Felix Rachfahl

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Felix Carl Rachfahl (born April 9, 1867 in Schömberg ; † March 15, 1925 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) was a German historian who stood in the tradition of the political historiography of historicism . He was a Roman Catholic denomination.

Life

Rachfahl, who comes from a Silesian peasant and pastor family and whose father was a teacher, attended the grammar school in Glatz and the Matthias grammar school in Breslau . From 1886 he studied history, economics and law at the Universities of Breslau and Berlin . One of his important teachers was the economist Gustav Schmoller . In Breslau he became a member of the Old Breslau fraternity of the Raczeks . In 1890 he was at Jacob Caro at the University of Breslau Dr. phil. doctorate , with the dissertation The Stettiner succession dispute 1464–1472 . In 1893 , Rachfahl completed his habilitation at the University of Kiel with the work The Origin of the Brandenburg-Pomeranian Leanings Relationship for the subject of Middle History, which Friedrich Althoff had advised him to do .

In 1898 he received the call to a paid associate professor for middle and modern history, especially historical auxiliary sciences, at the University of Halle . In 1903 he moved to the University of Königsberg as a full professor , in 1907 to Giessen and in 1914 to the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg . There he officiated as rector in the academic year 1922/23 . From 1917 he was an extraordinary member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences . In 1908 he became a member of the Historical Commission for Hesse , in 1916 the Baden Historical Commission and the Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde . In 1916 he became an honorary member of the Society for Schleswig-Holstein History , and in 1921 of the Association for the History of Silesia . He is co-founder of the Society for Fraternity History Research .

Act

Rachfahl wrote political history and referred to Leopold von Ranke's individualistic approach , which is why he and Max Lenz are considered to be one of the main representatives of the Ranke renaissance . Today it is judged that his biography of Wilhelm von Oranien overestimates "the importance of the individual, but because of its unsurpassed detailed knowledge it is still a standard work". Although his doctorate and habilitation dealt with topics from the history of the Empire in the early modern period , he later mainly worked on Prussian history. His historiography takes sides with the Prussian claim to leadership in the German Reich, as his Rector's speech on the subject of Bismarck's English alliance policy makes clear.

Rachfahl took part in the methodological dispute in historical studies that began at the end of the 19th century , which developed in the conflict with the cultural-historical approach of Karl Lamprecht , which deviated from the history of politics, which was supposedly historically great .

Rachfahl is best known today because of the controversies with Ernst Troeltsch about his Protestantism and its significance for the modern world and with Max Weber about his Protestant ethics and the "spirit" of capitalism . It was about the importance of religious motives ( inner-worldly asceticism ; the concept of the " profession " as a calling) in connection with the emergence of modern capitalism and the bourgeois ethos. He also dealt critically with Werner Sombart .

Felix Rachfahl's membership in the old Breslau fraternity of the Raczeks was not without historiographical consequences. He wrote a story about this connection in 1917.

Works

  • The Stettin succession dispute (1464–1472). A contribution to the Brandenburg-Pomeranian history of the fifteenth century. Koebner, Breslau 1890 (developed from the dissertation, digitized in the Internet Archive).
  • The organization of the entire state administration of Silesia before the Thirty Years War (= political and social science research. Vol. 13). Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1894 ( digitized in the Internet Archive).
  • Margaretha von Parma, governor of the Netherlands (1559–1567) (= Historical Library. Vol. 5). Oldenbourg, Munich and Leipzig 1898 ( digitized in the Internet Archive.
  • Germany, King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. And the Berlin March Revolution. Niemeyer, Halle 1901 ( digitized in the Internet Archive).
  • Le registre de Franciscus Lixaldius, trésorier général de l'armée espagnole aux Pays-Bas, de 1567 à 1575. Kiessling, Brussels 1902 ( digitized in the Internet Archive).
  • Bismarck's English alliance policy. Theodor Fisher, Freiburg 1922 ( digitized in the Internet Archive).
  • William of Orange and the Dutch Uprising. Volume 1 , Hall 1906; Volume 2, 1st section , Haag 1907; Volume 2, 2nd section , hall 1908; Volume 3, Halle 1924 (digital copies partly from Google Book Search, not available outside the USA).

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Rector's speech on the website of the Munich Historical Commission.
  2. ^ Members of the HAdW since it was founded in 1909. Felix Rachfahl. Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, accessed June 14, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Dirk Maczkiewicz: The Dutch uprising against Spain (1568-1609). A communication science analysis. Münster 2007, p. 17 .
  4. ↑ See the entry ( memento of October 18, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) in the Catalogus Professorum Halensis and Rachfahl's book Kaiser und Reich, 1888–1913. 25 years of Prussian-German history. Berlin 1913 (digitized version) .
  5. ^ Christian Mehr: Culture as natural history. Opposition or complementarity to political historiography 1850–1890? Akademie, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-05-004693-8 , pp. 102-105 . Rachfahl's considerations can be found in: On the theory of a “collectivist” history. In: Yearbooks for Economics and Statistics. Vol. 68, 1897, pp. 659-689 (digitized version ) .
  6. ↑ The starting point was the following review: Felix Rachfahl: Kalvinismus und Kapitalismus. In: Internationale Wochenschrift für Wissenschaft, Kunst und Technik 3 (1909), Sp. 1217–1238, 1249–1268, 1287–1300, 1319–1334, 1347–1366. Max Weber's answer: Anti-critical to the “spirit” of capitalism (1910). In: ders .: Protestant ethics and the spirit of capitalism. Complete edition. Edited and introduced by Dirk Kaesler . 2nd, reviewed edition, Munich 2004, pp. 343–374, here p. 354 : “In truth, unfortunately, Rachfahl does not have a point of view of his own that one could grapple with . You chew on sand with him. "
  7. ↑ Wolfgang Schluchter : Action, Order and Culture. Studies on a research program following Max Weber. Tübingen 2005, p. 81 ; JIH Bakker: The Weber-Rachfahl Debate. (PDF; 400 kB) Calvinism and Capitalism in Holland? In: Michigan Sociological Review. Vol. 17, 2003, pp. 119-148; David J. Chalcraft: Reading Weber's Patterns of Response to Critics of The Protestant Ethic. Some 'Affinities' in and between Replies to Felix Rachfahl and Werner Sombart. In: Journal of Classical Sociology. Vol. 5, 2005, No. 1, pp. 31-51.
  8. ↑ Horst Grimm / Leo Besser-Walzel: The corporations. Frankfurt am Main 1986, p. 349.
personal data
SURNAME Revengeful, Felix
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rachfahl, Felix Carl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian
DATE OF BIRTH April 9, 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH Schömberg, today Chełmsko Śląskie
DATE OF DEATH March 15, 1925
Place of death Freiburg in Breisgau