Matthew Hockenos
Matthew D. Hockenos is the Harriet Johnson Toadvine 鈥�56 Professor of 20th-Century History at 吃瓜爆料 College, where he has taught since 1998. He is a historian of modern Europe with a particular focus on Germany鈥檚 Nazi past, postwar reckoning, and the political role of the Protestant church. His scholarship explores themes of complicity, memory, and resistance.
Hockenos is the author of Then They Came for Me: Martin Niem枚ller, the Pastor Who Defied the Nazis (Basic Books, 2018), a biography of the German pastor whose postwar confession鈥斺�淔irst they came鈥︹�濃�攈as become an iconic expression of political and moral responsibility. The book traces Niem枚ller鈥檚 evolution from a nationalist and early Nazi supporter to one of the regime鈥檚 most outspoken Protestant opponents. His earlier book, A Church Divided: German Protestants Confront the Nazi Past (Indiana University Press, 2004), investigates how postwar German Protestant leaders struggled with their churches鈥� complicity in the Third Reich.
He is currently completing a third book, First They Came For: A History of Martin Niem枚ller鈥檚 Famous Quotation, which uncovers the surprising history of how Niem枚ller鈥檚 words became a widely known warning against political passivity and persecution.
A respected voice in both scholarly and public-facing discussions, Hockenos has published essays in The Christian Century and contributed chapters to major academic volumes, including the Oxford Handbook of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. His work has been supported by fellowships from the American Philosophical Society, the Fulbright Program, and the DAAD. He also serves on the Committee on Ethics, Religion, and the Holocaust at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. He earned his Ph.D. in history from New York University.