Arnold Krammer

Arnold Paul Krammer (born 1941) is a scholar of German and United States history who is a retired professor at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. He was twice a Fulbright scholar in Germany in 1992-1993^[1] and 2002-2003.^[2]

Before you make a choice, look back at what other people did before you. That is the value of history. - Arnold P. Krammer

Academic career

Krammer was educated at the University of Wisconsin in the capital city of Madison, Wisconsin, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science in history and chemistry in 1963, a Master of Arts in German history and Russian studies in 1965, and a Ph.D., also in German history, in 1970. He also holds a history diploma obtained in 1963 from the University of Vienna in Austria.^[2]

From 1970 to 1974, Krammer was an assistant professor at Rockford College, since a university, in Rockford, Illinois.^[2] He came to TAMU in 1974 as an associate professor and was elevated to full professor in 1979. He is the sole author of seven books, the most recent of which is War Crimes, Genocide, and the Law: Historical Perspective, published in 2009. He is a co-author of five other books and has penned scores of historical articles and book reviews in various learned journals, such as The Journal of Contemporary History, Slavic Review, The Russian Review, "German Studies Review" and Journal of Military History.^[2]

On his last day of teaching at TAMU on April 30, 2015, the end of a 45-year academic career, dozens of Krammer's colleagues and family members barged into his class through the back doors to celebrate the beginning of his retirement. "All I've done all my life is learn. It's been wonderful," Krammer told the Bryan-College Station Eagle.^[3]

In addition to his Fulbright awards, Krammer is among a handful of TAMU professors to win two Distinguished Achievement Awards. He lists his inspirations as his wife, Jan Smith Krammer, and colleagues R. J. Q. Adams and Chester Dunning, specialists in British and Russian studies, respectively.^[3]

Krammer said that he intends to work on more books, including one on racial and ethnic intolerance in the United States during World War II. "It's interesting as a history professor to see how people often make the wrong choice without seeing how it turned out two generations before them. People often fail to learn from the past,. ... Before you make a choice, look back at what other people did before you. That is the value of history," Krammer said.^[3]

Principal works

In addition to War Crimes, Genocide, and the Law: Historical Perspective, Krammer has written:

• Prisoners of War: A Reference Handbook, also part of the Contemporary Military, Strategic, and Security Issues Series. (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Security International, 2008); ISBN 978-0-275-99300-9.
• Die internierten Deutschen: Feindliche Ausländer in den USA, 1941-1947 (Tübingen: Universitas Verlag, 1999).
• Undue Process: The Untold Story of America’s German Enemy Aliens (New York City: Rowman & Littlefield, 1997); ISBN 978-0847685189.
• PW-Gefangen in Amerika: Die umfassende Darstellung über die US-Kriegsgefangenschaft von 400000 deutschen Soldaten (Stuttgart: Motorbuch-Verlag, 1982).
• Nazi Prisoners of War in America (New York: Stein & Day, 1979; second printing, 1983); ISBN 978-0812885613.
• The Forgotten Friendship: Israel and the Soviet Bloc, 1947-1953 (Champaign, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1975; received the Jewish Book Council’s Prize for Book of the Year, 1975).^[2]

References