The historian and journalist Arnulf Baring is dead. He died on Saturday afternoon at the age of 86 with his family in Berlin, said his wife Gabriele Baring the news agency dpa. First the "world" had reported about it.
As a scientist, the political scientist and historian born in Dresden in 1932 had earned early respect: critics praised his works "In the Beginning was Adenauer" (1969) and "Machtwechsel: Die era Brandt-Scheel" (1982) as thorough analyzes.
In 1969, Baring was appointed Full Professor at the FU Berlin, where he researched and taught the coming nearly 30 years. He made with his theses, essays and talk show appearances for discussions again and again: So he defended in 2010, the controversial book of the ex-Bundesbank Board Thilo Sarrazin "Germany abolishes". In 2002 he criticized the "frozen party system" and called in a newspaper article to the tax boycott.
"Actually, I consider myself a lamb," said Baring dpa a few years ago. "But somehow it always happens differently, I'm always surprised myself." In 1983, he was excluded despite years of membership from the SPD, because he had supported the FDP politician Hans-Dietrich Genscher in the election campaign.
The greatest happiness of his life were his four children and his grandchildren, the bearer of the dpa's German Cross of Merit said on his 80th birthday.
More about: Interview with Arnulf Baring on Grand Coalitions