Jörg Friedrich (often also spelt Joerg or just Jorg in English) is a Berlin-based writer of books on history commonly described as an "independent German Historian". Friedrich is best known for his publication of a book widely seen as criticising the bombing of Dresden.

Friedrich, formerly a Trotskyite anti-war activist, now describes himself as a revisionist historian, a guise in which he has sold hundreds of thousands of books in Germany. He is well connected in German political and military circles, including friendships with the former German Chancellor.

Life and Career

Born in Essen, Germany in 1944, Jörg Friedrich became a Trotskyite and, during the Vietnam war an anti-war protester. Following from that, he began to write books on the history of the war in Germany and work as an independent historian, researching post war justice and the Nuremberg Trials. His books have always been controversial and have largely sold through this controversial analysis and the publicity surrounding them.

Analysis of Friedrich's position

As a left wing historian who has written strongly on the horrors committed by the German state under the Nazis, Friedrich's position has, in the past, always been assumed to be anti-Nazi with anti-war tendencies focused towards Germany taking responsibility for its actions during the war.

"his previous work examining Wehrmacht crimes and Nazi justice enables him to approach the subject without risking automatic dismissal as a right-wing apologist." (from the Peifer review of Der Brand)^{Germany's unmourned victims Ian Buruma, The Guardian, 2002-11-26 retrieved 2005-01-13 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,847665,00.html}

1. ^  Review: Der Brand: Deutschland im Bombenkrieg, 1940-1945 Douglas Peifer, Air Command and Staff College, Air and Space Power Chronicles, Spring 2004, p121-124 retrieved from http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/apj04/spr04/spr04.pdf (PDF) and also http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/reviewsw159.htm
2. ^  Law and war: an American story, Peter Maguire, Columbia University Press, 2001 ISBN 0231120508, Chapter 4 page 146, (according to its prefix, Friedrich helped considerably with this book)
3. ^  Germany's forgotten victims, Luke Harding , The Guardian, 2003-10-22, retrieved 2005-01-13 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,1068437,00.html
4. ^  Horrific fire-bombing images published, Ray Furlong, BBC News, 2003-10-22, retrieved 2005-02-02 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3211690.stm
5. ^  Germans Revisit War's Agony, Ending a Taboo, Richard Bernstein, The New York Times, 2003-03-15 retrieved 2005-01-31 from http://tbrnews.org/Archives/a248.htm
6. ^  Foes of war find ally in book on WWII air raids, Stevenson Swanson, Chicago Tribune, 2003-03-07, retrieved 2005-01-16 from http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0303070303mar07,1,20636.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
7. ^  Air War,Literature and Compassion, Iain Bamforth, Quadrant, Volume XLVIII Number 1 - January-February 2004, Retrieved 2005/01/21 from http://www.quadrant.org.au/php/archive_details_list.php?article_id=592
8. ^  Foes of war find ally in book on WWII air raids, Stevenson Swanson, Chicago Tribune, 2003-03-07, retrieved 2005-01-16 from http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0303070303mar07,1,20636.story?ctrack=1&cset=true (same as last reference)
9. ^  Germans Revisit War's Agony, Ending a Taboo, Richard Bernstein , The New York Times, 2003-03-15, the book referred to is Dresden im Luftkrieg: Vorgeschichte, Zerstörung, Folgen, by Götz Bergander, 1994, ISBN 3412101931, in German; apparently no English translation is available.
10. ^  Horrific fire-bombing images published, Ray Furlong, BBC News, 2003-10-22, retrieved 2005-02-02 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3211690.stm
11. ^  Retired German NATO general stirs Churchill war strategy debate, Cayman Net News Online, 2002-12, Retrieved 2005/02/09 from http://www.caymannetnews.com/Archive/Archive%20Articles/December%202002/Issue%20%20310%20Tue/Retired%20German.html
12. ^  German Historian Provokes Row Over War Photos, Guardian Newspapers 2003/20/10, retrieved 2005/02/15 from http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/text10-20-2003-46750.asp
13. ^  The rules of war: The German Army in Russia, 1941 to 1945, the trial of the Wehrmacht High Command is not a standard translation of the title, but one made for this article.
14. ^  Acquittal for Nazi-Justice: The sentencing of NS-Judges since 1948 is not a standard translation of the title, but one made for this article. NS stands for National Socialist / Nazi.
15. ^  Review: Der Brand: Deutschland im Bombenkrieg, 1940-1945 Douglas Peifer, Air Command and Staff College, Air and Space Power Chronicles, Spring 2004, p121-124 .[20] retrieved from http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/apj04/spr04/spr04.pdf (PDF) and also http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/reviewsw159.htm
16. ^  Review of Jörg Friedrich, Der Brand. Deutschland im Bombenkrieg 1940-1945; A Narrative of Loss, Joerg Arnold, Department of History, University of Southampton, retrieved 2005-02-05 from http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=280291070845163
17. ^  Jörg Friedrich: Der Brand, Franz Kaessl, Öbib online (German Language)
18. ^  The Tin Book, Ruth Franklin, The New Republic Online, 2003-08-07, retrieved 2005/02/05 from http://www.powells.com/review/2003_08_07.html
19. ^  The Destruction of Germany, Ian Buruma, The New York Review of Books, Volume 51, Number 16, 2004-10-21.