Remembering Professor Peter Hoffmann Former students pay tribute to Hoffmann, who passed away this January at the age of 92

Colin Gilmour worked with Hoffmann as a graduate student after asking him to supervise her doctoral studies.

“I approached Dr. Hoffmann to be my doctoral supervisor in 2011 because, in reading his work, I saw the kind of historian that I wanted to emulate: One whose research was meticulous, writing clear[,] and one who remained faithful above all to the evidence, wherever it led,” Gilmour wrote.

Hoffmann was not only active in academia. Gilmour recalls the 85-year-old professor walking home and back for lunch some days and opting for the stairs instead of elevators. His physical energy matched the energy he brought to the classroom.

“[T]he snapshot-memories I shall cherish with the greatest fondness are of course of Peter Hoffmann the man,” Gilmour wrote. “Closing my eyes I see him, as always, with his trademark bow tie, sitting amidst the columns of books that went from floor to ceiling in his small office gathering his hand-written notes and green, blue[,] and red overhead transparencies for a lecture.” used to make bread.”

Eliza Wood is another one of the many students who enrolled in Hoffmann’s undergraduate courses. Yet, Wood’s academic life was impacted beyond the three credits added to her transcript.

“He clearly enjoyed our company—inviting his seminar students to his home for tea, and taking his teaching assistants on a shockingly fast walk for lunch at Schwartz’s,” Wood said. “I feel privileged, 10 years since I was last in his classroom, to have visited with him before his passing. It will surprise none of his former students to learn that despite his illness, in our last conversation, he was still teaching.”

Ellen Gilley, who also took Hoffmann’s undergraduate classes, remembers the questions on his history exams to this day. She describes herself as belonging “to the band of McGill History students who painstakingly selected their courses around Professor Hoffmann’s teaching schedule.” In her letter to the Tribune , Gilley reminisced on the 18 credits she took with Hoffmann, which she describes as “the equivalent of a minor at the time.”

Born in Dresden, Germany in 1930, Peter Hoffmann joined McGill as the chair of German History in 1970. His research focused on World War I and II, as well as the German resistance to Nazism, which were the topics of his published books Hitler’s Personal Security (1979) and Carl Goerdeler and the Jewish Question, 1933–1942 (2011). On Jan. 6, the beloved McGill professor passed away at the age of 92. Some of Hoffmann’s former students shared their memories of the late academic and mentor with The McGill Tribune

“Professor Hoffmann’s seminars caused me to abandon my half-hearted plans to work in politics and instead pursue a master’s degree in history at McGill, where I was Professor Hoffmann’s graduate student and his teaching assistant,” Wood wrote to the Tribune

Wood, who first attended a class with Hoffmann in the third year of her undergraduate degree, continued her studies in German history with a second Winter seminar on the German Resistance. She remembers Hoffmann jokingly referring to the returning students as “the necessary ‘old dough’ mixed in with the fresh ingredients

“In front of a 200+ person classroom at 8:00 a.m. on a cold, dark morning, professor Hoffmann is intimidating—he is formally dressed, appears stoic, and delivers an 80-minute lecture of pure content. I have no memory of him ever pausing for a drink or using notes. But approach him outside of these lectures, and his warmth and genuine interest in his students’ success were at the forefront,” Gilley said.

Gilley extended her “gratitude and appreciation” for all the additional effort Hoffmann put into teaching. Such dedication must have taken “many hours during nights and weekends.”

Former students agree that Hoffmann was a professor who made the Department of History and Classics a welcoming environment that fostered learning and curiosity. His presence in McGill’s lecture halls and the stairways of Leacock will be missed, as will his passion for learning and dedication to his students.

31 2023

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