Georg von Rauch (historian)

Georg von Rauch
Born	Georg Alexander Kornelius Erich von Rauch 1904 (1904) Pskov, Pskov Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	(1991-10-17)17 October 1991 (aged 87) Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
Board member of	Baltische Historische Kommission
Spouse	Margarethe Reimer ​ (m. 1938)​
Children	Georg von Rauch
Parent	Cornelius von Rauch (father)
Academic background
Education	Silesian Friedrich Wilhelm University in Breslau
Thesis	Reval zur dänischen Zeit und die Hanse (1927)
Academic work
Discipline	History
Sub-discipline	Modern history
Main interests	Eastern Europe
Military service
Allegiance	Nazi Germany
Branch	Foreign Armies East
Service years	1941–1945
Rank	Sonderführer
Unit	Gruppe III
Conflict	World War II

Georg von Rauch (1904–1991) was a Baltic German historian specializing in Russia and the Baltic states.

Rauch was born in Pskov, the son of Kornelius Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Rauch, an officer in the Russian army. In 1911 the family moved to Sangaste in Governorate of Livonia. Rauch graduated from the University of Tartu with a degree in history in 1927, leaving for Germany in 1939. He joined the staff of the University of Marburg, where he taught Russian history, in 1946, becoming a professor in 1953. In 1958 he accepted an offer from the University of Kiel, where he became head of the Institute on East European History. His pioneering history of the Soviet Union was translated into other languages and became a standard textbook.

His son was the left-wing activist Georg von Rauch, killed by the police in 1971 at age 24.

Works

• Geschichte des bolschewistischen Russland (Wiesbaden: Rheinische Verlags-Anstalt, 1955); tr. as A History of Soviet Russia (New York: Praeger, 1957; rev. edd. 1958, 1962, 1964, 1967, 1972).
• Die Geschichte der baltischen Staaten (München: Deutsche Taschenbuch Verlag, 1990); tr. as The Baltic States: The Years of Independence: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, 1917–1940 (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995).