Wilhelm Levison

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Wilhelm Levison (born May 27, 1876 in Düsseldorf , † January 17, 1947 in Durham ) was a German historian .

Wilhelm Levison taught as a professor of history at the University of Bonn . Because of his Jewish origins, he was excluded from academic work under pressure from the National Socialists in 1935 and forced to retire as a university lecturer. In the spring of 1939 he managed to emigrate to England, where he continued his research at Durham University . Levison was one of the best experts on the early Middle Ages in the first half of the 20th century. Since 1899 he was an employee, since 1925 a member of the central management of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica , for which he mainly edited sources from the Merovingian period .

Life

Origin and youth (1876-1894)

Wilhelm Levison came from one of the oldest Jewish families in Siegburg , who can be safely traced in Siegburg from 1681 to 1939. The last member of the Siegburg family was Heinrich Levison, the cousin of Wilhelm Levison and the last head of the synagogue of the Jewish community in Siegburg. He moved to Cologne in 1939 and was deported to Theresienstadt , where he died in 1942.

Levison's ancestors were small traders. They bore the name lion, in dialect Löw or Leef, which was derived from the symbolic animal of the biblical Judah , the lion . The family assimilated the German culture and nation of the 19th century, which became clear step by step. In 1846 Jews had to take a family name due to legal regulations. Mendel Levy, Wilhelm Levison's grandfather, chose the name Levison as the first family member affected by the new regulation. The eldest son Levi Levison took over his father's cloth business of his four sons and reminded Wilhelm Levison of his father “to the extent of his Hebrew studies”, who followed the attitude of his father, who was said to have “his life more devoted to studying the Torah and Hebrew Literature [dedicated] as the acquisition of wealth ”. Isaac settled down as a doctor in Siegburg after studying medicine in Bonn , Würzburg and Greifswald . Joseph ran a grocery wholesaler in Düsseldorf . Hermann had a small textile company in Düsseldorf.

Wilhelm Levison came in 1876 as the older of two sons of the married couple Hermann Levison (1839–1886) and Josephine, née. Goldschmidt (1845–1916) to the world. He spent the first 18 years of his life in Düsseldorf. How strong the Jewish family had become assimilated into German culture, is reflected in Levisons first name Wilhelm, which he after the first German emperor I. Wilhelm received. After his father died when Wilhelm was ten years old, his mother, brother and himself were supported by the deceased's brothers. His brother Arthur, who was five years his junior, became a businessman and emigrated to England at the end of the 19th century. This enabled Wilhelm to combine family visits with frequent archive and library trips to England from 1899 onwards. At the municipal high school Levison learned Latin, Greek and French as well as English, which was not a matter of course at German high schools during the imperial era . In addition, Levison visited the synagogue community in Düsseldorf from the age of 8 to 14 and received lessons in Hebrew language teaching, Hebrew Bible reading, translation and explanation of prayers. What influence the religion of the family had on Levison himself, however, is not clear. In 1894 he passed the Abitur at the municipal high school in Düsseldorf . With the exception of the subject of gymnastics, in which it was only sufficient for a “good”, the Abitur certificate shows the grade “very good” for the other subjects.

Studied in Bonn and Berlin (1894–1898)

With a grant from the Düsseldorf Aders-Tönnies Foundation, he was able to study history and classical philology at the University of Bonn in 1894. The director of the grammar school, Adolf Matthias (1847-1917), had recommended Levison to the ancient historian Heinrich Nissen . Therefore, lectures in classical studies initially took up the greatest part in the course. History was initially only represented by Reinhold Koser's proseminar, which was based on German narrative sources from the 12th and 13th centuries, and his lecture on Brandenburg-Prussian history until 1840. But Levison also heard geography and psychology. Levison spent the summer semester of 1895 in Berlin, where the courses on ancient history and philology with Otto Hirschfeld , Johannes Vahlen , Paul Kretschmer , Bernhard Kübler and Hermann Dessau predominated . As the only representative of Middle and Modern History, Levison attended Paul Scheffer-Boichorst and his seminar on medieval history. After returning to Bonn, historical lectures and exercises took up more space. He attended events with Hermann Usener , Franz Bücheler , Anton Elter , Alfred Körte , Felix Solmsen and Georg Loeschcke . With Moriz Ritter he completed an exercise in the summer semester of 1896 on historical sources from the 6th to 9th centuries, which made a lasting impression on him. Even decades later he praised the "education for conscientious work in large and small" that he received in the seminar. He also came into contact with medieval sources during a course given by Karl Menzel . Although there were sufficient offers, Levison did not attend a diplomatic event. As a diplomat, Levison was arguably self-taught . After eight semesters, Levison wrote his dissertation with Heinrich Nissen with the thesis The authentication of civil status in antiquity . It was the first Bonn dissertation in ancient history that was written in German. After a rigorosum and disputation on January 19, 1898 , his thesis earned him the doctorate summa cum laude as Dr. phil. a. Also in 1898, Levison also qualified for a higher teaching post by passing a state examination. At this time, Levison aspired to the profession of librarian.

Work for the Monumenta Germaniae Historica (1899–1920)

