Erich von Lehe

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Erich Theodor von Lehe (born June 13, 1894 in Padingbüttel , † April 23, 1983 in Hamburg ) was a German archivist and historian .

His family originally came from the town of Lehe in the Bremen countryside. Erich von Lehe passed his Abitur in Bremerhaven in 1914 and in the same year began to study history, religion, German language and literature in Heidelberg. During the First World War he was wounded as an infantryman in a campaign against Serbia . In the following war years he fought mainly on the Western Front . After the war in 1919 he continued to study history and German in Jena, then in Munich and finally in Göttingen. During his studies he became a member of the Association of German Students in Göttingen . In 1923 he passed the examination for teaching at secondary schools in Göttingen. Since the beginning of his studies, von Lehe was in the ethnic-anti-Semitic "Kyffhäuser Association of German Student Associations", where he had contact with the racial hygienist Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer , who was almost the same age . There was a lifelong friendship with Verschuer. In 1925 he received his doctorate in Göttingen under Karl Brandi with the thesis Borders and Offices in the Duchy of Bremen . After his studies, he began an archivist training at the Secret State Archives in Berlin-Dahlem. There he passed the state examination for higher archival service in 1927. In the same year he became a research assistant at the Hamburg State Archives . In 1933 he was appointed archivist. Before 1945 he openly practiced and propagated anti-Semitism , racism and anti-democracy , without, however, as a scientist violating the rules of historical source criticism. In 1937 he became a member of the NSDAP . As an archivist, he took care of the indexing of church registers in order to facilitate the “proof of descent” for the “national comrades”.

During the Second World War , Lehe was involved as a soldier in the Blitzkrieg against France and in 1941 was assigned to the German-Soviet War as a commander. At the end of 1942 he returned to Germany sick. After the end of the war, von Lehe soon reported back to work at the Hamburg State Archives, but was suspended by the British military government . Von Lehe had to fight for his reinstatement for over two years until he was classified as "unencumbered" by an appeals court. In 1951 he was promoted to senior archivist and at the same time took over the business of director from Kurt Detlev Möller , who in 1948 in connection with the political disputes over his book The Last Chapter. History of the capitulation of Hamburg. He was on leave from the Hamburg catastrophe in 1943 until the city was handed over on May 3, 1945 , and was completely dismissed from civil service in 1949. It was not until 1955 that Kurt Detlev Möller was given back all directorial privileges. When Möller died in 1957, Lehe could no longer be appointed director for reasons of age. Therefore, Lehe continued the official business until 1960 without the title of director. For his 65th birthday in 1959 the Association for Hamburg History awarded him the Lappenberg Medal in silver, for his 75th birthday the association dedicated a commemorative publication to him, and for his 80th birthday, von Lehe was made an honorary member.

As a historian, von Lehe devoted himself particularly to the history of the land of Wursten between the Niederelbe and Unterweser as well as the history of Hamburg. His research results on the Land of Wursten culminated in the overall history of the Land of Wursten in 1973 . From 1936 to 1973 he was chairman of the editorial committee of the Jahrbuch der Männer vom Morgenstern , the first 25 years of which as chairman and editor. Under his editorship, the Heimatbund announced anonymously in February 1937: "The country of Wursten can boast that it has been without Jews for half a century". The topics of his contributions, which von Lehe published in the Jahrbuch der Männer vom Morgenstern, ranged from legal security on and on the Lower Elbe in the Middle Ages to the postal connections between Ritzebüttel and Hamburg. From 1938 to 1961 he was a member of the board of the Hanseatic History Association . In 1937 he was appointed to the board of the Association for Hamburg History, of which he was a member from 1937 to 1972. During the Nazi era, he pushed for the exclusion of Jewish members. From 1958 to 1972 he was the association's second chairman. In 1963 he received the Hermann Allmers Prize in Bremerhaven .

Fonts

Monographs

  • History of the country sausages. Publishing house Heimatbund der Männer vom Morgenstern, Bremerhaven 1973.
  • The markets of Hamburg from the beginnings to the modern age (1911) (= quarterly journal for social and economic history. Vol. 50). Steiner, Wiesbaden 1966.
  • Home chronicle of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. (= Home chronicles of the cities and districts of the federal territory. Vol. 20). Archive for German Homeland Care, Cologne 1958.
  • The Hamburg debt register from 1288 (= publications from the State Archives of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. Vol. 4). Christians, Hamburg 1956.
  • Borders and offices in the Duchy of Bremen (= studies and preparatory work for the Historical Atlas of Lower Saxony. Vol. 8). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1926 (at the same time: Göttingen, university, dissertation, 1926).

Editorships

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Louis Lange (Ed.): Kyffhäuser Association of German Student Associations. Address book 1931. Berlin 1931, p. 131.
  2. ↑ Manfred Asendorf: Lehe, Erich von. In: Hamburgische Biografie , Vol. 4, ed. by Franklin Kopitzsch and Dirk Brietzke , Göttingen 2008, pp. 211–212, here: p. 211.
personal data
SURNAME Lehe, Erich von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lehe, Erich Theodor von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German archivist and historian
DATE OF BIRTH June 13, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Padingbüttel
DATE OF DEATH April 23, 1983
Place of death Hamburg