Stephan Lehnstaedt received his PhD from Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (LMU) in 2008 and his Habilitation (Neuere und Neueste Geschichte) from Technische Universität Chemnitz in 2016. From 2005-2009 he worked at Institut für Zeitgeschichte Munich and from 2010-2016 at the German Historical Institute Warsaw. As a Guest Teacher, he served at LMU (2008-10), at Humboldt University Berlin and at the London School of Economics (both 2013/14). In April 2016, he joined Touro College Berlin as Professor for Holocaust Studies and Jewish Studies.

His main fields of interest are the history of the two World Wars, the Holocaust, and its compensation in the 21st century (ghetto labour pensions). Most recently, he published a book comparing the imperialism of Germany and Austria-Hungary in World War I with that of the Nazis in World War II, both on the example of occupied Poland. Available by Prof Lehnstaedt are further three monographs dealing with the murder of Polish Jews during “Aktion Reinhardt”, German everyday life in occupied Eastern Europe during World War II, and the compensation of Jewish ghetto labour after 1945. Among document editions and co-edited books and journal issues stand more than 30 articles in peer-reviewed journals in six languages.

Prof. Lehnstaedt was heard twice by committees of the German Bundestag and has provided many expert opinion for various German social courts dealing with ghetto labour pensions. For his efforts, in 2015 he was awarded the order “Missio Reconciliationis” (Commander’s Cross level) and the medal “Powstanie w Getcie Warszawskim” (Uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto), the latter from the Association of Jewish Fighters during WW2 in Poland. In 2017, he received the order “Za Wybitne Zasługi” (For Outstanding Merits) from the Polish Society of War Veterans and Former Political Prisoners.