Michael Hagemeister

Michael Hagemeister (born 9 January 1951 in Ellwangen, Baden-Württemberg) is a contemporary German scholar, historian and slavist, and one of the world's foremost authorities on the The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and on Sergei Nilus, who first published "The Protocols" in book form in 1905.

Hagemeister was employed at the universities of Marburg, Bochum, Basel, Innsbruck, Frankfurt (Oder) (Viadrina European University), and Berlin. Hagemeister was engaged in research at the Department of History of the University of Basel and was professor at the Department of History of Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich. He is currently professor at the Department of East European History at Viadrina European University, Frankfurt (Oder).

Hagemeister wrote his doctoral thesis on the Russian philosopher Nikolai Fyodorov (1829–1903). In his current research he concentrates on the origins and early history of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and the life and work of the Russian religious and apocalyptic writer Sergei Nilus (1862–1929).

• Hagemeister has authored articles, book essays, and dictionary entries, including material for the newly edited, multi-volumed encyclopedias,
  • Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Religion Past and Present)
  • Antisemitism. A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution
  • Handbuch des Antisemitismus

• He also edited several volumes of materials relating to Pavel Florensky (1882–1937), one of the most important and colorful personalities in Russian intellectual history.

• Among his most recent publications are
  • ‘Die Protokolle der Weisen von Zion’ - eine Anti-Utopie oder der Große Plan in der Geschichte? (‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ - an anti-Utopia or the Great Plan in History’),
  • Die Eroberung des Raums und die Beherrschung der Zeit: Utopische, apokalyptische und magisch-okkulte Elemente in den Zukunftsentwürfen der Sowjetzeit (‘The Conquest of Space and the Mastery of Time: Utopian, Apocalyptic and Magical-Occult Elements in the Future Designs of the Soviet Era’),
  • The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and the Myth of a Jewish Conspiracy in Post-Soviet Russia.

• In 2005 together with Boris Groys he edited the book Die Neue Menschheit. Biopolitische Utopien in Rußland zu Beginn des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts (The New Humankind. Biopolitical Utopias in Russia at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century).

Works

Recent articles in English on The Protocols of the Elders of Zion:

• Russian Émigrés in the Bern Trial of the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion' (1933–1935), in: Cahiers Parisiens / Parisian Notebooks, 5, 2009, pp. 375–391.

• The 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion': Between History and Fiction, in: New German Critique 35, 2008, 1 (103), pp. 83–95.

• The 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion' and the Myth of a Jewish Conspiracy in Post Soviet Russia, in: Brinks, Jan Herman; Rock, Stella; Timms, Edward (eds.): Nationalist Myths and Modern Media. Contested Identities in the Age of Globalization, London / New York 2006, pp. 243–255.

• "The Antichrist as an Imminent Political Possibility": Sergei Nilus and the Apocalyptical Reading of the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion' in: Landes, Richard; Katz, Steven (eds.): Paranoid Apocalypse: A Hundred-Year Retrospective on 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'. (New York: New York University Press, 2012), pp. 79-91.

• The 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion' in Court: The Bern Trials 1933-1937, in: Webman, Esther (ed.): The Global Impact of the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion': A Century-Old Myth, (New York: Routledge, 2011), pp. 241-253.

• Die Fiktion von der jüdischen Weltverschwörung. Zu Text und Kontext der 'Protokolle der Weisen von Zion'. Ed. with Eva Horn (Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2012). ISBN 978-3-8353-0498-7

See list of his publications (since 2000) on his Website:

• Ovladenie vremenem: [ed.] Michael Hagemeister: (München: O. Sager, 1983): ISBN 3-87690-231-2

• Nikolaj Fedorov: Studien zu Leben, Werk und Wirkung (Nikolaj Fedorov: Studies to his Life, Works and his Influence): by Michael Hagemeister (München: Sagner, 1989): ISBN 3-87690-461-7: Originally presented as the author’s thesis (doctoral) — Philipps-Universität Marburg, 1989.

• P.A. Florenskiĭ i kulʹtura ego vremeni: P.A. Florenskij e la cultura della sua epoca: atti del convegno internazionale, Università degli Studi di Bergamo, 10-14 gennaio 1988 / a cura di Michael Hagemeister e Nina Kauchtschischwili (Marburg: Blaue Hörner, 1995)

ISBN 3-926385-85-5

• The Occult in Russian and Soviet Culture : ed. by Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal: [contrib.] Michael Hagemeister [pioneering, interdisciplinary text]

(Cornell University Press, 1997): ISBN 0-8014-8331-X

• Pavel Florenskij — Tradition und Moderne: Beiträge zum Internationalen Symposium an der Universität Potsdam (Tradition and Modernity: Contribution to an International Symposium at the University of Potsdam, 5. - 9. April 2000), (Frankfurt am Main; New York: Peter Lang, 2001): ISBN 3-631-37537-9: Notes: Includes selection of his letters from his travels in Germany, in Russian with German translations on facing pages. Includes bibliographical references and indexes. English, German and Russian. Subjects: Florenskiĭ, P. A. (Pavel Aleksandrovich), 1882-1937 — Congresses

• Die Neue Menschheit, Biopolitische Utopien in Russland zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts (New Mankind,Biopolitical Utopias in Russia at the Beginning of the 20th century); in German: Michael Hagemeister, Boris Groys (eds.):(Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2005): ISBN 3-518-29363-X

• The New Age of Russia. Occult and Esoteric Dimensions. Ed. with Birgit Menzel and Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal (Munich-Berlin: Otto Sagner, 2011): ISBN 978-3-86688-197-6

External links

• Michael Hagemeister (2003). "Nilus, Sergej Aleksandrovič". In Bautz, Traugott. Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German) 21. Nordhausen: Bautz. cols. 1063–1067. ISBN 3-88309-110-3. 
• Michael Hagemeister: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion: Between History and Fiction (2008)
• Sergej Nilus und die "Protokolle der Weisen von Zion" Überlegungen zur Forschungslage

This is about The Protocols (in German, on a Web site maintained by Martin Blumentritt).

• Michael Hagemeister In Search of Testimony about the Origins of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion: A Handwritten Edition that Disappeared from the Lenin Library (in Russian)

• Michael Hagemeister: Russian Émigrés in the Bern Trial of the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" (1933–1935)