Erich Maschke (March 2, 1900 – February 11, 1982) was a German historian, history professor, and Nazi ideologue.
Maschke joined the Nazi Party in 1937, and that year was also appointed Chair of Medieval and Modern History at the University of Jena.
He coined the phrase "Dreieinheit von Rasse, Volk und Raum" ("trinity of race, ethnicity and space").
He also worked as a research consultant with the Amt Rosenberg, participating in the development of curricula for NS-Ordensburgen and worked as an editor for Alfred Rosenberg's Literature Office as well as for the Parteiamtliche Prüfungskommission zum Schutze des nationalsozialistischen Schrifttums [de] (Party Censorship Commission for the Protection of National Socialist Literature).
Through connections in France, including to Fernand Braudel in Toulouse, leader of the Annales school, in 1963 Maschke received one of the first invitations to a German after the Second World War as a visiting professor at the École pratique des hautes études.
From 1968 he was a member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and was also instrumental in the preparation for the Staufer exhibition in Stuttgart which took place in 1975.
[1][14][15] Maschke's commission report accused the Allies of atrocities against Nazi German soldiers taken prisoner.
[1][16] Today Maschke's views in particular towards Eastern Europe and alleged German identity are discredited by every modern historian in Germany.
Maschke committed suicide on 11 February 1982, just days after the death of his wife, who had often accompanied him on meetings, conferences and lecture tours in his later years due to his visual impairment.