In 1898 Levison published his first essay "On the history of the Frankish King Clovis" in the Bonner Jahrbucher , the magazine of the Association for Friends of Antiquity in the Rhineland and the then Provincial Museum in Bonn. In this essay, Levison dealt with chronological issues and the conversion of Clovis . Levison dealt with the much-discussed dating of baptism, but also the circumstances of the time and the motives of Clovis to convert to Christianity. Levison checked the short and incorrect source testimonies about the founder of the Franconian empire for credibility and compatibility. The research style shown here and the sober objectivity of the presentation characterize all of his further work. Through this article, the pioneer of Merovingian historiography and hagiography Bruno Krusch , who worked for the Monumenta Germaniae Historica (MGH) on the edition of sources on the history of the Merovingian era, became aware of Levison. Through his study, Levison was a suitable support for Krusch. It is not known how the first contact with Krusch in Hanover and the Monumenta in Berlin came about. In his employment contract, Levison undertook to live at the place of residence of the head of his work, and he received an annual salary of initially 1,500 marks for the tasks assigned to him. On January 1, 1899 Levison was hired as an assistant in the MGH and went to Hanover, where Krusch was employed as an archivist. Two years later Levison followed his superior Krusch to Breslau. A letter of recommendation from his ancient doctoral supervisor Nissen to the then chairman of the central management, Ernst Dümmler , was only formulated after the decision in favor of Levison's position and expresses the slight reservation against the cosmopolitanism of Levison, who is firmly rooted in the Rhineland, as well as the concern about professional impairment resulting from his Judaism could have resulted from. In February 1902, Levison's desire to return to the University of Bonn became clear. In April 1903, the central management of the MGH decided to keep Levison on as a staff member and to raise his annual salary to 2,100 marks. Of this, however, only 1,800 marks were to be paid out, as he did not work fully for the Monumenta due to his lecturing activities. Levison also had the task of continuing his work on the Liber Pontificalis . In 1908 his Monumenta salary was raised to 3,000 marks, doubling its starting salary. However, Levison was at no time a wealthy man. Until 1920 he received his salary mainly from the MGH, which were known for their low pay.

Lecturer at the University of Bonn (1903–1935)

The work with the Merovingian sources formed the basis for the habilitation thesis "Bishop Germanus von Auxerre and the sources for his history" for medieval history and historical auxiliary sciences, which was accepted in Bonn in 1903. The font appeared in the New Archive in 1904 on 80 pages. The colloquium was held on July 9, 1903 on the influence of the Irish on the Frankish empires. The habilitation was of greater importance for the University of Bonn, because up until then more modern topics were dealt with at it and its share in the upswing of source- and text-critical mediaeval studies was small. In 1903 Levison became a private lecturer in Bonn and his teaching activities focused on palaeography , document theory and general source studies. The wide range of his courses covered the Merovingian period, the historical auxiliary sciences, the history of the Rhineland, the English constitutional history of the early modern period up to the constitutional development of the United States of America in the 19th century. He held his inaugural lecture in Bonn on politics in the visionary literature of the early Middle Ages . In 1909 he was given the title of "Professor". In 1912 he became an associate professor in Bonn.

During the First World War and the Weimar Republic (1914–1933)

After the outbreak of World War I , Levison was drafted, but exempted from military service due to his short-sightedness. He had to stop working in a medical column in 1915 because of a broken arm. When the war broke out, he lost contact with his brother in England and with foreign colleagues. In October 1914, Levison signed the declaration of the university professors of the German Reich , in which the teachers unreservedly supported the army, since "for the whole culture of Europe salvation depends on the victory that German" militarism "will fight for," Levison himself formulated but no theses for the leadership of an intellectual and culturally superior Germany compared to "inferior" societies. In 1917, one year after his mother's death, he married Elsa Freundlich, a Jew who had taken part in his exercises before the war and who did her doctorate in Heidelberg on the subject of John Stuart Mill's causal theory . How Levison assessed the course of the First World War and to what extent he perceived the anti-Jewish mood that broke out during the war and the increasing anti-Semitic journalism is not yet known.

In the Weimar Republic he belonged to the national liberal DVP and was thus in agreement with most of the Jewish electorate. However, Levison did not appear as a party official. In 1920 he became a full professor in Bonn and thus retired from the paid service of the MGH. In 1922/23 he was traded as the successor to the late Michael Tangl at the Berlin University, but Ernst Perels was finally offered the vacant professorship. Levison's academic advancement was unusual, because at numerous German universities the assumption of a professorship was linked to a Christian denomination and therefore a conversion from the Jewish faith to Christianity was required. However, the Jewish origin does not seem to have had any significant significance for Levison. There is no evidence that his Judaism, which is evident from the name, hindered his academic career. To what extent religion played a role in his life is uncertain.

During his teaching activities as a professor in Bonn, he supervised 44 dissertations until 1933. Among his students were Theodor Schieffer , Eugen Ewig and Paul Egon Hübinger . As an academic teacher, Levison was open-minded and unbiased towards women's studies. University women in the German Reich were only allowed to study at universities from 1908 onwards. In addition to 33 men, 11 women also completed his doctorate with him. Among them was Helene Wieruszowski , who was denied her habilitation in Cologne and who only reached the professorship for medieval history while emigrating. Levison never held a position in academic self-government. The years between the occupation of the Rhineland and the Nazi seizure of power marked the high point of his career as a scientist and university lecturer. For the 6th and 7th edition of the Gebhardt-Handbuch der Deutschen Geschichte (published in 1922 and 1930) he took over the constitutional and social history of the Carolingian era . In 1931 Durham University awarded him an honorary doctorate for his services to the study of the Anglo-Saxon Middle Ages. In 1932, because of his ties to his home in the Rhineland, he turned down an offer for a full professorship as Albert Brackmann's successor in Berlin.

Extensive isolation and forced retirement under National Socialism (1933–1939)

According to a report of SS First Lieutenant Hermann Löffler there were 1,933 in the seizure of power of the Nazis with Wilhelm Levison, Siegmund Hellmann and Hans Rothfels three full professors of Jewish descent for medieval and modern history in Germany. However, the extraordinary Jewish professors, lecturers and private lecturers were more numerous. Many Jewish university professors were immediately removed from their posts. But Levison was initially spared and was able to continue his teaching until 1935 largely undisturbed. He was not affected by the “ Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service ” and the Aryan Paragraph , as they did not affect the civil servants recruited before 1914. His seminar had never had so many students as in the 1933 summer semester and therefore had to be divided into two courses. The church historian Wilhelm Neuss dedicated the new edition of his work, published in 1933, to him on the beginnings of Christianity on the Rhine and Moselle. His scientific activity continued in the usual ways. After 1933 Levison was still supervising seven dissertations. In 1933 a two-volume history of the University of Bonn was published, which contained 25 pages from him on the historical seminar, and the 30th Scriptores volume of the Monumenta published in 1934 contained several hagiographic sources contributed by him. Even under the Nazis, Levison was recognized. The National Socialist Ernst Anrich , who had been a private lecturer in Bonn since 1932, judged Levison to be Jewish, "but very decent and national, scientifically very solid".

