BERLIN German journalist and historian Sebastian Haffner, who left for London and worked for the Observer newspaper, died here on Saturday at the age of 91 after a long illness, his daughter Sarah said. Haffner was credited with making history more easily understandable for generations of Germans through his articles and books which were marked by originality and free from bias.

His book on Adolf Hitler, Remarks on Hitler, published in 1978. Born Raimund Pretzel in Berlin in 1907, he emigrated to London in 1938, where he became a journalist for the Observer and gained British nationality in 1948, although he reverted to German citizenship in 1972. In 1954, Haffner returned to Berlin, first as correspondent for the Observer, before working for the daily Die Welt newspaper and Stern magazine.

In 1975 he turned his attention to writing books. He published his first book, Germany: Jekyll and Hyde, in 1940, under his pseudonym in order to protect his relatives in Germany. Among his other work were Studies of Winston Churchill and Germany's Transition From Bismarck to Hitler. Haffner also contributed to numerous television programs and was awarded the Heinrich-Heine Prize in 1978.

(AFP)