Guido Knopp

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Guido Knopp, ZDF (2005)

Professor Dr. Guido Knopp (born January 29, 1948, in Treysa, Hesse) is a German historian, author and journalist.

He is perhaps the currently best known and most popular historian in Germany, mainly because he has produced a lot of TV-Documentations, predominantly about the "Third Reich" and National Socialism, but also about others, like Stalinism.

After Knopp had done his doctorate in history and political science he worked as newspaper editor at the Welt am Sonntag and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Since 1978 he has been engaged at the German TV station ZDF. Since that time he has produced many documentations about Nazi-dictatorship like Hitlers Helfer ("Hitler's helpers"), Hitler-Eine Bilanz ("Hitler-a balance") or Die SS: Eine Warnung der Geschichte ("The SS: A warning of history"), but also for example Vatikan (about the power of the popes) or Kanzler: Die Mächtigen der Republik (about Germany's post-war chancellors). He also has a weekly show on German television, usually Sundays, it is called "History". In 1999 he produced a series called "100 Jahre", which sums up the whole 20th Century year by year and is still broadcasted sometimes, mainly on holidays, by the German TV station Phoenix.

In 2004 he received for his work the Goldene Kamera and the Bavarian and European TV award.

But his style got also criticized. Some people say he was to much stared at persons and biographies, what made his representation of history superficial.

Today he teaches Journalism at the Gustav-Siewerth-Akademie in Weilheim-Bierbronnen (Baden-Württemberg).