Dr. Katrin Paehler
Professor and Graduate Advisor
Office
SCH Schroeder Hall 324
Office Hours
Monday 3-5pm; Wednesday, 10-12 noon & by appointment, either in person or via zoom at https://illinoisstate.zoom.us/j/91237090712
Office Phone
Email
- About
- Education
- Awards & Honors
- Selected Research
Biography
Dr. Paehler received her MA from the Philipps Universität Marburg, Germany in 1994 and her Ph.D. from American University in Washington, DC in 2004. She has taught at Illinois State University since August 2004 and publishes on Modern German and European history.
Current Courses
HIS 200.004 Historical Conversations: Introduction to Historiography
HIS 499.001 Independent Research For The Master's Thesis
HIS 398.001 Professional Practice: Internship in Historical Research
HIS 402.001 Seminar In European History
Teaching Interests & Areas
Modern European History;
Modern Germany History;
20th Century (Eastern) Europe;
Nazi Germany;
Holocaust;
Genocide Studies;
Film and History;
History and Memory
Research Interests & Areas
Modern Germany;
Nazi Germany & the Holocaust;
Intelligence History;
History and Memory;
Film and History
Ph D Modern European History
American University
Washington, DC
MA German History
Phillips Universitaet Marburg
Marburg, Germany
Outstanding College Researcher
College of Arts & Sciences, Illinois State University
2018
Book, Authored
The Third Reich's Intelligence Services: The Career of Walter Schellenberg
Katrin Paehler.
(2017), Cambridge University Press
Book, Chapter
The Space Between: Hildegard Beetz, Espionage, and Gender, 1944-1949
Katrin Paehler.
(2025), 278-304, 10.2307/jj.31761191.17, Shots in the Dark: Experimentation, Success, and Failure in the Second World War, Fordham University Press
Auslandsspionage—Ideologie und Illusion. Das Amt VI des Reichssicherheitshauptamtes
Katrin Paehler.
(2019), 97-117, Das Reichssicherheitshauptamt: NS-Terrorzentrale im Zweiten Weltkrieg, Hentrich & Hentrich
Gender and Nazi Espionage: Hildegard Beetz, the Ciano Affair, and Female Agency
Katrin Paehler.
(2016), 73-87, Gender and the Second World War: Lessons of War, Palgrave Macmillan
Verhaftungen, Internierungen, Repatriierungen" and "Verhöre in der 'Mülltonne'
Katrin Paehler, Peter Hayes.
(2010), Das Amt und die Vergangenheit: Deutsche Diplomaten im Dritten Reich und in der Bundesrepublik, Karl Blessing Verlag
The wrong -grad, the wrong victims: Investigating the (West-) German Historiographical Discourse on the Siege of Leningrad
Katrin Paehler.
(2008), 31-41, Re-calling the Past—(Re-)Constructing the Past. Collective and Individual Memory of World War II in Russia and Germany, Aleksanteri Institute
Foreign Intelligence in a New Paradigm: Amt VI of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA)
Katrin Paehler.
(2006), 273-299, Secret Intelligence and the Holocaust. Collected Essays from the Colloquium at the City University of New York Graduate Center, Enigma Books and Yad Vashem,
Ein Spiegel seiner Selbst: Der SD-Ausland in Italien
Katrin Paehler.
(2003), 241-266, Nachrichtendienst, politische Elite und Mordeinheit. Der Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers SS, Hamburger Edition
Book, Edited
A Nazi Past: Recasting German Identity in Postwar Europe
Katrin Paehler, David Messenger.
(2015), The University of Kentucky Press
Creative Works/Broadcast Media
"Nazis and Sex Strikes," BBC World News, The History Hour with Max Pearson
Katrin Paehler.
(2025)
The Third Reich History Podcast with Ryan Stackhouse. Spies, Lies, and Nazis—Paehler on the Fine Art of Source Critique.
Katrin Paehler.
(2018)
The Third Reich's Intelligence Service
Katrin Paehler.
(2018)
Journal Article
Breaking the Post-War Goose-Step: Three Films by Michael Verhoeven
Katrin Paehler.
Shofar. In Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies, 28 (4), 41-56, (2010)
Creating an Alternative Foreign Office: A Reassessment of Office VI of the Reich Main Security Office
Katrin Paehler.
