Rainer Zitelmann is a German historian and sociologist. He has written and edited 26 books covering a wide range of topics with a primary focus on history, politics, economics and finance. In recent years he has written articles and given interviews in leading media, including Le Monde, Corriere della Sera, Il Giornale, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Der Spiegel, Focus, Die Welt, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, The Daily Telegraph, The Times,  National Interest, Forbes, Le Point and Linkiesta.

 Rainer Zitelmann – Researcher into the history of National Socialism

Rainer Zitelmann was born in Frankfurt am Main on June 14, 1957. He studied history and political science at the Technical University Darmstadt and graduated with a with distinction. Zitelmann was then awarded his doctorate with the grade “summa cum laude” under the mentorship of the internationally renowned historian Professor K.O. Freiherr von Aretin. His dissertation Hitler. Selbstverständnis eines Revolutionärs (English: Hitler’s National Socialism) is still regarded as a standard work on Hitler’s worldview.

The distinguished German-American historian Klemens von Klemperer wrote about the first edition of the book in the Journal of Modern History: “Many biographies have been written about Adolf Hitler, but Rainer Zitelmann’s book on Hitler is not just another biography. He has taken the trouble to collate and evaluate all of Hitler’s utterances and writings and has thus cleared the ground for a fuller understanding of Hitler’s self-image, the nature of his ideology, his objectives, and his policies…Rainer Zitelmann has resolved to abstain from moral judgments; but his meticulous and responsible scholarship speaks all the louder. His book constitutes a milestone in our understanding of Adolf Hitler.”

The Vierteljahreshefte für Zeitgeschichte, one of the leading historical journals in Germany, wrote: “Without a doubt, Zitelmann deserves credit for substantively adding to, if not surpassing, all other biographies of Hitler.” And Germany’s most renowned history periodical Historische Zeitschrift wrote: "Rainer Zitelmann has written one of those rare books that makes you wonder why it has taken so long for someone to get around to writing it.”

Reviews of Zitelmann’s book on Hitler’s thought processes and objectives can be found here.

From 1987 to 1992, Zitelmann was a research assistant at the Central Institute for Social Science Research at Freie Universität Berlin. During this time, he wrote other historical books and edited several anthologies, including The Nazi Elite, in which renowned historians from several European  countries (e.g. Ian Kershaw) and the United States (Ron Smelser) wrote about the National Socialist Party’s leading figures. Together with historian Michael Prinz, he edited the anthology Nationalsozialismus und Modernisierung.

 Rainer Zitelmann – Publisher and journalist

In March 1992, Zitelmann became chief editor at Ullstein-Propyläen-Verlag, then the third-largest book publishing group in Germany. He was responsible for the publishing house’s entire hardcover list, with a particular focus on history and political books. He then moved to the daily newspaper Die Welt, one of the leading quality daily newspapers in Germany, where he headed the Contemporary History department. Zitelmann later went on to head Die Welt’s real estate desk. In just a short time, Zitelmann became the leading real estate journalist in Germany.

Rainer Zitelmann – Founder and manager of a PR company

At the age of 43, Zitelmann made the leap into entrepreneurship. During his time as a real estate journalist he had discovered a gap in the market: Germany did not have a PR agency that exclusively served the real estate industry. So, Zitelmann quit his job at Die Welt and founded Dr. ZitelmannPB.GmbH in October 2000. In just a few years, he established his company as the leading PR agency in Germany for real estate and investment companies. In 2016, he sold his PR agency in a management buyout – the company now operates under the name PB3C.

Rainer Zitelmann – Wealth researcher
While still running his business, Rainer Zitelmann wrote his second doctoral dissertation, this time in sociology. His doctoral mentor was the well-known wealth researcher Professor Wolfgang Lauterbach (University of Potsdam). The topic of Zitelmann’s second dissertation is the relationship between financial success and personality traits. The work is a qualitative, sociological study based on 45 in-depth interviews and a psychological test with very wealthy entrepreneurs and investors. The dissertation was published as a book in several languages. In English, the book was published as The Wealth Elite. The Financial Times wrote: “Rainer Zitelmann’s study of the psychology of the super-rich is an ambitious project. Few could be better qualified for it than Rainer Zitelmann – a historian, sociologist, journalist, businessman and investor. There has been no comparable study and it is a compelling read for all who need to understand the characteristics and motivations of rich entrepreneurs.”

Following the publication of this work, Zitelmann launched an ambitious international research project: In cooperation with the renowned Allensbach and Ipsos MORI institutes, he commissioned surveys in the United States and across Europe to find out about people’s attitudes to the rich. For the first time, Zitelmann investigated how our society views the wealthy and how differently rich people are perceived in different countries. The study was published by the Cato Institute as The Rich in Public Opinion. Zitelmann continued the studies and published several papers on the subject, including in Economic Affairs.

In 2018, Zitelmann published the book The Power of Capitalism, an economic-historical presentation of the positive impact of capitalism around the world. The book also generated a great deal of media coverage and has been translated and published in Germany, the UK, South Korea, Italy and Spain (it will be published in Brazil, Vietnam and Poland in 2022.)