However, under the Nazi regime, from 1935 onwards, discrimination on account of his Jewish origin increased. His publication opportunities dwindled increasingly. As early as 1935, an article about the new publications from the Merovingian and Carolingian times was no longer printed in the “Annual Reports for German History”. His share of editions at MGH was suppressed in the title publications. In 1935 Levison was pushed out of the central management of the MGH and the board of the Society for Rhenish History . In 1937, with his help, the Monumenta were able to publish a new edition of the Historiae Gregors von Tours and the Gesellschaft für Rheinische Geschichtskunde an edition of Caesarius von Heisterbach . On both occasions his participation was not mentioned on the title page or even in the foreword. According to his academic students, Levison endured the increasing isolation and anti-Semitic agitation “with external equanimity” (according to Paul Egon Hübinger) and “with poise and dignity” (according to Theodor Schieffer).

Due to the passing of the Nuremberg Laws of September 15, 1935, which left him no longer able to work as a teacher and civil servant, Levison applied for retirement on the advice of the Dean of the Philosophical Faculty in Bonn, Friedrich Oertel . Instead of approving this application, Levison was forcibly retired by the Berlin Ministry at the end of 1935, which resulted in financial losses and, in particular, the loss of teaching and examination rights. Levison was one of a total of twelve German historians who lost their chair for reasons of racial ideology. In the winter semester of 1935/36, Leo Just was initially commissioned to represent the company. Levison's successor at the Bonn chair was Walther Holtzmann on advice and confidential request . In his inaugural lecture in 1936, Holtzmann openly expressed his great appreciation for his Jewish predecessor Levison. In 1938 Levison was expelled from the Society of Antiquity Friends in the Rhineland . Due to the growing isolation he devoted himself more intensively to research and writing a family story. Levison gave his work, which was no longer printed in the German Empire, to foreign periodicals such as the Revue Bénédictine , the yearbook of the Alsace-Lorraine Scientific Society in Strasbourg or the magazine for German intellectual history in Austria.

Escape from Germany and final years in exile in England (1939–1947)

The decision to go into exile was made after the November pogrom in 1938. The final decisive factor was the ban on the use of public libraries and the immediate terror caused by the appearance of the Gestapo and propaganda posters. In April 1939 he was able to emigrate to England at the last possible moment. On March 10, 1939, he received a farewell greeting from Berlin without a sender and with an abbreviated signature from the Middle Latin, Karl Strecker . His brother, who had lived in London for decades, organized the move. His successor at the Bonn chair, Walther Holtzmann, accompanied him to Bonn main station and the Catholic church historian and long-time friend Wilhelm Neuss escorted him to the train to Ostend . He had to give up the ongoing work on the Liber Pontificalis and the work on the Lex Salica when he fled. But he managed to take his private library and the collected material for his family history with him. The University of Durham had offered him a new place of work as an honorary doctorate with the appointment of an Honorary Fellow . After internment as a German citizen on the Isle of Man from June 25 to September 2, 1940, he was able to quickly continue his scientific activities, now mainly focused on Anglo-Saxon topics. The revision of the first volume of Wattenbach's historical sources was partly completed while in exile. There, too, the family history, which was elaborated over many years of detailed research, was written down. In 1942 he was elected Ford's Lecturer in English History by Oxford University . It is one of the highest honors a historian can receive in England. In his book England and the Continent in the Eighth Century , published in Oxford in 1946, he openly admitted himself as a Jew to German institutions and thought of the University of Bonn and the Monumenta Germaniae Historica in the most refined manner. At the request of the University of Bonn, Levison succeeded in re-establishing contact with Thomas Mann in order to re-award the Nobel Prize laureate the honorary doctorate, which had been revoked under National Socialism. It was no longer possible to return to the University of Bonn. Guest lectures at the university there were also no longer due to his tense health. In June 1946 he was elected honorary member of the Historical Association for the Lower Rhine at the first post-war assembly. The article Medieval Church-Dedications in England , published in 1946, was sent to Germany as well as Great Britain, France and Belgium. In the summer of 1946 Levison suffered a heart attack and on January 17, 1947 he died of another attack in Durham. Levison found his grave in the small graveyard of St Mary le Bow Church in Durham. His wife Elsa did not die until 1966. The marriage remained childless.

plant

Editing activity

Levison was one of the best German connoisseurs of the early Middle Ages during his lifetime. Its thematic spectrum extended from the Merovingian period, the historical auxiliary sciences, through the history of the papacy and the Rhineland to the English constitutional history of the early modern period. Diplomatic studies, however, were only marginal in number and scope in the overall work. From 1899 he was an employee of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica and remained so until 1920. In 1925 he was unanimously elected together with Albert Brackmann as a member of the central management of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Levison was thus on the governing body of the institution. At MGH, Levison edited sources from the Merovingian period in the large-scale Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum project . This happened at a time when there was no Middle Latin philology as a separate subject, and there were hardly any critical editions that would have secured the text, or factual studies that would have examined the historicity of the legends.

His work is characterized by the greatest care. Levison became the best expert on Merovingian Latin. With Krusch he edited three quarto volumes with Merovingian lives of saints (1910, 1913 and 1920). The proportion of independent work amounts to “a good two quarto volumes”, which is “an amazing achievement given the difficult and fragmented material”. A main achievement is not even visible, namely "the unnerving and constant proofreading, which requires the highest concentration, and the elaboration of the extensive indices". The Bonifatius-Viten (Vitae Sancti Bonifatii) was published by Levison in 1905 in the Scriptores rerum Germanicarum alone . Philologically and historically they are considered a masterpiece. The final 7th volume from 1920 contains a 200-page catalog of hagiographic manuscripts. A fundamental difference in the assessment of the hagiographic material between Krusch and Levison was that the Protestant Krusch rejected early medieval miracle stories as church legends, while Levison judged far more cautiously because he interpreted them as evidence of medieval thought. The preoccupation with hagiography also led him to papal history. His study "Constantine Donation and New Year's Eve Legend" is still groundbreaking today.

