Bernhard Töpfer

Bernhard Töpfer (born May 31, 1926 in Niesky ; † July 20, 2012 in Berlin ) was a German historian .

After brief participation in the war and imprisonment in Russia, Bernhard Töpfer passed his Abitur in 1947 and studied history and German at the Humboldt University of Berlin (HU) from 1947 to 1952 . Fritz Rörig was his academic teacher in Berlin . In 1954 he received his doctorate there with the work on People and Church , supervised by Heinrich Sproemberg , at the time of the beginning God's peace movement in France . He worked from 1952 to 1961 as a research assistant and senior assistant at the Humboldt University and has 1960 with a thesis on "The Future hopes" habilitation . In 1961 he became a lecturer in general history of the Middle Ages, in 1966 a professor with a teaching position and from 1969 until his retirement in 1991 he taught at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Hartmut Boockmann was his successor .

tomb

His main areas of work were the God's Peace Movement , the Hussite period , French history and the future expectations of the high Middle Ages.

He is buried in cemetery IV of the St. Hedwigsgemeinde and cemetery of the St. Piusgemeinde in Berlin-Alt-Hohenschönhausen.

Fonts (selection)

Monographs

• The original state and the fall of man in medieval social and state theory (= monographs on the history of the Middle Ages. Vol. 45). Hiersemann, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-7772-9919-7 .
• with Evamaria Engel : From the Hohenstaufen empire to the kingship of power. German history from the Worms Concordat in 1122 to the double election of 1314.Böhlaus successor, Weimar 1976.
• with Heinz Köller: France. A historical outline. 2 volumes (Vol. 1: From the beginnings to the death of Heinrich IV. Vol. 2: From Ludwig XIII. To the present. ). VEB Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1969 (4th, revised and supplemented edition. Ibid 1980; also: licensed edition. (= Kleine Bibliothek. Vol. 145). Pahl-Rugenstein, Cologne 1978, ISBN 3-7609-0407-6 ) .
• The coming kingdom of peace. For the development of chiliastic future hopes in the High Middle Ages (= research on medieval history. Vol. 11, ISSN  0071-7673 ). Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1964 (At the same time: Berlin, Humboldt University, habilitation paper, December 21, 1960: The development of chiliastic future expectations in the High Middle Ages. ).
• People and Church at the time of the beginning God's Peace Movement in France (= New Contributions to Historical Science . No. 1, ZDB -ID 527203-8 ). Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1957 (also: Berlin, Humboldt University, dissertation, from September 22, 1954).

Editorships

• with Manfred Kossok : General history of the Middle Ages. VEB Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1985 (2nd, revised edition. Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-326-00147-9 ).
• Cities and corporate state. On the role of cities in the development of the Estates constitution in European countries from the 13th to the 15th century (= research on medieval history. Vol. 26). Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1980.

literature

• Bernhard Töpfer 60 years. In: Journal of History . 34, 1986, pp. 444-445.
• The evaluation of the secular state order by the reformers of the late Middle Ages and early modern times. Ceremonial lectures on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the doctorate in philosophy ( Humboldt University Berlin. Public lectures. Issue 146). Humboldt University, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-86004-196-7 PDF , therein laudation by Hans K. Schulze .
• Lothar Mertens : Lexicon of the GDR historians. Biographies and bibliographies on the historians from the German Democratic Republic. Saur, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-598-11673-X , pp. 601-602.

Web links

• Lecture on the 50th anniversary of Bernhard Töpfer's doctorate (PDF; 862 kB)