Berthold Altaner

Berthold Altaner (born September 10, 1885 in Sankt Annaberg , Upper Silesia , † January 30, 1964 in Bad Kissingen , Lower Franconia ) was a German Catholic theologian , church historian and patrologist .

Life

Berthold Altaner was the son of the merchant Ignaz Altaner (1843-1922) and Anna Glinski († 1923). He studied in Wroclaw , where he received his doctorate in 1911 . His dissertation was entitled Venturino von Bergamo (1304-1346); a biography, at the same time a contribution to the history of the Dominican order in the 14th century . In 1919 he received his habilitation for medium and modern church history in Wroclaw . There he was appointed associate professor in 1925 and then full professor for ancient church history on October 1, 1929 .

In 1925 the Herder publishing house made him the offer to reissue the student textbook Grundriß der Patrologie , written by Gerhard Rauschen and most recently edited by Joseph Wittig . Altaner accepted and published its revised version in 1931. In 1938 it appeared under the title Patrology. The life, writings and teachings of the church fathers, the work on patrology that was subsequently associated with his name and which he transferred to the church historian Alfred Stuiber (1912–1981) in 1959 .

Due to its proximity to the peace movement Altaner was after the seizure of power of the Nazis forced into retirement in 1933, and thus dismissed from the civil service. Altaner had to flee Breslau on February 2, 1945.

On August 1, 1946, he was appointed full professor of patrology and liturgy at the chair for church history at the Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg , where he also headed the patristic seminar of the theological faculty. A call to the University of Salzburg , which on the initiative of Pope Pius XII. went back, Altaner refused. As dean of the theological faculty, he was a member of the Academic Senate of the University of Würzburg in 1948. On September 30, 1950, he was in Würzburg emeritus .

Fonts (selection)

• Venturino of Bergamo (1304-1346); a biography, at the same time a contribution to the history of the Dominican order in the 14th century (= ecclesiastical treatises. Volume 9, Issue 2). Nischkowsky, Breslau 1911.
• St. Dominikus: Investigations and texts (= Breslau studies on historical theology. Volume 2). Aderholz, Breslau 1922.
• The Dominican missions of the 13th century: Research on the history of the ecclesiastical unions and the Mohammedan and pagan missions of the Middle Ages (= Breslau studies on historical theology. Volume 3). Franke, Habelschwerdt 1924.
• Patrology. Life, Writings, and Teaching of the Church Fathers. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1938.

literature

• Theobald Freudenberger: Berthold Altaner. In: Historical yearbook . Volume 84, 1964, pp. 251-255.
• Peter H. Görg:  Altaner, Berthold. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 27, Bautz, Nordhausen 2007, ISBN 978-3-88309-393-2 , Sp. 11-39.
• Stefan Heid : Berthold Altaner. In: Stefan Heid, Martin Dennert (Hrsg.): Personal Lexicon for Christian Archeology. Researchers and personalities from the 16th to the 21st century . Volume 1. Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-7954-2620-0 , p. 71 f.
• Joachim Köhler : Professor Dr. Berthold Altaner and his involvement in the Catholic peace movement. Sources on removal from academic teaching. In: Archives for Silesian Church History. Volume 45, 1987, pp. 205-220.
• Günter J. Ziebertz: Berthold Altaner (1885–1964). Life and work of Silesian church historian (= research and sources for church and cultural history of East Germany . Volume 29). Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-412-11696-3 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Berthold Altaner in the catalog of the German National Library
• Literature list in the online catalog of the Berlin State Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg: Lecture directory for the summer semester of 1948. Universitätsdruckerei H. Stürtz, Würzburg 1948, pp. 6-8 and 16.