much memory, transference, legitimation, et cetera—all issues which historians tend to overlook, but which I find increasingly fascinating. Writing is hard work. I have always regretted that I cannot write for the broader public. It is my dream to write a novel which captures the Zeitgeist and entertains people more than dry scholarly prose."