Eberhard Weis

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Eberhard Weis (born October 31, 1925 in Schmalkalden ; † June 17, 2013 ) was a German historian .

Live and act

Eberhard Weis, son of a grammar school teacher, grew up in Schmalkalden and moved to the Munich area in 1945. From 1946 he studied history, French and German at the University of Munich . In 1949 he completed a French language course for foreigners at the University of Dijon . Weis completed his studies in 1950 with the first state examination, but as a non-Bavarian was not admitted to the legal clerkship . Therefore, he turned entirely to the science of history and received his doctorate in 1952 under Franz Schnabel , to whose inner circle of students he belonged, with the work historiography and state conception in the French encyclopedia . He then took a course for foreigners at the French National Archives in Paris. From the summer of 1953 to 1956 Weis completed the Bavarian archives training, which he completed with the assessor exam. He entered the higher Bavarian archival service, worked from 1956 to 1960 in the Landshut State Archives and from 1960 to 1969 in the Secret State Archives in Munich. Since 1962 Weis has been working on a biographical study of Maximilian von Montgelas , whose estate he was the first historian to use. With this work supervised by Karl Bosl , which examined Montgela's career up to 1799, he completed his habilitation in Munich in 1969. In the same year he received a full professorship at the Free University of Berlin , but in 1970 he moved to the University of Münster , where he taught until 1974. From 1974 until his retirement in 1991, Weis held the chair for early modern history at the University of Munich as Fritz Wagner's successor . His academic students include Sylvia Krauss-Meyl , Walter Demel , Bernd Roeck and Reinhard Stauber .

Weis had been a full member of the historical commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences since 1974 , where he served as secretary from 1982 to 1987 and as president from 1987 to 1997. Since 1982 Weis was in the commission head of the sources department on the reforms in the states of the Rhine Confederation and since 2000 also head of the department The Protocols of the Bavarian State Council 1799-1817 . In 1979 he also became a full member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and the Commission for Bavarian State History . Weis was one of the first scholarship holders at the Historical College in 1981/82 . From 1973 to 1994 he was a member and from 1983 to 1993 chairman of the scientific advisory board of the German Historical Institute in Paris . In 2007 he received the Einhard Prize of the Einhard Foundation in Seligenstadt and in the same year the Culture Prize of the Bavarian State Foundation .

In university teaching, Weis represented European history from the late 15th to the middle of the 19th century. His own research focus was Europe in Upheaval 1750–1850 , whereby, based on his academic qualification theses , he worked on the French and German, especially the Bavarian history of this epoch. As early as 1978, with the volume The breakthrough of the bourgeoisie in the context of the Propylaea history of Europe, he presented the great synthesis of this period in which he focused on the France of the Revolution and Napoleon and followed its impact on Europe. In a large number of essays, the most important of which were collected in the volume Germany and France around 1800 , Weis dealt with French and German history comparatively. He paid particular attention to developments in the Confederation of the Rhine . Weis presented important research on the Illuminati order and the secularization of the Bavarian monasteries; He gave a major lecture to the Italian legal philosopher Cesare Beccaria . It was not until 1998, after his retirement and the end of his presidency in the Historical Commission, that Weis turned completely to reform minister Maximilian von Montgelas. His habilitation thesis, which was published in a revised form in 1971 as the first volume of a Montgelas biography, was followed by the second and final volume in 2005. The two-volume publication, Weis' main work, received a lot of attention from specialist circles and has won several awards.

Weis was one of the editors of the journals Historische Zeitschrift and Der Staat (1981-1993).

Eberhard Weis was married and had two sons. His grave is in the forest cemetery in Gauting .

Fonts (selection)

  • Historiography and conception of the state in the French encyclopedia. Steiner, Wiesbaden 1956.
  • France from 1661 to 1789 . In: Theodor Schieder / Fritz Wagner (ed.): Handbook of European history. Volume 4: Europe in the Age of Absolutism and the Enlightenment. Klett, Stuttgart 1968, pp. 164-303.
  • The breakthrough of the bourgeoisie (= Propylaea history of Europe. Volume 4 ). Propylaea Publishing House, Frankfurt am Main 1978.
  • Montgelas. First volume: Between Revolution and Reform 1759–1799. CH Beck, Munich 1971 (2nd edition 1988).
  • Bavaria and France in the time of the consulate and the first Empire (1799–1815) (= writings of the Historical College. Lectures . Vol. 4), Munich 1984 ( digitized version ).
  • (Editor) Reforms in Rheinbündischen Germany (= writings of the historical college. Colloquia . Vol. 4). Oldenbourg, Munich 1984, ISBN 978-3-486-51671-5 ( digitized version ).
  • Germany and France around 1800. Enlightenment, revolution, reform. CH Beck, Munich 1990 (collection of articles).
  • Hardenberg and Monteglas. Attempt to compare their personalities and their politics . In: Jahrbuch des Historischen Kollegs , 1997, pp. 3–20 ( digitized version ).
  • The establishment of the modern Bavarian state under King Max I (1799–1825). In: Alois Schmid (Ed.): Handbook of Bavarian History. Volume IV, 1. CH Beck, Munich 2003, pp. 3–126.
  • Montgelas. Second volume: The Architect of the Modern Bavarian State 1799–1838. CH Beck, Munich 2005.

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ According to Eberhard Weis: Montgelas. Second volume. Munich 2005, p. XIII; Anders (1992): Obituary of the Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences .
  2. ↑ Eberhard Weis: Montgelas. Second volume. Munich 2005, p. XIII.
  3. ↑ So the title of the Festgabe zu Weis' 70th birthday: Dieter Albrecht / Karl Otmar von Aretin / Winfried Schulze (eds.): Europa im Umbruch 1750-1850. Munich 1995.
  4. ↑ Weis presented his research in lectures at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences : Eberhard Weis: The secularization of the Bavarian monasteries 1802/03. New research on prehistory and results , Munich 1983 and Der Illuminatenorden (1776–1786). With special consideration of the questions of his social composition, his political goals and his continued existence after 1786 , Munich 1987.
  5. ^ Eberhard Weis: Cesare Beccaria (1738–1794). Milanese educator and instigator of criminal law reforms in Europe , Munich 1992.
personal data
SURNAME Weis, Eberhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian
DATE OF BIRTH October 31, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Schmalkalden
DATE OF DEATH June. 17.2013