Johann Böhm (born September 25, 1929 in Batoș (Botsch), Mureș County, Romania)
Johann Böhm is a historian and the author of many books about the ethnic Germans in the areas of Hungary, Romania, and the former Yugoslavia in the 20th century around the period of World War II. He was born in 1929, studied History and German literature at Cluj University in the Transylvania area of Romania from 1960 until 1965; and obtained his Doctorate in Philosophy at the University of Cologne in 1984. For his many rich accomplishments he was awarded the Order of Merit of Germany in 2006. Since 1989 he is editor of the "Halbjahreschrift fur Sudosteuropaische Geschichte".
His works bring a critical perspective to the rise of National Socialism among the ethnic Germans of south eastern Europe and the Balkans. His works are replete with detailed scholarship from primary sources.
Böhm studied at the School on the Hill, graduated in 1952, then studied German and history at the University of Cluj (1960–1965). After emigrating to Germany, he studied political science, history and pedagogy at the University of Bochum (1971–1975) and at the University of Cologne, where he received his doctorate with the paper "Nazi Germany and the German Ethnic Group in Romania."
Böhm lives in Dinklage, Germany, and has published numerous studies and books on the recent history of Romania. The central theme in the author's works is the Nazi period, the collaborationism of the German minority in Romania with Nazism and the enrolment of ethnic Germans in Waffen-SS.
Dr. Johann Böhm has been publishing since 1989 the biannual journal "Halbjahresschrift für südosteuropäische Geschichte, Literatur und Politik" (Half-Yearly Publication of South Eastern European History, Literature and Politics), supported by William Totok, Dieter Schlesak, Klaus Popa and others. William Totok is in charge of the electronic edition of this magazine.
"In addition to (...) awkward revelations, springing from a controversial start, Böhm offers the general public a comprehensive picture of the period 1933-1940", the note on August 5, 1999, the newspaper România liberă in a review of a signed book by Johann Böhm.
In a report on the awarding of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany to the historian, the newspaper Ziua of March 15, 2006 noted that "Johann Böhm's work is marked by two crucial moments that led him to deal with the history of the last century. He was born in Romania, where he lived the dictatorial system imposed on the German minority by the National Socialist Party, through the German Ethnic Group in Romania, and secondly, the post-war career of Nazi leaders in the Federal Republic of Germany. In all published works, the historian tried to find an answer to an obsessive question: to what extent was the situation of the German minority in Romania influenced by the evolution of the bad political processes in interwar and Nazi Germany."