Friedrich Katz

Friedrich Katz ( born June 13, 1927 in Vienna, † October 16, 2010 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States) was an Austrian ethnologist and historian.

Friedrich Katz was born the son of Bronia and Leo Katz, came with his parents about Berlin, Paris and New York City in 1940 to Mexico City, where he graduated in 1945, the French School.

Katz studied in New York City, Mexico City, at the University of Vienna, where he received his doctorate in 1954, 1962 habilitation at the Humboldt University of Berlin ( German Democratic Republic ), where he also taught until 1970.

Friedrich Katz's work at the University of Chicago

For more than 80 years, research on Mexican history at the University of Chicago has a great significance and in the last 30 years they have been recognized at an increased high international level. The last three decades are characterized by the research and work of Friedrich Katz, probably one of the foremost historians of modern Mexican history and thus one of the most famous in the United States.

Friedrich Katz was since 1971 a professor in Chicago and directed from 1992 until 2002 the Department of Mexican history. He is recognized for his contribution to the study of the history of Mexico and the special relations between Mexico and the United States. The same time he promoted the bilateral relations between academics and politicians from both countries. More than two dozen international conferences were organized by him, with topics such as consolidation of democracy, the financial system and capital flight, agricultural issues, the Mexican Revolution, Mexico -US migration, corruption, culture and development and the free press. In addition, more than 100 chairs were cared for and offered seminars with Mexican themes.

In recognition of the work of Professor Katz, one of the most knowledgeable experts on Mexican history, the University of Chicago has its study center in Mexican history renamed in the center of the Mexican history Friedrich Katz. The re-founding of the center was announced on 16 June 2004 during the visit of Mexican President Vicente Fox in Chicago. Under the name of Friedrich Katz addition, the center should continue the current approach in the future.

Katz specialty was originally the history of Mexico from the 19th and 20th century, moreover, the diplomatic relations of Mexico within Latin America as well as Europe and the USA. Thanks to its well-known chair many of his students have made as renowned academics all over the world a reputation. Katz is the author of several classics such as the biography of Pancho Villa.

He is the winner of the Bolton Prize, which is awarded annually by the American Historical Association for the best book on Latin American history. In 2000, he received two other awards for his book The Life and Times of Pancho Villa.

Publications

• Germany, Díaz and the Mexican Revolution - The German politics in Mexico, 1870-1920 (1964 )
• The difficult path of " Estados Unidos Mexicanos " and antifascist exile (1998)
• The Life and Time of Pancho Villa ( 1998)
• Pre-Columbian cultures (1969 )
• The secret was in Mexico ( 1981)