Levison did not begin to edit documents until he was working in the 1930s. In 1932 he presented an authoritative edition of the will of the deacon Adalgisel Grimo from 634. From 1901 to 1935 Levison also edited the bibliographical reports in the Monumenta's journal, the New Archive . After his tenure, this was renamed the German Archive for the History of the Middle Ages , and after the war the German Archive for Research into the Middle Ages .

On the occasion of the 70th birthday of his colleague, Levison paid sober homage to the more than 40 years of collaboration with Krusch, who was feared as the author of malicious and biting reviews. It is characteristic of the relationship between the two scholars. In Levison's words, Krusch's achievement in researching the lives of Merovingian saints was "despite some contradictions in individual questions, probably the most significant advance ... since Mabillon ". For his 80th birthday Levison dedicated a new edition of a document from King Sigibert III to his former superior . in favor of the churches of Metz and Cologne. It is Levison's last diplomatic work to be created on German soil and is considered a masterpiece.

In 1908 Levison received approval to rework the early Middle Ages from Wattenbach's source studies. His revision, which went up to the death of Charlemagne , was completed after Levison's death by Heinz Löwe and published in 1952/53 under the name Wattenbach-Levison (-Löwe). His editions and studies can be characterized as always handwriting-related and philologically astute investigations in which questions about the information content and the possibility of using sources - real or false, true or invented - are in the foreground, which he subjects to a critical appraisal. His institution-related questions, derived from the source criticism, can be seen, for example, in the studies of the Rhenish dioceses.

Research contributions to the history of the Rhine

In 1909 Levison published the essay The Development of the Legend of Severin of Cologne in the Bonn yearbooks. In it he showed that in Cologne in the 9th or 10th century the biography of the eponymous bishop of Bordeaux was adopted for the vita of the founder of the Severin Foundation due to a lack of tradition . He edited the text of Severin's vita in the first part of the 7th volume of the Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum published in 1919 . In the following years Levison continued to deal with the legends of Cologne saints, for example in the essays from 1929 on Bishop Agilolf and 1931 on Bishop Evergisel (Ebregisil I.). His most important study in the field of Rhenish hagiography is that of the Ursula legend, published in 1927. Source editions and source-critical studies formed a further focus of the work in the Rhenish region. The most important work on Rhenish diplomacy was the 1932 edition of the Bonn documents of the early Middle Ages from the copy book of the Cassius Stift .

Rhenish history was not established in research and teaching at the Bonn Historical Seminar until the First World War. The war defeat of 1918 sparked a debate about the status of the Rhine provinces. Politicians and scientists who wanted to work against a separation of the areas on the left bank of the Rhine from the Reich or even a French annexation saw their most urgent task in emphasizing the Germanness of the Rhineland and its belonging to the German Reich and cultural area. The most important goal of a Rhenish history was therefore to highlight the Rhineland as a German state for centuries. In this context, the Institute for Historical Regional Studies of the Rhineland at the University of Bonn was founded in 1920/21. The initiative to publish a Rhenish story came from the Society for Rhenish History. The core task in the history of the Rhineland came to Levison with the representation of the time from the end of Roman rule to the Interregnum (450 to 1250). In 1925, Levison gave the official lecture The Meaning of the Rhenish Millennium Celebration 925–1925 for the millennium that the Rhineland had belonged to the German Empire . In this lecture Levison gave an interpretation of the course of Rhenish history since the 5th century and made it clear that the Rhenish lands were allowed to "count themselves to the realm of German essence" not only in 925, but already through the Frankish conquest. In 1927 Levison dealt with the 75th anniversary of the Historical Association for the Lower Rhine in his lecture The Beginnings of Rhenish Dioceses in Legend . Between 1910 and 1935, 15 dissertations on Rhenish history, supervised by Levison, were submitted to the Faculty of Philosophy in the academic field.

For Levison, his love for the Rhineland was the driving force behind research into his family origins. Levison researched his family's roots in the Rhineland in great detail. The results of this family research were published in 1952 by his wife Elsa Levison and Franz Steinbach in an 187-page work with 19 family tables. Levison had researched the family since the first appearance of a merchant Löw in the Siegburg sources in 1681.

Research activity in the Anglo-Saxon area

With his 1905 edition of the Bonifatius-Viten (Vitae Sancti Bonifatii) published by Monumenta, Levison documented early on his scientific interest in the relations between the Merovingian and early Carolingian Franconian Empire and England. Levison paid special attention to English constitutional history, on which he had given six lectures since the summer semester of 1907. Another research focus in the Anglo-Saxon area dealt with the influence of the Irish and Anglo-Saxons on the Christianization of the Franconian Empire; In 1912 Levison wrote a corresponding overview of the course of the Irish mission.

In addition, Levison dealt intensively in his research with the Anglo-Saxon Beda Venerabilis and his time. In 1935, when Levison was no longer allowed to publish in German, he wrote an essay about Beda as a historian, which appeared in an anthology to commemorate Beda's 1200th anniversary of his death. With Beda's focus on the history of salvation , which can be traced back not only to the influence of Orosius , but also to his preoccupation with the six ages in the context of computistics , Levison clarified an aspect that the source-critical research had not noticed until now. In addition, Levison took Beda's didactic intention seriously for the first time .

