Volker Ullrich was born in
Celle,
Lower Saxony,
Germany. He studied history, literature, philosophy and education at the
University of Hamburg. From 1966 to 1969 he was assistant to the Egmont Zechlin Professor. He graduated in 1975 after a
dissertation on the
Hamburg labour movement of the early 20th century, after which he worked as a school teacher in Hamburg. He was, for a time, a lecturer in politics at the
Lüneburg University, and in 1988 he became a
research fellow at Hamburg's Foundation for 20th-Century Social History. Ullrich has published articles and books on 19th- and 20th-century history. In 1996 he reviewed the
thesis postulated in
Daniel Goldhagen's book ''
Hitler's Willing Executioners'' that provoked fresh debate among historians. In 1992 he was awarded the
Alfred Kerr Prize for
literary criticism, and, in 2008, received an
honorary doctorate from the
University of Jena. ==Publications (selection)==