
Political scientist and historian Matthias Küntzel, born in 1955, holds a tenured part-time position as a teacher of political science at a technical college in Hamburg, Germany. In 2011, Matthias Küntzel was presented with the Anti-Defamation-League’s (ADL) Paul Ehrlich-Günther K. Schwerin Human Rights Award during the League’s National Executive Committee meeting in Palm Beach, Florida. “Matthias Küntzel has a long and distinguished record in speaking out against anti-Semitism and warning his readers in his native Germany and elsewhere about the dangers posed by this age-old virus that has no known cure,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, in presenting the award. “His work has been sorely under-appreciated in this country. With this recognition, we hope to acknowledge his ongoing efforts and also let the American public know of the implications of this disturbing trend.” Küntzel is an external research associate at the Vidal Sassoon International Centre for the Study of Antisemitism (SICSA) at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and served until March 2013 as a member of the Board of Directors of the German chapter of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME). He is a member of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), of the German Historians’ Association (VHD) and of the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA). Since 2001, his research and writing has focused on: Antisemitism, Antisemitism in current Islamic thinking, Islamism, Islamism and National Socialism, Iran, and German and Western policies towards the Middle East and Iran. His essays and articles have been translated into twelve languages and published inter alia in The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, The Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, The Weekly Standard, Telos, Policy Review, The Jerusalem Post, Standard, Spiegel, Welt, Die Zeit and Internationale Politik.