Hellmut Diwald (13 August 1924 – 26 May 1993) was a German historian and Professor of Medieval and Modern History at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg from 1965 to 1985.
He was originally from southern Moravia, the son of an Austrian engineer and a Czech mother, and went to school in Prague before the family relocated to Nuremberg in Bavaria in 1938. During World War II, he served in the German Army. After the war, he went on to study mechanical engineering in Nuremberg before he studied philosophy, German and history at the universities of Hamburg and Erlangen. He earned a doctorate in history in 1952 and completed his Habilitation in 1958. In 1965, he was appointed as Professor of Medieval and Modern History at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, where he taught until his retirement in 1985. He was editor of Zeitschrift für Religions- und Geistesgeschichte [de], a scientific journal, from 1948 to 1966.
Diwald earned much recognition for his books on the philosopher Wilhelm Dilthey (1963) and his publication of the works of Ernst Ludwig von Gerlach (1970), as well as for his biography of Albrecht von Wallenstein (1969) and his book on European history from 1400 to 1555. He also regularly appeared on the ZDF TV show Fragen zur Zeit and was a regular contributor of articles to the newspaper Die Welt. He is also known for a widely discussed book on German history from 1978. He published his opus magnum, Die Großen Ereignisse. Fünf Jahrtausende Weltgeschichte in Darstellungen und Dokumenten, a history of humankind during the last 5000 years in six volumes, in 1990. In 1981, he co-founded the Zeitgeschichtliche Forschungsstelle Ingolstadt.
He was married to Susanne Diwald, a scholar of Islamic studies who also taught at the University of Erlangen (until 1989).
Works
Untersuchungen zum Geschichtsrealismus im 19. Jahrhundert. Dissertation. Erlangen 1952
Der Hegelianismus in Preussen von Heinrich Leo. Hrsg. Leiden-Köln, 1958
Lebendiger Geist. Hrsg., Leiden-Köln, 1959
Leopold von Ranke, Geschichte Wallensteins. Hrsg., Düsseldorf, 1967
Wilhelm Dilthey, Erkenntnistheorie und Philosophie der Geschichte. Goettingen, 1963
Wallenstein. Eine Biographie. Muenchen-Esslingen, 1969, ISBN3-7628-0432-X
Die Freiheit des Glaubens, Freiheit und Toleranz in der abendländischen Geschichte. Hannover, 1967
Ernst Moritz Arndt. Das Entstehen des deutschen Nationalbewußtseins. München, 1970
Ernst Ludwig von Gerlach, Von der Revolution zum Norddeutschen Bund. Hrsg., Goettingen, 1970
Die Anerkennung. Bericht zur Klage der Nation. München-Esslingen, 1970
Friedrich Schiller, Wallenstein. Frankfurt/M – Berlin – Wien, 1970
Menschen und Mächte – Geschichte im Blickpunkt. Buchreihe mit 8 Bänden, Hrsg., München, 1973
Anspruch auf Mündigkeit, Propyläen Geschichte Europas Band 1, 1400–1555. Frankfurt/M – Berlin – Wien, 1975, ISBN3-549-05481-5
Geschichte der Deutschen. Propyläen. Frankfurt/M – Berlin – Wien, 1978, ISBN3-549-05801-2
Der Kampf um die Weltmeere. München/Zürich, 1980
Im Zeichen des Adlers, Porträts berühmter Preußen. Hrsg., Bergisch Gladbach, 1981
