Misch, Gerda

Born in Berlin on September 7, 1896, Carl Misch studied history at the Universities of Berlin and Munich, receiving his doctorate from the latter institution in 1920. From 1921 to 1933, he was managing editor of the Vossische Zeitung and was also personally involved in left-liberal and pacifist politics, supporting Franco-German reconciliation and exposing secret German rearmament. Incarcerated by the Nazis on their coming to power, Misch was released shortly thereafter and in 1934 he emigrated to France. Misch was involved in refugee politics, and from 1936 to 1939 he was on the staff of the émigré newspaper Pariser Tageszeitung . Following the fall of France, Misch succeeded in escaping to the United States just a few steps ahead of the pursuing Gestapo. In the USA, Misch endeavored at first to support himself as a freelance journalist writing for the refugee weekly Aufbau and later for Die Neue Zeitung, the official organ for United States foreign policy in American-occupied Germany after the war. In 1947, Misch was appointed to a position in the history department of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, where he taught until his death. During his professorship, he wrote a history of modern Germany entitled Deutsche Geschichte im Zeitalter der Massen (1952). Misch died in Danville, Kentucky, on October 13, 1965.