Manfred Messerschmidt (born 1926) is a German historian who specialises in the history of Nazi Germany and World War II.
He was the long-term research director at the Military History Research Office (MGFA) who conceived of and launched the seminal series Germany and the Second World War from the MGFA.
Messerschmidt is one of the most important military historians of Germany after 1945 and is considered to be the founder of modern military history in Germany.
He is an expert on the international military law and an author of multiple books on German military history of the 19th and 20th centuries.