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Georg G. Iggers

Born: 1926
Death: 2017

Georg Iggers was born on December 7, 1926, in Hamburg Germany, and fled with his family to the United States in 1938. He earned a bachelor's degree in Romance languages at the age of 17 from the University or Richmond, and received both a master's degree in Germanics (1945) and a Ph.D. (1951) from the University of Chicago.

Georg Iggers was a civil rights activist.  In 1950, Iggers and his wife, Wilma, began teaching at Philander Smith College, a historically black college in Little Rock Arkansas.  While there, Iggers joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He compiled a report about the differences between Little Rock's all-white and all-black schools, a report that was the basis for the NAACP's desegregation lawsuit against the Little Rock school system.  He also helped black students gain access to the segregated Little Rock Public Library.  While in Buffalo in the late 1960s, Iggers helped found the Military and Draft Counseling Center to help men unwilling to serve in the military explore their options regarding the Selective Service System.

Iggers came to UB in 1965 as a professor of European intellectual history, then was named a SUNY distinguished professor in 1978. Iggers retired in 1997, but continued to teach a graduate seminar every fall until 2007.

He died on November 26, 2017. 

  • Sources: 
    • Georg Iggers Curriculum Vitae
    • "Georg Iggers." UBNow, November 30, 2017.

Affiliation(s): History
Record Group(s): 22
Biographical File Contains:
  • CV
  • Obituary
  • Photographs