Benutzer:Obenritter

About Obenritter

American citizen from central Illinois, heritage speaker of German. Work for gov, teach college history

Areas of historical expertise:

1. Modern Europe
2. Germany and Germanic Tribes
3. The Crusades
4. WW1 and WW2
5. Warfare
6. China

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Favorite Writers: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Nietzsche, Hermann Hesse, Merleau Ponty, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Mikhail Bulgakov, and Anna Akhmatova

Favorite Historians: Richard Bessel, Klaus Fischer, Jonathan Riley-Smith, Niall Ferguson, Michael Stürmer, Hew Strachan, Ian Kershaw, Volker Berghahn, Richard Evans, Gerhard Weinberg, Bernard Lewis, Norman Davies, Geoffrey Hosking, Gary Gallagher, Wolfram Wette, Claudia Koonz, Stephen Sears, Michael Bess, Christopher Clark, Mark Mazower, Lawrence James, Shelley Baranowski, Andrew Wheatcroft, George Herring, Wolfgang Mommsen, Gordon Craig, Alistair Horne, James McPherson, William Hitchcock, Donald Kagan, Giles MacDonogh, Michael Burleigh, Fred Anderson, Peter Wilson, Christopher Tyerman, Raymond Carr, Derek Wilson, Rosamond McKitterick, Steve Pincus, John Lewis Gaddis, Bruce Catton, Joachim Fest, Richard Marius, Hagen Schulze, Mary Fulbrook, Steven Ozment, Robin Winks, Sheila Fitzpatrick, Martin Kitchen, Michael Geyer, Bruce Cummings, T.C.W. Blanning, Holger Herwig, Williamson Murray, John Fairbanks, Peter Fritzsche, Allan Millett, John Keegan, William Doyle, Peter Heather, J.M. Roberts, Tony Judt, Mike Rapport, Orlando Figes, Antony Beevor, Richard Overy, Jonathan Spence, Paul Cohen, Robert Service, Piers Brendon, Robert Citino, Michael Howard, William Manchester, Michael Palmer, Arno Mayer, Shelby Foote, Herwig Wolfram, and Roger Price

Favorite Movies: The Last Samurai, Shawshank Redemption, Sneakers, Glory, A Beautiful Mind, Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, Warrior, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Favorite Musicians: J.S. Bach, Mozart, Pink Floyd, Beirut, Coldplay, Supertramp, Beethoven, Hammock, Johann Johannson, Rush, The Police, Sigur Ros, Hammock, Dustin O'Halloran, Patrick O'Hearn, This Will Destroy You, Trentemoller, The Last Days

Books which impacted me most: Undaunted Courage, The Brothers Karamazov, Kalte Heimat, Narcissus and Goldmund, On the Origins of War, Choices under Fire, Phenomenology of Perception, Tale of the Heike, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Either/Or, The Will to Power, The Tao Te Ching, Why Did the Heavens not Darken, The Pity of War, Also Sprach Zarathustra, Chronicles of Tao, Faust, Doctor Zhivago, Master and Margarita

Favorite Quote: Man kann in Gesellschaft unterrichtet werden, aber man wird nur in Einsamkeit inspiriert. (One can be instructed in the company of others, but one is inspired only in solitude.) Goethe

About Me

For anyone interested: my mission is to try and contribute a small measure of sanity and intellectual substance to an otherwise mad and intellectually depraved world. With earnest I attempt to add academic substantiation (citations) to pages which strike my fancy no matter how unusual they are. As a historian, the general trend is towards themes related to my subject matter expertise but my contributions are by no means thereby constrained. If you elect to engage or challenge something I have edited or contributed, be prepared for the onslaught. My nature forces me to expose stupidity and refute those who masquerade as actual editors on subjects when they are often times mere neophytes. If you're correct, I will concede; if you are not however, I expect reciprocity and for you to yield accordingly. If you do not, you have my eternal disdain and can expect to be treated like a leper.

Realistically, I do not consider myself the foremost authority on anything as very few truly are (despite their mature education and credentials) - meaning - I am not unreasonable. If your logic is sound, it will be acknowledged. If you are spouting opinion and it is unjustifiably contrarian, it will be unmasked and revealed before all who care to delve into the depths of a Wikipage's content and editing history. If it makes you look like an idiot - well, you earned it. My Ph.D. work is in European history and strategic studies. My gradate degree is in European history as is my undergraduate degree. My eclectic nature shows in that I also have minors in math and chemistry.

Despite the fact that many are put off by intellectuals, I cherish them. They make this world interesting and shape both their environment and mold our history. People who use wonderful expressions in multiple languages, worship J.S. Bach as a veritable god (or one at least sent by the gods), engage in heavy philosophy (no matter the genre), enjoy dabbling in abstract mathematical discourse, or those who try to decipher and interpret historical trends, are of my ilk.

Two things that most amaze me in life: (1) the Mandelbrot set, (2) the seeming transcendence of Tibetan monks

Two things I most abhor: (1) the intransigent moral absolutism of bigots, (2) ratiocinative oversimplification and/or reductionism

My hobbies (past and present): Tai Chi Chuan, chess, long-range target shooting, and motorcycles.

Facit omnia voluntas