Ernst Nolte
Ernst Nolte is a German historian and philosopher. Noltes major interest is the comparative studies of fascism and communism . Originally trained in philosophy, he is Professor Emeritus of Modern History at the Free University of Berlin, where he taught from 1973 until his 1991 retirement. He was previously a Professor at the University of Marburg from 1965 to 1973. He is best known for his seminal work Fascism In Its Epoch, which received widespread acclaim when it was published in 1963. Nolte has been a prominent conservative academic since the early 1960s, and involved in many controversies related to the interpretation of the history of fascism and communism. In recent years, Nolte has focused on Islamism and Islamic fascism. He is the father of legal scholar Georg Nolte. Nolte has received several prizes, including the Hanns Martin Schleyer Prize and the Konrad Adenauer Prize.
Nolte was born in Witten, Westphalia, Germany to a Roman Catholic family. Noltes parents were Heinrich Nolte, a school rector, and Anna Nolte. According to Nolte in a March 28, 2003 interview with a French newspaper Eurozine, his first encounter with communism occurred when he wasyears old in 1930, when he read in a doctors office a German translation of a Soviet childrens book attacking the Catholic Church, which angered him.
Source: Wikipedia