Prof. em. Dr. Hans Werner Tobler

Hans Werner Tobler was Professor for Modern History at ETH Zurich. He retired end of September 2006.

He graduated from the Oberrealschule Zurich in 1960 and studied general history, geography, and economic history at the University of Zurich. In 1965 he studied in Paris; in 1966 he received his Ph.D. from the University of Zurich with a doctoral thesis on 20th-century Italian/French history. From 1967-1970 he was assistant and senior assistant at the History Seminar of the University of Zurich. In 1970-1971 he carried out research as Investigador Visitante at the Colegio de México, México D.F. , and in Washington D.C. on the history of Mexico in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Prof. Tobler was appointed associate professor on October 1, 1973 and full Professor of History on October 1, 1979.

In his teaching Prof. Tobler covered a broad spectrum of the recent history of Switzerland, Europe and the non-European world; in his research he focused on the recent history of Latin America and on issues in comparative history.