David Childs (born September 1933 in Bolton, Lancashire, England) is an Emeritus Professor of Politics whose considerable contribution to the advancement of German studies has equipped academics, business leaders, government ministers and students develop a greater knowledge of Germany (former East - GDR, & West - FRG) and the politics behind the country.
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Childs studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science before taking up a British Council scholarship to Hamburg University, in 1956. He had already made several vacation trips to Germany the first being to the communist-organised Festival of Youth And Students in East Berlin in 1951 where he made private contacts which much later stood him in good stead for his researches. He was in East Berlin again just after the rising of June 1953 when the Soviet Army was used to crush the workers’ revolt. This event, and books such as Orwell’s 1984 and Koestler’s Darkness At Noon turned him into a strong anti-Communist.
Having gained his Ph. D by part-time study at London University, he turned to academic work and was appointed Lecturer at Nottingham University in 1966. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer, and then Reader in 1976. By this time, he was well known for his books on Germany and for his book Marx Marx and the Marxists - An Outline of Practice And Theory.
Elected chairman of the Association for the Study of German Politics [9] in 1983, he conceived the idea for an Institute of German, Austrian and Swiss Affairs at Nottingham University. This was to be orientated to politics and society rather than language and literature. He engaged the interest of the City entrepreneur, John H. Gunn, a graduate in German of Nottingham University, and INGASA was established with financial help from Gunn in 1985. The centre was opened by the Baroness Thatcher Margaret Thatcher, then Prime Minister. The German, Austrian and Swiss ambassadors became patrons and the Institute became internationally respected for its many highly successful conferences on themes such as the Austrian resistance to National Socialism, the ethnic Germans in the Soviet Union, German Liberalism, and training in German companies. In 1990, it held what was the biggest university conference to date on Germany with over 450 participants. Great controversy arose as speakers from all of the new East German political parties and the Communist SED Socialist Unity Party of Germany (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands) argued in the University’s great hall about the future of East Germany.
German reunification, in October 1990, coincided with the start of the fall of INGASA. John Gunn had presided over the collapse of British & Commonwealth, one of the largest City businesses, and could no longer fund the Institute. The slump made it difficult to find alternative backers. Childs, promoted to professor in 1989, came under great pressure from those who had long disapproved of his line on Germany and Communism, and from professional rivals. He was removed from the directorship of the Institute in 1992, and took early retirement from the University two years later. He continued to serve as a member of the committee of the British-German Association [10] until 1997.
Childs was one of the few who actually predicted the collapse of the Berlin Wall and of the GDR or DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik) (November 1989). Few shared his standpoint on this.
After several visits in the late 1970s and early 1980s Professor Childs concluded that, the East German state, the DDR (GDR), was not sustainable. He made such a prediction at a conference at the University of Dundee in 1981. As Professor Marianne Howarth later found in the East German archives, a secret report on this was duly sent back to East Berlin.
The Stasi attempted to monitor his activities not only on visits to East Germany but also in Britain. His appearance at a conference in Bradford in 1983 was again duly recorded in the Stasi archives. He was put on a Stasi Fahndung [investigation] list and denounced in DDR publications as a 'British imperialist East researcher'. Prof Childs later discovered the file that the Stasi had on him which covered a seven year period. The file revealed that he had, in fact, been spied upon by two British spies - two British academics. [11] It also revealed that he was regarded by the East German secret police as their most serious opponent in Britain.
Professor Childs delivered the same 'Dundee' analysis at the German Historical Institute in London [12], 24 November 1987, and elsewhere. He predicted early German reunification and outlined a plan similar to the actual one adopted in an interview with Peter Johnson on the [West German radio] Deutschlandfunk in April 1988. He was ridiculed! When he later spoke at the 'Pacific Workshop On German Affairs: The Two Germanies at Forty', - Long Beach, California, in April 1989, about the likely collapse of the DDR, he again met with strong opposition and ridicule. However, the organiser, Professor Christian Soe, invited him back, after German reunification, in 1991, writing, 'We are happy that David Childs, who in April 1989 took a minority position in clearly diagnosing the moribund condition of the East German system, returns to give us a post mortem…' In an article written the day before the opening of the Berlin Wall, and published in the Yorkshire Evening Post, 9 November 1989, Professor Childs predicted full German reunification and welcomed it. The following day The Guardian wrote, 'It would mean that a dangerous situation in the heart of Europe has been liquidated…'
Professor Childs' wide knowledge of both domestic and international affairs has been utilised by both government and commercial organisations such as: the BBC, Sky News, The Independent, The Times, MoD, Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Royal Institute of International Affairs (now Chatham House) and an array of City firms.
He is widely in demand as a guest speaker and has lectured on contemporary German themes at Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, University of California (Long Beach), University of Texas (San Antonio), and, among many others, in the 1990s and 2000s at Humboldt (Berlin), Hamburg (Bundeswehr), Jena, Leipzig, Potsdam, Sydney, Iceland, Poland and in Italy. He has also made himself available to voluntary groups in various parts of England.
Although a long-standing member of the European Movement, and a strong supporter of the European Union, Childs is known by many readers as the author of works on Britain rather than Germany. His Britain Since 1945: A Political History, first published in 1979, has never been out of print, and has been revised and extended over the years. In 1997, Routledge published the fourth largely re-written edition, a 5th edition followed in 2001 and the 6th in 2006. [13][14]
Childs' most recent publication differs from his more usual academic publications as it is a novel, entitled We Were No Heroes. [15] It is about Martin Thomas, an Englishman who fought for the Waffen SS on the Eastern Front, survived a Soviet concentration camp, worked as a Stasi agent during the Cold War and witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall. Childs based the semi-fictional account on a man he had met in Leipzig in 1989. The author and novel were recently mentioned in the Bolton News [16] where he explains the events leading to the writing of this novel. Writing in the Guernsey Press [17] (11 January 2010) local historian, Herbert Winterflood, commented: "David has stuck to the main points of the Guernsey Occupation with a high degree authenticity...David has given a very true account of the period…The book…is a good read."
Tam Dalyell, former Labour MP, wrote in The Oldie, Summer 2010, 'Childs develops an entirely credible story of this young Channel Islander, inspired by Amery, volunteering to serve in the Waffen SS on the Russian Front - there was never any question of those in Martin Thomas's position being expected to fight against this country. The narrative follows him into a Soviet concentration camp, and describes his life as a Stasi agent in the Cold War up to the fall of the Berlin Wall. I found We Were No Heroes compulsive reading and extremely informative.' Available from Amazon - We were no heroes.
Having worked as a journalist, mainly for ATV, 1961–1964, Childs [18] continues to write for newspapers, magazines and journals. He has also contributed to radio and television programmes over the years. Over 160 of his obituaries [19] have been published in The Independent from 1988-2010. Childs continues to write and guest lecture at home and abroad.
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Professor Childs has made contributions to 19 other books and over 150 articles with other works pending. Below is a list of where some of the articles have appeared: The Independent, The Times, The Times Higher Education Supplement, The Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian, Daily Telegraph, International Affairs [32], Albion (USA) [33], Current History (USA) [34], Political Geography, Political Studies [35], English Historical Review, German Politics (ASGP) [36].
Most Recent Conference Publications: