He attended local schools in Düsseldorf until he was 16 years of age, after which World War II was well underway, and he entered the German army.
He worked in New York City in construction and, for a short time, as a nightclub bouncer.
[1] Barth published in 1959 his Oregon master’s thesis, “All Quiet on the Yamhill: The Civil War in Oregon,” and in 1964 his Harvard doctoral thesis, “Bitter Strength: A History of the Chinese in the United States, 1850-1870,” which appealed both to academics as well as to mainstream readers.
De Mille spectacular, only much better.”[3] Barth not only won acclaim for his books but he also became famous as an academic teacher who impressed his students with his stupendous memory and his dry humor.
[3] In memory of Gunter Barth, The Bancroft Library offers "The Gunther Barth Fellowship" annually: to support undergraduate or graduate students researching the 19th-century history of the North American West.