Prof. Dr. Soell’s major historical publications include the political biographies of Fritz Erler. Eine politische Biographie (1976) [Fritz Erler: A Political Biography] and Der junge Wehner. Zwischen revolutionärem Mythos und praktischer Vernunft [The Young Wehner: Between Revolutionary Mythos and Practical Responsibility] (1991). In 2003 the first volume of his biography of Helmut Schmidt was published under the title Vernunft und Leidenschaft [Reason and Passion] and in 2008 a second volume followed entitled Macht und Verantwortung [Power and Responsibility].
I attended one of his first colloquia in the winter semester of 1967/68 on the fundamentally different perspectives of world order of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and of the Russian revolutionary W. I. Lenin during the year 1917 with Christine (married) Landfried what he mentioned in his speeches at my 60th and 70th birthday we celebrated in Mosbach in the Alte Mälzerei close to my home.
Prof. Hartmut Soell was the second reviewer of my PhD thesis on Struktureller Wandel und Rüstungspolitik der USA (1940-1950) – Zur Weltführungsrolle und ihren innenpolitischen Bedingungen [Structural Change and Armaments Policy of the USA (1940-1950). On its World Leadership Role and its Domestic Conditions] (Heidelberg University, 30 June 1976].
In 2013/2014 I had the honour to publish Prof. Soell’s collection of the political speeches and addresses of former Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt on international economic and financial cooperation as volume 20 in my book series of Springer Briefs on Pioneers in Science and Practice on Policymakers.
As my professor, thesis adviser I was grateful for his advice as a historian and for his moral support during the process to obtain my PhD thesis in 1976. Hartmut later became an author and a friend who attended with his wife Ursula Soell my round birthdays and was my guest of honour when I was awarded the Federal Cross on Ribbon and at the first ceremony of the prize for high school students of my Foundation at my 75th ceremony.
I remember well several long discussions when I visited him in his private office in Heidelberg in 1975 and 1976. He was a very fine person, academic mentor and political friend since the period when we were both politically active. I very much enjoyed his 80th birthday party with his wife Ursula and their children and grandchildren on 11 March 2019 with memories to the family life by their son Lucas. I will miss his phone calls giving me encouragement during and after several hospitalizations associated with an operation and later when we discussed our research and writing activities after our retirement from the university.
My thoughts are in the difficult time of sorrow with his wife Ursula Soell and their children and grandchildren. Our professional relationship was influenced by our high mutual professional respect since my time as one of his first students in his colloquium, as a PhD candidate and as citizens who shared the same political home. I will remember Hartmut as a warm personal friend whose voice, encouragement and support I will miss in the future. |