In the year before his death, Levison was able to publish his fundamental monograph England and the Continent in the Eighth Century . The work is still considered a milestone in history, as it first dealt with the relationship between England and the mainland in the time of Willibrord , Bonifatius and Alcuin . The discussion about the Anglo-Saxon mission of Friesland and the Franconian Empire takes up about two thirds of the book.

effect

Estate and Commemoration

In his will of September 20, 1946, Levison bequeathed his books, which he had collected for decades in his reference library, to the library of the historical seminary in Bonn. He stipulated that the works that had been lost in Bonn as a result of the World War should be sent there, the rest should remain in Durham. "This generous donation formed the basis for the reconstruction of the library of the historical seminar, which was destroyed except for small remains". The successor to the Bonn chair, Walther Holtzmann, took over Levison's scientific estate. On the occasion of Levison's 70th birthday in 1946, an anthology of his most important essays was planned. But printing difficulties in post-war Germany delayed the production of the book again and again. Levison did not live to see the anthology from the early days of the Rhineland and Franconia published in 1948 . Holtzmann brought the new edition of Gregor von Tours to a conclusion and ensured the continuation of the new edition of the first volume of Wattenbach, Germany's historical sources in the Middle Ages, which Levison had taken over . The results of years of research into the history of the two-sword teaching could only be published from the estate. Likewise the investigation and edition of the Annales Lindisfarnenses et Dunelmenses .

In the Bonn University Archives there is a partial legacy mainly from Levison's university years. Little is known from the time of the “Third Reich” and the English exile. Private documents are almost completely missing. They may have stayed with his widow after Levison's death and after her death in 1966 they passed into the possession of the nephew John Levison, the only son of Levison's brother Artur Levison. The whereabouts of this estate have not yet been clarified. In his family history published posthumously in 1952, Levison left some autobiographical notes. Biographical sources are also the life pictures and appreciations of his students who were able to report on Levison as a contemporary witness. His student Paul Egon Hübinger wrote a detailed life picture . Kurt Düwell devoted his Cologne dissertation in 1962 on the Rhine regions in the Jewish policy of National Socialism before 1942 "to the memory of the Rhenish historian Wilhelm Levison". A commemoration ceremony took place at the University of Bonn in 1976 to mark the 100th birthday. His students Theodor Schieffer and Helene Wieruszowski as well as Horst Fuhrmann , the President of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica , gave commemorative speeches. Since 1978 , Roonstraße, formerly named after the Prussian General Albrecht von Roon, has been named after Levison in the southern part of Bonn . On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of his death, a conference was held in Bonn in 2007 in memory of Levison. For this conference, historians wrote articles on the relationship between Levison and diplomacy ( Theo Kölzer ), Rhenish history ( Manfred Groten ), the Monumenta Germaniae Historica ( Rudolf Schieffer ) or hagiography ( Klaus Herbers ). The anthology was published in 2010 and edited by the Bonn professor for medieval history Matthias Becher and the historian Yitzhak Hen .

A working group from the University of Manchester has been organizing the Wilhelm Levison Network since 2008 . International scholars come together for a workshop at the John Rylands Library to explore the importance of the book as a carrier of cultural traditions in history. This question was also the basis of Levison's work.

Scientific aftermath

Levison's academic impact on the research and academic careers of his students was considerable. Levison's seminar participants were still active in university or archival services decades after the Second World War. Such was Ursula Lewald at the Institute of Regional History and oversaw the printing of the family history. His two most important students, Theodor Schieffer and Eugen Ewig , tied directly to Levison's main research areas. Eugen Ewig wrote numerous papers on the Rhenish-Franconian area; In 1964 he moved to the former Bonn chair of his teacher Levison, where he taught until 1980. Through Levison, Bonn became the starting point for mediaeval and auxiliary scientific research, especially on the Merovingians . Through Ewig and Theo Kölzer , the university developed into a center for source-critical Merovingian studies in the second half of the 20th century. Ewig presented fundamental work on the Merovingian era and in the second half of the 20th century became arguably the best German expert on the Merovingians. Kölzer is one of the leading experts for Merovingian documents. Matthias Becher, the sixth successor to Levison at the Bonn chair, is also considered one of the best connoisseurs of the Merovingian era.

Schieffer wrote fundamental works on the field of Anglo-Saxon missions, especially on Bonifatius (1954). Levison's widow visited the von Schieffer family several times on her trips to Germany. Theodor Schieffer's son, Rudolf Schieffer , did his doctorate under Eugen Ewig and was his successor in 1980 and thus the fourth successor to the Bonn chair after Levison.

The establishment of the German Historical Institute in Paris was largely driven by historians who came from Levison's circle of students.

Fonts

bibliography

  • Wilhelm Levison: 1876-1947. A bibliography edited by Elsa Levison, Oxford 1948.

Monographs and Articles

  • The Levison family from Siegburg and related families , Bonn 1952.
  • Wilhelm Levison †: The medieval doctrine of the two swords . In: German Archive for Research into the Middle Ages . Volume 9, 1952, pp. 14-42.
  • From early Rhenish and Franconian times. Selected essays. Düsseldorf 1948 ( online . Combines the most important articles and gives a complete list of his publications)

Editorships and editions

  • Wattenbach-Levison : Germany's historical sources in the Middle Ages. Prehistoric times and Carolingians . Volume I: The prehistoric times from the beginnings to the rule of the Carolingians from the beginning of the 8th century to the death of Charlemagne. Arranged by Wilhelm Levison and Heinz Löwe . Weimar 1953.
  • Gregorii Turonensis Opera. Editio altera, cur. B. Krusch et W. Levison (Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum I 1), Hanover 1951.

