I went to Northwestern University as a graduate student in 1971 expecting to do research on John Calvin’s rhetoric, an interest I’d developed as an undergraduate at the Calvin College. I quickly discovered that to do research on Calvin, I needed to know French and Latin. I knew German. Professor Robert D. Brooks, however, was looking for graduate students interested in propaganda, and I was the only one who knew enough German to be dangerous. He persuaded me to take up the subject, which has kept me occupied ever since.
After completing my Ph.D., I taught at Southern Illinois University from 1975-1985 and Calvin College from 1985-2014. I retired from Calvin College in 2014.
With a few exceptions, my publications are on Nazi and East German political propaganda. A full list is available here: http://bytwerk.com/Bytwerk%20Vita.pdf
Besides my books on the area, I maintain the German Propaganda Archive, a large and growing collection of translations and images from the Nazi and East German periods. It’s worth a visit: http://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/
For the fall 2015 semester I taught at LCC International University in Klaipeda, Lithuania and am teaching there again for the Fall 2017 term.
