Marcel Schmeer M.A.

Marcel Schmeer is a Senior Researcher at the Center for Intelligence and Security Studies (CISS) at Universität der Bundeswehr München. A historian of twentieth-century Germany, his research focuses on security history in its diverse configurations and multifaceted dimensions, with particular emphasis on the history of policing, intelligence services, and state authority. His work explores how security practices are negotiated, contested, and represented in modern societies.

He holds a Master’s degree in History and Political Science from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum and completed a semester abroad at the Uniwersytet Jagielloński in Kraków. His doctoral project examines the conflictual relationship between police and society and the variable – often contradictory – forms of staging and legitimizing the state monopoly on violence in Cold War West Berlin.

Marcel Schmeer has held several research fellowships, including at the Collaborative Research Centre Dynamics of Security. Types of Securitization from a Historical Perspective at Philipps-Universität Marburg and Justus-Liebig Universität Gießen (2020), the Center for European and Mediterranean Studies at New York University (2019), the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (2022), and the Faculty of History at the University of Cambridge (November 2025). Prior to this, he was a Research Associate at the Faculty of History at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (2016–2018). His doctoral research was funded by a scholarship from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (2017–2020).

In his teaching, Marcel Schmeer offers courses in modern and contemporary history with a focus on policing, intelligence, security, and political violence. He currently teaches Intelligence History and Counterinsurgency and Intelligence in the 20th Century in the MISS study program. In addition, he has taught several classes at the Faculty of History at Universität der Bundeswehr München, covering topics in twentieth-century German history, security and policing, and the history of state power. Alongside his teaching responsibilities, he serves as a member of the examination board of the MISS program.

Alongside his academic work, Marcel Schmeer has been active as a freelancer in the field of civic education since 2012. He designs and conducts workshops on the European Union, international cooperation, and contemporary conflicts for a wide range of civic education institutions. His work has included collaborations with the Landeszentrale für politische Bildung NRW and planpolitik GbR (Berlin), among others. In this context, he combines historical perspectives with participatory and simulation-based formats to promote political literacy and critical engagement with international affairs.

Research Interests and Expertise

German Contemporary History after 1945

History of the German Police

Intelligence History

History of (Modern) Organizations | Organizational History

Publications

Im Kreuzfeuer der Umstrittene Organisationen im 20. Jahrhundert, Campus: Frankfurt/New York 2020 (ed. together with Marcus Böick).

(Alb-)Traum „Bürgernähe“? Kontaktbereichsbeamte und die Anfänge des Community Policing in West-Berlin während der 1970er Jahre, in: Geschichte und Region / Storia e Regione 34 (2025), 1, 123—152.

(Un-)Sicherheitsproduzent und Differenzmaschine? Erweiterte Perspektiven auf die Geschichte der bundesdeutschen Polizei nach 1945, in: Sigrid Ruby/Anja Krause (eds.): Sicherheit und Differenz in historischer Perspektive | Security and Difference in Historical Perspective, Baden-Baden 2022, 289—316.

Intelligence for the Masses. The Annual Reports on the Protection of the Constitution in West Germany between Cold War Propaganda and Government Public Relations, in: Rüdiger Bergien/Debora Gerstenberger/Constantin Goschler (eds.): Intelligence Agencies, Technology and Knowledge Production. Data Processing and Information Transfer in Secret Services During the Cold War, London/New York 2022, 249—273.

Soziologen, Straßenkämpfer, Die West-Berliner Polizei als umstrittene Organisation, in: Marcus Böick/Marcel Schmeer (eds.): Im Kreuzfeuer der Kritik. Umstrittene Organisationen im 20. Jahrhundert, Campus: Frankfurt/New York, 285—321.

Picture: © private