Klaus Bachmann


Klaus Dieter Bachmann, journalist, writer, historian and political scientist, author of books and writings on German, Austrian and Polish culture, history and politics, as well as on the European Union and German-Polish as well as Polish-Ukrainian relations. In 1988, Bachmann settled in Poland and began to write on a regular basis for various Austrian and German newspapers and weeklies, reporting on the revolutionary and evolutionary political, economic, social and cultural changes in the post-Soviet bloc countries. Since 1989, he worked as the accredited foreign correspondent based in Poland, and also from 1992, in Kiev, Minsk and Vilnius. During the mid-90s he wrote for a Berlin daily, Der Tagesspiegel, for Die Stuttgarter Zeitung, Die Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung, and also for Polish mainstream newspapers and weeklies.

Biography

He was born in Bruchsal, the largest city in the district of Karlsruhe. He studied history, political science and Slavic languages at the universities in Heidelberg, Vienna and Krakow. During his studies he also served as a town councillor in his hometown. In 2000, Bachmann defended his doctoral thesis on a period of political regional instability in Austro-Hungarian Galicia between 1907 and 1914, and completed his PhD degree at the University of Warsaw. The work was published in Austria and Germany as Ein Herd der Feindschaft gegen Russland Galizien als Krisenherd in den Beziehungen der Donaumonarchie mit Russland. Dissertation. .
In 2001, Bachmann moved to Brussels where he worked for three years as a correspondent for German and Austrian newspapers in the Benelux countries. In 2004, he returned to Poland and wrote a postdoctoral thesis: The Convention on the Future of Europe. Deliberative Democracy as a Method of Legitimizing Authority in a Multilevel Political System, which earned him a Doctorus Habilitatus degree at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Wroclaw. Subsequently, he was appointed Chair of Political Science at the Willy Brandt Center for German and European Studies at the University of Wroclaw. Between 2000 and 2001, and again since 2005, he was a member of the Governing Board of the Stefan Batory Foundation based in Warsaw.
In 2006, Bachmann became associate professor at the Institute of Political Science at the School of Social Psychology in Warsaw. He also lectures at the Institute for International Studies at the University of Wroclaw. His articles have been published in Polish mainstream weeklies and dailies, and also in diverse Austrian, German and Swiss newspapers. In 2004, he delivered lectures as a visiting professor at the Institute of East European History, University of Vienna and the Institute of Political Studies at the University of Bordeaux. He pursued scholarly research at the People's University of China in Beijing in 2007 and at the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, in 2007. He also conducted research at the Faculty of Law at Stellenbosch University. He is a member of the Central European International Studies Association, the European Studies Association, and a Fellow and Associate of the Center for International Relations based in Warsaw. He is also the Principal Officer of the Foundation for European Studies.
In December 2014, he was awarded a full tenured professorship by Polish President Bronisław Komorowski.
Just as E. M. Forster attempted to improve the troubled relationship between Germany and England, and that between England and India, Bachmann is working arduously to build links between erstwhile redoubtable enemies. Once branded as a "Polonized German", he has adopted the role as the leading exponent of the "thaw" in German-Polish relations, working hard to challenge and dispel the negative national stereotypes perpetuated throughout centuries.
He lives in Wrocław and teaches at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw.

Selected bibliography

For Bachmann's selected articles in Polish newspapers go to: Polska The Times, Gazeta Wyborcza,,,, Super Express,, and Polityka.