the son of a salesman, bleicken studied from 1948 to 1954 history and classical philology at the universities of kiel and frankfurt. he wrote his doctorate at the chair of alfred heuß at kiel in 1954 and after his habilitation in 1962 became a professor of history in hamburg, frankfurt and from 1977 in göttingen. he retired in 1991 but gave lectures until 1999.