Josef Semmler

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Josef Semmler (born August 22, 1928 in Geisenheim ; † October 23, 2011 in Ludwigshafen am Rhein ) was a German historian .

Josef Semmler was born the son of a railway official. Since the winter semester of 1948/49 he studied history, Latin and music in Mainz and later in Bonn . Semmler was a student of Theodor Schieffer and Eugen Ewig . He received his doctorate in 1956 in Mainz at Ewig with the work Die Klosterreform von Siegburg . He then worked as an assistant in Mainz for a year. From 1957 to 1961 he worked at the German Historical Institute in Rome . In the fall of 1961 he became an employee at the Roman Institute of the Görres Society . In Rome he first worked on the Vatican files and then, as a scholarship holder of the German Research Foundation, on the edition of the “Corpus Consuetudinum monasticarum”. His habilitation took place in Mannheim in 1971 through Ludwig the Pious . The work went unprinted. From 1972 until his retirement in 1993 he taught as C3 professor for medieval history at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf . In the 1980s he co-founded the Research Institute for the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (FIMUR). The later professors Brigitte Kasten and Sönke Lorenz were among Semmler's academic students .

Semmler was regarded as the Nestor for research into the Carolingian period . He examined in particular the history of the Carolingian educational and clerical reform, the Benedictine order , the Christian mission and royal rule in the early Merovingian to late Carolingian times. In addition to the Carolingian era, Semmler is regarded as one of the most important experts in medieval church history. In 2003 he presented a reassessment of the historiographical and documentary sources of the dynasty change of 751 and the Frankish king's anointing. Semmler denied Pippin's anointing of the king in 751, since, according to his analysis, neither contemporary nor trustworthy later sources would exist for it. During the anointing by Pope Stephan II in 754, Semmler did not assume a new anointing of the king, but regarded it as a "specially adapted post-baptism anointing", which the Pope himself subsequently reinterpreted as the anointing of the king. Semmler's interpretation called into question an element of research opinion that had hitherto been considered irrefutable. The discussion continues to this day. A symposium was held in the Archbishop's Diocesan and Cathedral Library in Cologne on the occasion of his 80th birthday in 2008 . After his death, a memorial was dedicated to him, which contains the lectures held in his honor at the Cologne conference in 2008.

Fonts

Complete list of publications: Heinz Finger, Rudolf Hiestand (eds.): Bishops, monasteries, universities and Rome. Commemorative publication for Josef Semmler (1928–2011). Archbishop's Diocesan and Cathedral Library, Cologne 2012, pp. 371–388.

Monographs

  • The change of dynasty from 751 and the Frankish king's anointing (= Studia humaniora, series minor. Volume 6). Droste, Düsseldorf 2003, ISBN 3-7700-0845-6 . ( Review )
  • The monastery reform of Siegburg. Its expansion and its reform program in the 11th and 12th centuries (= Rheinisches Archiv. Publications of the Institute for Historical Regional Studies of the Rhineland at the University of Bonn. Volume 53). Röhrscheid, Bonn 1959. ( Review )

Editorships

  • The forest in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (= Studia humaniora, series minor. Volume 17). Droste Düsseldorf 1991, ISBN 3-7700-0823-5 . ( Review )

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Matthias Schrör: Obituary for Prof. Dr. Josef Semmler (1928–2011). In: HHU Alumni. No. 1/2012, p. 49.
  2. ^ Heinz Finger: Josef Semmler (1928–2011). In: Francia Vol. 40, 2013, pp. 469–471, here: p. 471.
  3. ↑ Josef Semmler: The change of dynasty of 751 and the Frankish king anointing. Düsseldorf 2003, p. 50.
personal data
SURNAME Semmler, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian
DATE OF BIRTH August 22, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Geisenheim
DATE OF DEATH October 23, 2011
Place of death Ludwigshafen am Rhein