literature

Necrologist

Representations

  • Matthias Becher , Yitzhak Hen (ed.): Wilhelm Levison (1876–1947). A Jewish research life between scientific recognition and political exile (= Bonn historical research. Volume 63). Schmitt, Siegburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-87710-210-7 .
    • contains, among other things: Letha Böhringer: "... I believe I have helped the German cause several times through writing and deed". Wilhelm Levison as a political personality. In: Matthias Becher and Yitzhak Hen (eds.): Wilhelm Levison (1876–1947). A Jewish research life between academic recognition and political exile. Pp. 251-317.
  • Horst Fuhrmann : "Everything was just human". Scholarly life in the 19th and 20th centuries. Shown using the example of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica and its staff. Beck, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-406-40280-1 , pp. 9-10, 100-101 ( online ).
  • Yitzhak Hen: Levison, Wilhelm (1876-1947). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of May 2005 / May 2010
  • Paul Egon Huebinger : Wilhelm Levison . In: 150 Years of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Bonn 1818–1968. Bonn scholars. Contributions to the history of science in Bonn. Volume 5. Bouvier, Bonn 1968, pp. 311-331.
  • Paul Egon Huebinger: Wilhelm Levison. In: Edmund Strutz (Hrsg.): Rheinische Lebensbilder. Volume 7. Rheinland-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1977, ISBN 3-7927-0282-7 , pp. 227-252.
  • Heinrich Linn: The Bonn historian Wilhelm Levison 1876–1947 . In: Heinrich Linn: Jews on the Rhine and Victory. 2nd Edition. Schmitt, Siegburg 1984, ISBN 3-87710-104-6 , pp. 140-144 (exhibition catalog, Siegburg, archive of the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis, May - September 1983).
  • David Rollason: Wilhelm Levison. In: John Cannon (Ed.): The Blackwell Dictionary of Historians. Blackwell Reference, Oxford et al. 1988, ISBN 0-631-14708-X , pp. 244f.
  • Rudolf Schieffer : The Medievalist Wilhelm Levison (1876-1947). In: Kurt Düwell et al. (Ed.): Expulsion of Jewish artists and scientists from Düsseldorf 1933–1945 (= publication of the historical seminar of the Heinrich Heine University ). Droste, Düsseldorf 1998, ISBN 3-7700-1097-3 , pp. 165-175.
  • Theodor Schieffer : Wilhelm Levison. In: Rheinische Vierteljahrsblätter . Volume 40, 1976, pp. 225-240.
  • Theodor Schieffer, Horst Fuhrmann (ed.): In Memoriam Wilhelm Levison. (1876-1947). Speeches and greetings at the commemoration of the university's 100th birthday on May 31, 1976 (= Alma Mater Volume 40). Hanstein, Cologne et al. 1977, ISBN 3-7756-9133-2 .
  • Theodor Schieffer:  Levison, Wilhelm. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 14, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-428-00195-8 , p. 401 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Paul Egon Huebinger: Wilhelm Levison In: Bonner Gelehre. Contributions to the history of the sciences in Bonn , Volume 5: Historical sciences . (150 Years of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Bonn 1818–1968, Volume 2.5) Bonn 1968, pp. 311–331, here: p. 314.
  2. ^ Wilhelm Levison: Die Siegburger Familie Levison and related families , Bonn 1952, p. 43; Rudolf Schieffer: The Medievalist Wilhelm Levison (1876-1947) . In: Kurt Düwell et al. (Ed.): Expulsion of Jewish artists and scientists from Düsseldorf 1933–1945 . Düsseldorf 1998, pp. 165–175, here: p. 166.
  3. ↑ Letha Böhringer: "... I believe I have helped the German cause several times through writing and deed". Wilhelm Levison as a political personality . In: Matthias Becher and Yitzhak Hen (eds.): Wilhelm Levison (1876–1947). A Jewish research life between academic recognition and political exile. Siegburg 2010, pp. 251-317, here: p. 258.
  4. ^ Paul Egon Huebinger: Wilhelm Levison . In: Bonn scholars. Contributions to the history of science in Bonn , Volume 5: History (150 Years of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Bonn 1818–1968, Volume 2.5), Bonn 1968, pp. 311–331, here: p. 316.
  5. ^ Theo Kölzer: Wilhelm Levison as a diplomat . In: Matthias Becher and Yitzhak Hen (eds.): Wilhelm Levison (1876–1947). A Jewish research life between academic recognition and political exile . Siegburg 2010, pp. 211–223, here: p. 213.
  6. ^ Wilhelm Levison: The certification of the civil status in antiquity. A contribution to the history of demographic statistics . Georgi, Bonn 1898.
  7. ↑ Walther Holtzmann, foreword to: From early Rhenish and Franconian times . Selected essays on Wilhelm Levison, Düsseldorf 1948, p. 3.
  8. ^ Wilhelm Levison: On the history of the Frankish king Clovis . In: Bonner Jahrbücher. 103, 1898, pp. 42-86.
  9. ↑ The letter of recommendation is printed by: Rudolf Schieffer: Wilhelm Levison and the Monumenta Germaniae Historica . In: Matthias Becher and Yitzhak Hen (eds.): Wilhelm Levison (1876–1947). A Jewish research life between academic recognition and political exile . Siegburg 2010, pp. 199–210, here: p. 201.
  10. ↑ Letha Böhringer: "... I believe I have helped the German cause several times through writing and deed". Wilhelm Levison as a political personality. In: Matthias Becher and Yitzhak Hen (eds.): Wilhelm Levison (1876–1947). A Jewish research life between academic recognition and political exile . Siegburg 2010, pp. 251-317, here: p. 280
  11. ^ Wilhelm Levison: Bishop Germanus of Auxerre and the sources for his story . In: New archive of the Society for Older German History . 29, 1904, ISSN  0179-9940 , pp. 95-175.
  12. ^ Paul Egon Huebinger: Wilhelm Levison . In: Bonn scholars. Contributions to the history of science in Bonn , Volume 5: History (150 Years of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Bonn 1818–1968, Volume 2.5), Bonn 1968, pp. 311–331, here: p. 312.
