Jörn Leonhard is Professor of Modern and Contemporary History of Western Europe at the Historisches Seminar of the University of Freiburg (Albrecht-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg). His research focuses on European history and global historical perspectives on the 19th and 20th centuries, particularly on the topics of war and peace, empires and nation states as well as liberalism and nationalism.
He has published several award-winning and internationally recognised monographs, most recently Über Kriege und wie man sie beendet. Zehn Thesen (München: C.H. Beck) in 2023. His work has received numerous awards, including the State Research Prize in 2010 and most recently the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation in 2024. He has been a full member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities since 2015, and was elected to the Leopoldina in 2024.
OrcID: 0000-0002-7213-1611
Recent publications include: Empires – Eine globale Geschichte 1780-1920 (München: C.H. Beck 2023) with U. von Hirschhausen; Pandora’s Box. A History of the First World War (Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press 2020); Die überforderte Frieden. Versailles und die Welt 1918-1923 (München: C.H. Beck 2019).