Norbert Frei

Professor Norbert Frei is Chair of the Academic Council and Member of the Foundation's Governing Council.

Norbert Frei is Chair of Modern and Contemporary History at Friedrich Schiller University Jena and heads the Jena Center 20th Century History. He has been a full member of the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig since 2011. His numerous publications primarily address the history and aftermath of the so-called Third Reich, memory of the Holocaust, the history of human rights, as well as media history of the 20th century.

At the request of the Office of the Federal President of Germany, he is currently researching how the federal presidents from Theodor Heuss to Richard von Weizsäcker dealt with the country’s National Socialist past.