  13. ↑ Letha Böhringer: "... I believe I have helped the German cause several times through writing and deed". Wilhelm Levison as a political personality . In: Matthias Becher and Yitzhak Hen (eds.): Wilhelm Levison (1876–1947). A Jewish research life between academic recognition and political exile. Siegburg 2010, pp. 251–317, here: p. 267. Text of the declaration by the professors of the German Reich (PDF; 2.5 MB), accessed on November 16, 2010.
  14. ↑ Letha Böhringer: "... I believe I have helped the German cause several times through writing and deed". Wilhelm Levison as a political personality . In: Matthias Becher and Yitzhak Hen (eds.): Wilhelm Levison (1876–1947). A Jewish research life between academic recognition and political exile. Siegburg 2010, pp. 251–317, here: p. 270.
  15. ↑ Letha Böhringer: "... I believe I have helped the German cause several times through writing and deed". Wilhelm Levison as a political personality . In: Matthias Becher and Yitzhak Hen (eds.): Wilhelm Levison (1876–1947). A Jewish research life between academic recognition and political exile. Siegburg 2010, pp. 251-317, here: p. 279.
  16. ↑ Rudolf Schieffer: The Medievalist Wilhelm Levison (1876-1947) . In: Kurt Düwell et al. (Ed.): Expulsion of Jewish artists and scientists from Düsseldorf 1933–1945 . Düsseldorf 1998, pp. 165–175, here: p. 167.
  17. ↑ Letha Böhringer: "... I believe I have helped the German cause several times through writing and deed". Wilhelm Levison as a political personality . In: Matthias Becher and Yitzhak Hen (eds.): Wilhelm Levison (1876–1947). A Jewish research life between academic recognition and political exile. Siegburg 2010, pp. 251-317, here: p. 258.
  18. ↑ Theodor Schieffer: Commemorative speech by Professor Dr. Theodor Schieffer, Cologne . In: Theodor Schieffer, Horst Fuhrmann (eds.): In Memoriam Wilhelm Levison (1876–1947). Speeches and greetings at the university's 100th birthday commemoration on May 31, 1976 . Cologne / Bonn 1977, pp. 7–39, here: p. 19.
  19. ↑ The dissertations that emerged from his school are listed in full in: Wilhelm Levison: From Rhenish and Frankish early days . Selected essays. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1948, p. 638ff.
  20. ↑ Letha Böhringer: "... I believe I have helped the German cause several times through writing and deed". Wilhelm Levison as a political personality . In: Matthias Becher and Yitzhak Hen (eds.): Wilhelm Levison (1876–1947). A Jewish research life between academic recognition and political exile. Siegburg 2010, pp. 251-317, here: p. 262.
  21. ↑ Letha Böhringer: "... I believe I have helped the German cause several times through writing and deed". Wilhelm Levison as a political personality . In: Matthias Becher and Yitzhak Hen (eds.): Wilhelm Levison (1876–1947). A Jewish research life between academic recognition and political exile. Siegburg 2010, pp. 251-317, here: p. 263.
  22. ^ Hans-Paul Höpfner: The University of Bonn in the Third Reich. Academic biographies under National Socialist rule. Bonn 1999, p. 65.
  23. ↑ Letha Böhringer: "... I believe I have helped the German cause several times through writing and deed". Wilhelm Levison as a political personality . In: Matthias Becher and Yitzhak Hen (eds.): Wilhelm Levison (1876–1947). A Jewish research life between academic recognition and political exile. Siegburg 2010, pp. 251-317, here: p. 253.
  24. ↑ Report by Obersturmfuehrer H. Löffler, consultant in the SS-Ahnenerbe, on the "incursion of Judaism into the science of history", especially with the Monumenta (1939). Printed in: Horst Fuhrmann: They were all human beings, scholars in the 19th and 20th centuries. Shown using the example of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica and its staff. Munich 1996, p. 162f.
  25. ↑ Theodor Schieffer: Commemorative speech by Professor Dr. Theodor Schieffer, Cologne . In: Theodor Schieffer, Horst Fuhrmann (eds.): In Memoriam Wilhelm Levison (1876–1947). Speeches and greetings at the university's 100th birthday commemoration on May 31, 1976 . Cologne / Bonn 1977, pp. 7–39, here: p. 29.
  26. ↑ Quoted from: Hans-Paul Höpfner, The University of Bonn in the Third Reich. Academic biographies under National Socialist rule . Bonn 1999, p. 22.
  27. ^ Paul Egon Huebinger: Wilhelm Levison . In: Bonn scholars. Contributions to the history of science in Bonn , Volume 5: History (150 Years of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Bonn 1818–1968, Volume 2.5), Bonn 1968, pp. 311–331, here: p. 325.
  28. ↑ Theodor Schieffer: Commemorative speech by Professor Dr. Theodor Schieffer, Cologne . In: Theodor Schieffer, Horst Fuhrmann (eds.): In Memoriam Wilhelm Levison (1876–1947). Speeches and greetings at the university's 100th birthday commemoration on May 31, 1976 . Cologne / Bonn 1977, pp. 7–39, here: p. 32.
  29. ↑ Letha Böhringer: "... I believe I have helped the German cause several times through writing and deed". Wilhelm Levison as a political personality . In: Matthias Becher and Yitzhak Hen (eds.): Wilhelm Levison (1876–1947). A Jewish research life between academic recognition and political exile. Siegburg 2010, pp. 251-317, here: p. 293.
  30. ↑ Cf. the obituary by: Theodor Schieffer: Walther Holtzmann . In: German Archive for Research into the Middle Ages , Volume 20, 1964, pp. 301–324, here: p. 307 ( online ).
  31. ^ Wilhelm Levison: Medieval Church dedications in England . In: Transactions of the Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland , Volume 10, 1946, ZDB -ID 761467-6 , pp. 60-75.
  32. ^ Theo Kölzer: Wilhelm Levison as a diplomat . In: Matthias Becher and Yitzhak Hen (eds.): Wilhelm Levison (1876–1947). A Jewish research life between academic recognition and political exile. Siegburg 2010, pp. 211–223, here: p. 222.
  33. ^ Paul Egon Huebinger: Wilhelm Levison . In: Bonn scholars. Contributions to the history of science in Bonn , Volume 5: History (150 Years of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Bonn 1818–1968, Volume 2.5), Bonn 1968, pp. 311–331, here: p. 322.
