Univ.- Prof. Mag. Dr. Oliver Rathkolb is currently Professor and Chair of the Department for Contemporary History at the University of Vienna and member of the Senate of the University of Vienna. He is the author of several books focusing on contemporary history as well as editor and co-editor of several studies concerning interdisciplinary questions of contemporary history and communications/media history and is the Managing Editor of the journal “zeitgeschichte” (Contemporary History). His prize-winning study “The Paradoxical Republic, Austria 1945-2005” was published in 2010 by Berghahn Books. He is chairman of the advisory board of the “House of European History” (European Parliament, Brussels), chairman of the advisory board of the “House of Austrian History” and member of the advisory board of the Jewish Museum Vienna.

Dr. Rathkolb studied history and law at the University of Vienna and achieved his doctorate in 1982 at the same university. In 2000 and 2001 he had a research-professorship at Harvard University and was guest professor at the University of Chicago in 2003. He has also lectured at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, the University of Salzburg, Duke University and the University of Maryland.