Helmut Ziefle, Ph.D.
Professor of German

Professor Ziefle taught at Wheaton for 33 years. He founded the Wheaton in Germany program, wrote textbooks on theological German, and published a monograph on Hermann Hesse and Christianity.

Dr. Ziefle’s book One Woman Against the Reich, recently republished in German as Gegen Hitler und das Reich, recounts the challenges his parents faced in maintaining a Christian home under the Nazi regime. Clint Shaffer ’84, assistant professor of German and a former student of Dr. Ziefle’s, says, “This testimony of one family’s faith under trial, together with Dr. Ziefle’s gentle and encouraging classroom manner, left their marks on several generations of Wheaton students.”

Professor Ziefle is a graduate of the University of New York at Albany and the University of Illinois.

For his service to the profession of German studies, he was awarded the Certificate of Merit of the American Association of Teachers of German and the Goethe House in 1992.