Reiner Pommerin

Reiner Pommerin (born 17 June 1943) is a German historian specializing in the political and military history of the 18th to 21st centuries.

Pommerin was a visiting fellow at Harvard University's Center of European Studies in 1979–80 and is a professor emeritus at the University of Dresden.

Early life and military service
Reiner Pommerin was born on 17 June 1943 in Rees, Germany. He attended the Gymnasium Thomaeum in Kempen. Pommerin began military training with the 2nd Training Regiment of the German Air Force at Stade and initially received training as a flight operations specialist. He would eventually himself attending the Air Force Weapons School at Fürstenfeldbruck, then attached to the officer candidate regiment at Uetersen for foreign language courses, and finally attending a non-commissioned officers' course at Husum. Pommerin left the Air Force in 1965. In 1969, he acquired his Mittlere Reife and Abitur from an evening school in Hamburg and entered Bundeswehr reserve as a reserve officer. He was made a colonel (Oberst der Reserve).

Academic career
Pommerin studied history, psychology, pedagogy, and sociology at the Rhineland Teachers' School at Bonn and Cologne in 1969. He completed his studies in 1973 after passing his Staatsexamen and was awarded a pedagogical diploma.

Pommerin was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, 1st Class by Franz Josef Jung on 4 June 2008.