Background
Holborn was born the son of Ludwig Holborn, the German physicist and "Direktor der Physikalisch-Technischen Reichsanstalt".
historian university professor historian of modern age
Holborn was born the son of Ludwig Holborn, the German physicist and "Direktor der Physikalisch-Technischen Reichsanstalt".
Came to the United States, 1934, naturalized citizen, 1940. Student Berlin High School, 1908-1920. Doctor of Philisophy, University of Berlin, 1924.
Master of Arts (honorary), Yale, 1940. Doctor of Hebrew Literature (honorary), University of Chicago, 1967.
After establishing at Heidelberg in 1926 as lecturer in medieval and modern history, he became Privatdozent there until he was called back to Berlin as Carnegie Professor of History and International Relationships at the private Deutsche Hochschule für Politik. He was dismissed from his appointments in 1933 by the Nazi government, but by then had already left the country. To avoid the Nazi terror, that same year he fled to the United Kingdom, then emigrated to the United States in 1934.
Shortly after coming to America, he was appointed visiting professor of German history at Yale. He taught Diplomatic History at Tufts University, Mass., (1936–1942) and was a guest professor at the University of Vienna, Austria (1955). He became a U.S. citizen and during the Second World War he worked for the Office of Strategic Services as special assistant to the chief of its Research and Analysis Branch, William L. Langer.
At the conclusion of the war he served as Randolph W. Townsend Professor at Yale until 1959, when he was awarded the title of Sterling Professor of History at Yale University. Here he continued to teach and write until his death in 1969. In 1967 Holborn became the first president of the American Historical Association not born in the United States.
Several specialists of German and European History in America, including Peter Gay, were students of Holborn. Holborn's daughter, Hanna Holborn Gray (born 1930), is a historian of political thought in the Renaissance and Reformation. She is the Harry Pratt Judson Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago and was the University's President for 15 years.
Member Academy Arts and Sciences, American History Association (president 1967), American Society Church History, Council on Foreign Relations, Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Married Anne-Marie Bettmann, October 2, 1926. Children: Frederick, Hanna.