Journal of Intelligence History, 8, 27-42, (2008)
Other
Foreword to Covert Legions: U.S. Army Intelligence in Germany, 1944-1949
Katrin Paehler.
De Gruyter, VII-VIII, (2023)
Presentations
From 'Felizitas' to 'Gambit:' Vetting Hildegard Beetz for US Intelligence Work in Berlin and Beyond
Katrin Paehler.
SIH Annual Conference, Washington, DC, February, 2025
Negotiating Involvement in Intelligence: Hildegard Beetz and US Intelligence Efforts in Germany, 1945-1970
Katrin.
National Intelligence History Conference, Bletchley Park, UK, November, 2024
"The District Six Museum in Cape Town, South Africa: A Three-Dimensional Yizkor Book?"
Katrin Paehler.
Memory Studies Association, African Chapter, Pretoria, ZA, October, 2019
"From Democracy to Dictatorship: Germany 1930-1936 or 'I can't eat as much as I want to puke!' (Max Liebermann)"
Katrin Paehler.
Academy of Seniors, Normal, IL, September 13, 2019
"The Space Between: Hildegard Beetz, Espionage, and Gender, 1944-1949"
Katrin Paehler.
Inaugural Meeting of Second World War Research Group North America, University of Mississippi, September, 2018
"Navigating Forty-Five: Hildegard Beetz, Foreign Intelligence, and Journalism"
Katrin Paehler.
German Studies Association Annual Meeting, Atlanta, October, 2017
The District Six Museum in Cape Town, South Africa: A Three-Dimensional Yizkor Book?
Katrin Paehler.
Why Remember? Memory and Forgetting in Times of War and Its Aftermath, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, June, 2017
Selling Fascism Abroad: "The American Illustrated News: The Bridge Across the Atlantic"
Katrin Paehler.
Symposium on Teaching History and the Social Sciences, Normal, IL, January 27, 2017
Teaching the Holocaust for the 21st Century
Katrin Paehler.
Lessons & Legacies, Claremont, CA, November 4, 2016
The Good, The Bad, and the Very Ugly: November 9 in German History
Katrin Paehler.
Academy of Seniors, Normal, IL, October 21, 2016
It's Almost Thirty-Three and This Won't End Well: Volker Kutscher's Detective Fiction, History, And Current Considerations
Katrin Paehler.
German Studies Association Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, September 30, 2016
The 'Era of the Witness' Ends--Holocaust Education in the 21st Century
Katrin Paehler.
Teaching the 20th Century in the 21st Century, Bloomington, IL, January 29, 2016
Germany in World War I: Total War and Subtle Shifts
Katrin Paehler.
Academy of Seniors, Illinois States University, October, 2015
Hildegard Beetz: A Career Woman in Nazi Germany and Beyond
Katrin Paehler.
German Studies Association Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, October, 2015
'Auslandsspionage---Ideologie und Illusion. Das Amt VI des Reichssicherheitshauptamtes
Katrin Paehler.
Topographie des Terrors, Berlin, Germany, November 18, 2014
Greece and the Greek Jewish Community during WWII
Katrin Paehler.
N/A, Athens, June 1, 2014
Spying While Female: Hildegard Beetz, Nazi Espionage, and the Quest for the Ciano Diaries
Katrin Paehler.
Strochlitz Center for Holocaust Studies, The Weiss-Livnat International MA in Holocaust Studies, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel, May 1, 2014
Shadow Wars, Nazi Style: Nazi Germany's Foreign Intelligence and 1944
Katrin Paehler.
1944: Seventy Years On, Sandhurst, UK, April 1, 2014
Gender and Nazi Espionage: Hildegard Beetz, the Ciano Affair, and Female Agency
Katrin Paehler.
Lessons of War: Gender History and the Second World War, Lancaster, UK, September 1, 2013
Filming (West-)German Politics of the Past:" The Example of Michael Verhoeven
Katrin Paehler.
Annual Meeting of the Cultural Studies Association, Chicago, IL, May 1, 2013
How the Spymaster Recast Himself as the Diplomat: Walter Schellenberg, the Western Allies, and Adventures in Storytelling
Katrin Paehler.
NA, Burlington, VT, March 1, 2013
On Book Burning
Katrin Paehler.
N/A, Clinton, IL, December 1, 2009