BAAINBw awards military history prize

On 14 October, Major General Gert Nultsch, Vice President of the Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and In-Service Support (BAAINBw), awarded the prize for military history and the history of military technology at a colloquium for young military historians at the University of Potsdam, accompanied by the Bundeswehr Music Corps.

With this award, the BAAINBw recognises outstanding academic work in the fields of military history and the history of military technology. Since 2017, the award, including attractive prize money, has been presented every two years by the management of the BAAINBw based on the assessment of an expert commission consisting of seven renowned military historians and an engineer.

This year, the first prize, endowed with 10,000 euros, went to Dr Gundula Gahlen for her groundbreaking habilitation thesis "Nerves, war and military leadership. The treatment of mentally ill officers in Germany (1890-1939)". Stefan Günter Droste was honoured for his dissertation "Offensive Engines. The precarious expertise of military engineering project planners (1650-1800)" and 7,500 euros in prize money. The third prize, together with an award of 5,000 euros, was awarded to Jan Philipp Bothe for his dissertation "The Nature of War. Military knowledge and the environment in the 17th and 18th centuries".

"The military is an integral part of modern social life and cannot be viewed solely in a technical sense," said General Nultsch at the award ceremony. "Military history and the history of military technology, which we want to promote with this prize, deals with the history of the armed power of a state in the entire breadth of its diverse, cultural-historical and historical manifestations as an instrument and means of politics."