Dr. Sybille Steinbacher

Professional Background

Since October 2010, Dr. Steinbacher has been professor of contemporary history at the University of Vienna, Austria. In 2010, she earned Habilitation at the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany, with Venia legendi in Modern and Contemporary History. She got her PhD from the Ruhr University of Bochum, Germany, and wrote her dissertation about the city of Auschwitz and the German antisemitic policy in Eastern Upper Silesia during World War II, entitled: “‘Musterstadt Auschwitz’. Policy of Germanization and the Murderer of the Jews in Eastern Upper Silesia” (Munich, 2000). In 2010, she was a Visiting Professor at the Fritz Bauer Institute for the History and Impact of the Holocaust in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

Her publications include “Auschwitz: A History”, HarperCollins Publishers, Munich, 2005; “How the Sex came to Germany. In the struggle for morality and decency in the early Federal Republic” (Munich, 2011), and “Dachau – the city and the concentration camp during the Nazi period. The history of a neighbourhood”. She is the editor of the newly published book entitled “The Holocaust and the history of genocides in the 20th century. To the meaning and scope of the comparison” (Frankfurt am Main, 2012).

Fellowship Research

For her Ina Levine Invitational Scholar Fellowship, Dr. Steinbacher conducted research for the project “That you’ve found me”: Hitler’s way to power and German society in the 20s and early 30s.

Dr. Steinbacher was in residence at the Center from October 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013.