Born Dec. 11, 1915, in Berlin. German historian and social figure (German Democratic Republic). Academician of the German Academy of Sciences (1969).

During the fascist dictatorship in Germany, Scheel took part in the German resistance movement. He joined the antifascist organization led by H. Schulze-Boysen and A. Harnack and in 1943 was sentenced to a long prison term. After being freed in 1945, Scheel taught at the Humboldt University of Berlin; he became a professor at the university in 1960. A staff member of the Institute of History of the German Academy of Sciences, he was named the academy’s vice-president in 1972.

Scheel’s principal works deal with the history of Germany in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, particularly the history of revolutionary-democratic movements in the period. Scheel has also written on the German antifascist movement and its historiography.