Draft:Petra Terhoeven

Petra Terhoeven is a German historian. She is a professor of contemporary history in Göttingen. Her focus is the history of the 20th century in Italy and Germany, particularly the history of political violence and terrorism.

Terhoeven is Professor of European Contemporary and Cultural History at Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. Before, she she was assistant professor at the History Department of Christian-Albrecht-University Kiel as well as guest lecturer at the History Department of the University of Lucerne, Switzerland, at the IMT School for Advances Studies Lucca, Italy and at the German Historical Institute in Rome.

Terhoeven studied history, German and Italian at the universities of Cologne and Bologna from 1988 to 1996. Meanwhile, she works multilingually for the Cologne City Transport Office through the historical collections and art museums. In 1996 she completed her studies with the first state examination for teaching (Erste Staatsexamen für das Lehramt) in Cologne.

Terhoeven spent longer research stays in Oxford and Rome. A focus of her work is the history of fascism and terrorism in the 20th century, particularly left-wing terrorism and its political and social consequences in Germany and Italy.

Since 2023, she has been researching how European societies have dealt with those affected by terrorist violence since the 1970s. She is one of the best scientifically reflected experts on the history of the RAF. She criticited the role of Stefan Aust, his hubris in the interpretation of the organization and his economic marketing of the RAF history.

On October 1, 2024, she will take over the management of the German Historical Institute in Rome.

Publications

 * Die Rote Armee Fraktion. Eine Geschichte terroristischer Gewalt. 2024. C.H. Beck ISBN 978-3-406-81719-9