  34. ^ Horst Fuhrmann: Wilhelm Levison and the Monumenta Germaniae Historica . In: In Memoriam Wilhelm Levison (1876–1947). Speeches and greetings at the university's 100th birthday commemoration on May 31, 1976 . Cologne / Bonn 1977, pp. 40–50, here: p. 45.
  35. ^ Paul Egon Huebinger: Wilhelm Levison . In: Bonn scholars. Contributions to the history of science in Bonn , Volume 5: History (150 Years of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Bonn 1818–1968, Volume 2.5), Bonn 1968, pp. 311–331, here: p. 322.
  36. ^ Matthias Becher, Introduction. In: Matthias Becher and Yitzhak Hen (eds.): Wilhelm Levison (1876–1947). A Jewish research life between academic recognition and political exile . Siegburg 2010, pp. 251–317, here: pp. 9–15, here: p. 11.
  37. ↑ This can be seen, for example, in the frequent references to Levison in Johannes Fried, Wolfram Brandes: Donation of Constantine and Constitutum Constantini , Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2007.
  38. ^ Wilhelm Levison: The will of the deacon Adalgisel-Grimo from the year 634 . In: Trier magazine for the history and art of the Trier region and its neighboring areas , Volume 7, 1932, pp. 69–85.
  39. ^ Horst Fuhrmann: Wilhelm Levison and the Monumenta Germaniae Historica . In: In Memoriam Wilhelm Levison (1876–1947). Speeches and greetings at the university's 100th birthday commemoration on May 31, 1976 . Cologne / Bonn 1977, pp. 40–50, here: p. 44.
  40. ^ Wilhelm Levison, Metz and southern France in the early Middle Ages. The document of King Sigibert III. for the Cologne and Metzer Church , in: Yearbook of the Alsace-Lorraine Scientific Society of Strasbourg , Volume 11, 1938, pp. 92-122.
  41. ^ Theo Kölzer: Wilhelm Levison as a diplomat . In: Matthias Becher and Yitzhak Hen (eds.): Wilhelm Levison (1876–1947). A Jewish research life between academic recognition and political exile . Siegburg 2010, pp. 211–223, here: p. 219.
  42. ^ Klaus Herbers: Hagiography. Evaluation options since Wilhelm Levison . In: Matthias Becher and Yitzhak Hen (eds.): Wilhelm Levison (1876–1947). A Jewish research life between academic recognition and political exile . Siegburg 2010, pp. 17–32, here: pp. 21f.
  43. ^ Wilhelm Levison: The development of the legend Severin of Cologne. In: Bonner Jahrbücher . Volume 118, 1909, pp. 34-53.
  44. ↑ Wilhelm Levison: The becoming of the Ursula legend. In: Bonner Jahrbücher . Volume 132, 1927, pp. 1-164.
  45. ^ Wilhelm Levison: The Bonn documents of the early Middle Ages. In: Bonner Jahrbücher . Volume 136/137, 1932, pp. 217-270.
  46. ^ Wilhelm Levison: The meaning of the Rhenish millennium. In: Alsace-Lorraine Yearbook . Volume 4, 1925, pp. 1-34.
  47. ↑ Manfred Groten: Wilhelm Levison and the history of the Rhine . In: Matthias Becher and Yitzhak Hen (eds.): Wilhelm Levison (1876–1947). A Jewish research life between academic recognition and political exile. Siegburg 2010, pp. 225–239, here: p. 236.
  48. ^ Paul Egon Huebinger: Wilhelm Levison . In: Bonn scholars. Contributions to the history of the sciences in Bonn , Volume 5: Historical sciences . (150 Years of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Bonn 1818–1968, Volume 2.5), Bonn 1968, pp. 311–331, here: p. 319.
  49. ^ Wilhelm Levison: The Irish and the Frankish Church . In: Historische Zeitschrift 109, 1912, pp. 1–22; also in: Ders .: From Rhenish and Franconian modern times. Selected essays by Wilhelm Levison . Düsseldorf 1948, pp. 247-263.
  50. ^ Wilhelm Levison: Bede as Historian , in: Alexander Hamilton Thompson (Ed.), Bede. His Life, Times and Writings. Essays in Commemoration of the Twelfth Centenary of his Death. Oxford 1935, pp. 111-151.
  51. ↑ Alheydis Plassmann: Beda Venerabilis - "Verax historicus". Bedas Vera lex historiae. In: Matthias Becher and Yitzhak Hen (eds.): Wilhelm Levison (1876–1947). A Jewish research life between academic recognition and political exile . Siegburg 2010, pp. 123–143, here: p. 124.
  52. ^ Wilhelm Levison: England and the Continent in the Eight Century . Oxford 1946.
  53. ^ Paul Egon Huebinger: Wilhelm Levison . In: Bonn scholars. Contributions to the history of the sciences in Bonn , Volume 5: Historical sciences . (150 Years of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Bonn 1818–1968, Volume 2.5), Bonn 1968, pp. 311–331, here: p. 329.
  54. ^ Wilhelm Levison: From Rhenish and Franconian early times . Selected essays. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1948.
  55. ^ Wilhelm Levison: The "Annales Lindisfarnenses et Dunelmenses" critically examined and reissued by Wilhelm Levison † In: German Archive for Research of the Middle Ages 17, 1961, pp. 447-506 ( online ).
  56. ↑ List of bequests in the archive of the University of Bonn
  57. ↑ Letha Böhringer: "... I believe I have helped the German cause several times through writing and deed". Wilhelm Levison as a political personality . In: Matthias Becher and Yitzhak Hen (eds.): Wilhelm Levison (1876–1947). A Jewish research life between academic recognition and political exile . Siegburg 2010, pp. 251-317, here: p. 255.
  58. ^ Paul Egon Huebinger: Wilhelm Levison . In: Bonn scholars. Contributions to the history of the sciences in Bonn , Volume 5: Historical sciences . (150 Years of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Bonn 1818–1968, Volume 2.5), Bonn 1968, pp. 311–331.
  59. ^ Wilhelm-Levison-Strasse in the Bonn street cadastre
  60. ^ Matthias Becher, Yitzhak Hen (ed.): Wilhelm Levison (1876-1947). A Jewish research life between academic recognition and political exile. Siegburg 2010.
  61. ^ Wilhelm Levison Network. (No longer available online.) University of Manchester, archived from the original on November 5, 2016 ; Retrieved November 5, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.alc.manchester.ac.uk
This article was added to the list of excellent articles on December 29, 2010 in this version .
personal data
SURNAME Levison, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian
DATE OF BIRTH May 27, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Dusseldorf
DATE OF DEATH January 17, 1947
Place of death Durham