Christian Friedrich Maurer

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Christian Friedrich Maurer (born January 26, 1847 in Agnetheln in Transylvania , † November 26, 1902 in Landau in the Palatinate ) was a German historian , playwright and high school teacher.

Life and activity

Christian F. Maurer dealt with a wide range of historical topics in books and numerous articles. The focus of his historical work was the ancient world , military and war history as well as the history of Transylvania, where he came from. He presented extensive studies on all of these topics.

His main work on war history follows on from the British historian Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy (1812–1878). He had published the influential work "The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World" in 1851. It is about the decisive character that battles had for the course of human history. Christian F. Maurer wanted to write a "German Creasy", as he wrote in the foreword of his work "decisive battles in world history" (1882). In order to do justice to the German situation, in contrast to Creasy, in which battles of antiquity and the British Empire predominated, he chose those with relevance to German history . The book ends accordingly with the Battle of Sedan in 1870.

On the one hand, Masonic wars were considered terrible and to be avoided; on the other hand, however, in keeping with the zeitgeist of the time, he attributes a purifying power to epochs of political weakness and intellectual decadence.

In addition to his work as a historian, Maurer also worked as a playwright. He wrote the tragedies "Ulfilas" (1883), "Ganna" and "Harra" (1893)

When the city of Landau in the Palatinate planned the establishment of a girls 'school in 1873, which was supposed to set academic standards as well as artistic accents, the city councilor Christian Friedrich Maurer, who as a historian and playwright was able to meet both requirements, was the founding director of the “municipal higher girls' school “, Which later took on the name Max Slevogt Gymnasium . Maurer built up the school from 1874, managed it until 1892 and gave it a sustainable profile. His successor was Carl Friedrich Müller-Palleske .

Works (selection)

  • The occupation of Transylvania by the nations now inhabiting the country. A contribution to the Transylvania-Saxony question. Landau 1875
  • Decisive battles in world history. Leipzig 1882
  • History of the Hellenes in new and old representations. Leipzig 1884
  • The Franco-German War 1870/71. Kaiserslautern 1889

literature

  • Karl Kurt Klein: Saxonica Septemcastrensia. Research, speeches and essays from 4 decades on the history of the Germans in Transylvania. Marburg 1971, p. 369 ff

swell

  1. ↑ In the literature there is a lack of clarity about the life dates, which are also given as 1846–1892, for example in Wolfgang A. Mommsen: Directory of the written bequests in German archives and libraries. Boppard am Rhein 1981, p. 959. The information in this article follows Wilhelm Kosch : Deutsches Theater-Lexikon. Biographical and bibliographical manual. Zurich 1951, p. 1388, because he also knows the place of birth and death. "Kürschner's German Literature Calendar" from 1936 also gives the date of death in 1902 (p. 265)
  2. ^ Stig Förster, Markus Pöhlmann and Dierk Walter: Battles of world history. CH Beck Verlag, 2001, pp. 12-13
  3. ↑ Cf. Hans Barth , Carl Göller: Die Siebenbürger Sachsen in the years 1848-1918. 1988, p. 379 and Hans Giebisch among others: Small Austrian Literature Lexicon . 1948, p. 270
personal data
SURNAME Maurer, Christian Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian
DATE OF BIRTH January 26, 1847
PLACE OF BIRTH Agnetheln
DATE OF DEATH November 26, 1902
Place of death Landau in the Palatinate