Prof. Dr. Harald Welzer achieved his MA degree with a thesis on qualitative research methods in 1984. He finished his PhD – entitled “Social closure” – in 1988 and achieved the venia legendi for Social Psychology in 1993 with a study on biographical “Transitions”. Until 2001 he taught Social Psychology at the University of Hannover, hold several Visiting Professorships, then became Research Professor for Social Psychology at the University of Witten/Herdecke and head of the research group “Memory” at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities at Essen. In 2005 he became head of the Center for Interdisciplinary Memory Research. He is also affiliated member of core faculty at the MARIAL-Center at Emory University.

His recent books on perpetrators (“Täter. Wie aus ganz normalen Menschen Massenmörder werden.“ Frankfurt: Fischer 2005) and on climate wars („Klimakriege. Wofür im 21. Jahrhundert getötet wird.“ Frankfurt: Fischer 2008) have each been translated into several languages.