Michael Gehler, born on 15 January 1962 in Innsbruck, is an Austrian historian. In 2006, he accepted an appointment to become the Head of the Institute of History at the Hildesheim Foundation University, where he has also been awarded the Jean Monnet Chair in the History of Europe and European Integration four times so far, following a call for applications from the EU Commission. Meanwhile, Gehler was simultaneously Head of the Institute for Modern and Contemporary History at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna from 2013 to 2017, where he is currently a corresponding member abroad. His publications deal with the history of empires, Austrian, German and European modern history, international relations with special emphasis on the Cold War, German unity, European integration, transnational party cooperation between Christian Democrats and Conservatives in Europe.