Albert of Ruville

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Albert of Ruville

Albert von Ruville (born June 7, 1855 in Potsdam , † June 5, 1934 in Halle ) was a Prussian officer and historian who converted to the Catholic Church .

origin

He came from an aristocratic family who came from France and were initially of the Catholic faith. His father, who later became the Prussian Major General Amand von Ruville (1816-1884), was baptized a Catholic but raised a Protestant. The mother Luise, née Countess zu Lynar (1830-1859), died very early. The parents married on July 26, 1852 at Lübbenau Castle . André de Ruville (1584–1640), one of his ancestors, worked as the historiographer of the French king. The Prussian landlord Hermann Maximilian zu Lynar (1825–1914) was his uncle (his mother's brother).

Life

Ruville also embarked on a military career, became an officer candidate in an artillery regiment , attended the Anklam War School and was promoted to secondary lieutenant. He traveled u. a. for study purposes in the USA and Mexico. On October 1, 1883, he married Augusta Brems from Leipzig, with whom he had five children.

In 1888 he took over as first lieutenant in his resignation and began in Berlin to study history and economics. In 1892 he received his doctorate there with a treatise on the dissolution of the Anglo-Prussian alliance in 1862. Ruville completed his habilitation in Halle in 1896 with the thesis "The imperial politics at the Regensburg Reichstag of 1653/54". From 1905 he worked as a titular professor at the University of Halle .

During the First World War , Ruville volunteered as the commander of an ammunition column. After the end of the war he worked again at the University of Halle, where he was appointed associate professor in 1921. Having fallen into poverty due to inflation, the scientist was dependent on financial support from 1924, despite his officer's and professors' pensions, and also rented rooms to students.

The historian died on June 5, 1934, according to the obituary, "well prepared to receive the Holy Sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church" . At the funeral service, on June 9th, the medievalist Walther Holtzmann laid a wreath on behalf of the faculty and paid tribute to Albert von Ruville's scientific life's work.

He wrote a large number of scientific works and also several religious writings.

convert

The confessional "Back to the Holy Church" published in 1910

What made Albert von Ruville known nationwide was his conversion from Protestantism to the Catholic Church on March 6, 1909, which is why he was repeatedly exposed to public hostility. He wrote a confessional book entitled “Back to the Holy Church - Experiences and Confessions of a Convertite” , which appeared in large numbers and was translated into eight languages. In 1911 he also made a well-known appearance as a speaker at the German Catholic Day in Mainz . Since Ruville's lectures were popular, the university management decided to dispense with Section 4 of the statutes of the time, which required the professors to confess Protestantism. Except for one daughter who later also converted, Ruville's entire family remained Protestant.

According to his own memoir, his interest in the Catholic Church began around 1900 and came to a positive conclusion in autumn 1908 with the book “The old and the new faith” by theology professor Georg Reinhold (1861–1951), which he had recently in Vienna had visited. According to Ruville's report, however, the Viennese Catholics were all reluctant and were in no way willing to encourage him to convert. When he returned to Halle he immersed himself in the book in question and then went his "very own way, without letting any news of it reach the outside world." Finally, from December 1908 to March 1909 he took regular lessons from a Catholic priest and then stepped over.

Fonts

  • Back to the holy church. Experiences and Confessions of a Convertite. Hemann Walther Publishing House, Berlin 1910.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gustav von Lehsten: The nobility of Mecklenburg since the land constitutional hereditary comparisons (1755). Rostock 1864, p. 225, (digital scan)
personal data
SURNAME Ruville, Albert of
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian officer, historian and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH June 7, 1855
PLACE OF BIRTH Potsdam
DATE OF DEATH June 5, 1934
Place of death Halle (Saale)