Franz Xaver Seppelt

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Franz Xaver Seppelt (born January 13, 1883 in Breslau , Province of Silesia , † July 25, 1956 in Munich ) was a German and Roman Catholic church historian . He was best known for his publications on papal history.

Life and academic background

Seppelt grew up on Wroclaw Cathedral Island , where his father was the head of the cathedral school. In 1902 Seppelt obtained the Abitur at the Matthias Gymnasium in Breslau . He then studied at the theological faculty of the university in his hometown and, after receiving his ordination on June 23, 1906 , at the University of Munich , where he completed his studies.

In October 1907 he again received his doctorate in theology from the University of Breslau. His dissertation was entitled: The struggle of the mendicant orders at the University of Paris in the middle of the 13th century . Seppelt then worked as a chaplain in the St. Jakobus parish in Neisse, Silesia, for two years . This was followed by a one-year stay in the German college of priests in Rome , the Campo Santo Teutonico , where Seppelt worked on his habilitation thesis. On July 27, 1910, Seppelt completed his habilitation with studies for the pontificate of Coelestin V as a private lecturer in church history at the University of Breslau.

At the suggestion of Max Sdralek , Seppelt's academic teacher, he turned primarily to Silesian church history. He edited the files of the Breslau diocesan synod of 1442, wrote a study on the oldest Hedwig legends (1914) and the beginnings of the election surrenders of the Breslau bishops (1915). In 1915 Seppelt received a civil servant professorial position at the University of Breslau with a teaching position for middle and modern church history, patrology and the history of Christian art.

In 1920 he became a full professor of church history in the Middle Ages and modern times as well as Silesian church history at the same university. In 1925 Seppelt was appointed a member of the Wroclaw Cathedral Chapter . In this position he received significant influence on the diocesan administration, in particular the structural preservation of the Wroclaw Cathedral . He was largely responsible for the restoration of the interior of the cathedral carried out in 1934.

Seppelt was also active in local and regional politics until the National Socialists came to power in 1933. Since 1919 he was a member of the Wroclaw City Council for the Center Party , and in 1925 he was elected chairman of his party. Since 1929 he was also a member of the Silesian Provincial Parliament. Here, too, he represented his party as group leader. Since he openly rejected National Socialism, his political activity ended in 1933 when the National Socialists came to power . He resigned the chairmanship of the Historical Commission for Silesia , of which he was a founding member, in autumn 1933. In 1944 he was briefly arrested.

Seppelt's academic teaching activities in Breslau ended in January 1945 when the Soviet troops marched into Silesia. After he had spent the end of the war in Briesnitz , he first returned to his hometown. In February 1946, Seppelt was severely ill-treated by Polish militiamen. A short time later he was expelled from Silesia and had to leave his hometown on April 25, 1946.

At the University of Munich, where Seppelt was once a member of the church history seminar, he was appointed to the chair for church history in 1946, where he worked until his retirement on April 1, 1952. During this time he edited some smaller writings (for example, The Diocese of Wroclaw through the centuries ) and gave lectures on topics from Silesian history. Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI. , was one of his listeners in Munich.

The history of the Popes

In addition to the history of the Church in Silesia, the history of the Pope was Seppelt's main field of activity. As early as 1921, Seppelt had written a short papal history from the beginnings to the French Revolution in two smaller volumes, which later appeared in the Kösel Collection , including a sequel by Klemens Löffler , and a large one as an illustrated papal history from the beginnings to the present Became popular with the public. In 1964 this volume was re-edited by Georg Schwaiger .

Seppelt achieved scientific importance above all through the history of the papacy , which was laid out in six volumes and first published by Jakob Hegner in Leipzig, and later by Kösel in Munich. The first volume, The Rise of the Papacy , was published in 1931 and dealt with the history of the Pope until Gregory the Great took office . The second volume, covering the period up to the middle of the 11th century, was published in 1934.

Volumes IV and V were then published. The third volume could not be completed until immediately before Seppelt's death in July 1956. A publication of this volume, which primarily dealt with the dispute between the papacy and secular power in the High Middle Ages, would not have been possible between 1933 and 1945, as the content did not correspond to the ideology of the National Socialist rulers.

After Seppelt's death, his pupil Georg Schwaiger re-edited volumes IV and V. A planned sixth volume, which was supposed to deal with the latest papal history after the French Revolution , has never appeared. Seppelt's papal story has found great recognition in the professional world. Hubert Jedin judged Seppelt's work:

“Its great advantage over other works remains that it reproduces the current state of research in a relatively detailed and reliable manner, without denying its own point of view. It avoids idiosyncratic special views and polemical hussar rides, which are not infrequently encountered in Haller's papacy, and it does not go as far into the details as the papal story of Ludwig v. Pastor."

- Hubert Jedin : On the 70th birthday of Franz Xaver Seppelt

Georg Schwaiger judged:

“[...] he turned to papal history from 1921 and became a sovereign master in it over three decades. In tacit correction and addition to Erich Caspar , J. Haller and L. v. Pastor , he created his life's work critically and moderately conservatively. "

- Georg Schwaiger : LThK

1943 Seppelt was not least in recognition of his papal history the title of the Pontifical House prelates .

Honors

Fonts (selection)

  • The struggle of the mendicant orders at the University of Paris in the middle of the 13th century (Diss. 1907).
  • The Breslau Diocesan Synod of 1442 , Breslau 1912.
  • History of the Diocese of Wroclaw. Breslau 1929 (= Real Handbook of the Diocese of Breslau. Volume 1).
  • Papal history from the beginning to the present , 5th edition, Munich 1949, revised by Georg Schwaiger, 1964.
  • History of the Popes. Volume 1–2, 2nd edition, Munich 1954–1955; Volume 3, Munich 1956; Volumes 4–5, 2nd edition, Munich 1957–1959 (revised by Georg Schwaiger).

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ludwig Petry and Herbert Schlenger : Fifty Years Historical Commission for Silesia . In: Yearbook of the Schlesische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Breslau , Volume 17, 1972, p. 388.
  2. ↑ Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger: From my life. Memories (1927–1977) . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-421-05123-2 .
  3. ↑ Hubert Jedin: On the 70th birthday of Franz Xaver Seppelt . In: Church of Faith. