Andreas W. Daum is a German-American historian who specializes in modern German and transatlantic history, as well as the history of knowledge and global exploration.
Daum received his Ph.D. summa cum laude in 1995 from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, where he had worked with Thomas Nipperdey. He taught for six years as an assistant professor in Munich. In 1996, he joined the German Historical Institute Washington DC as a research fellow and later became the deputy director. From 2001 to 2002, he was a John F. Kennedy Memorial Fellow at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University.[1] Since 2003, Daum has been a professor of European history at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo and also served as an associate dean for undergraduate education in the provost's office.[2] In 2010–11, he was a visiting scholar at the BMW Center for German and European Studies at Georgetown University.
He is best known as a biographer of Alexander von Humboldt[3] and for his studies on popular science, emigrants from Nazi Germany, and the United States’ special relationship with "America’s Berlin".[4] His book Kennedy in Berlin highlights the role of emotions in the Cold War and provides a comprehensive explanation of John F. Kennedy's 1963 "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech.[5][6]
In 2019, Daum was awarded the Humboldt Prize, a lifetime achievement award by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for international scientists and scholars.[7] In 2024, he received the Meyerson Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching and Mentoring.[8][9] In 2025, he was recognized with the Senior Award for Excellence in International Exchange by the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) Alumni Association.[10]
Wissenschaftspopularisierung im 19. Jahrhundert: Bürgerliche Kultur, naturwissenschaftliche Bildung und die deutsche Öffentlichkeit, 1848‒1914, Munich: Oldenbourg (1998; 2nd edition 2002), a study on science popularization in the 19th century
Kennedy in Berlin, New York: Cambridge University Press (2007, German edition 2003)
Alexander von Humboldt: A Concise Biography. Trans. Robert Savage, Princeton: Princeton University Press (2024); in German: Alexander von Humboldt, Munich: C. H. Beck (2019, 2nd edition 2024)
Edited Volumes
America, the Vietnam War and the World: Comparative and International Perspectives, with Lloyd C. Gardner and Wilfried Mausbach, New York: Cambridge University Press (2003)
Berlin ‒ Washington, 1800‒2000: Capital Cities, Cultural Representations, and National Identities, with Christof Mauch, New York: Cambridge University Press (2005, paperback 2011)
The Second Generation: Émigrés from Nazi Germany as Historians. With a Biobibliographic Guide, with Hartmut Lehmann and James J. Sheehan, New York: Berghahn Books (2016, paperback 2018)
External links
Faculty member, Department of History, University at Buffalo
^Andreas W. Daum, “Moving Transatlantic: Episodes, Encounters and Experiences.” In German Migrant-Historians in North America: Transatlantic Careers and Scholarship after 1945, ed. Karen Hagemann and Konrad Jarausch. New York: Berghahn Books, 2024, 221–239.
^Daum, Andreas W. (2000). "America's Berlin, 1945‒2000: Between Myths and Visions". In Trommler, Frank (ed.). Berlin: The New Capital in the East(PDF). The American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, Johns Hopkins University. pp. 49–73. Retrieved January 28, 2021. Also see Daum, Kennedy in Berlin, 1–20.
^Andreas W. Daum (2008). "No Free Lunch: Obama and Nietzsche in Berlin". History News Network, George Washington University, Columbian College of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved January 28, 2021. Also see Daum, Kennedy in Berlin, 136–56.
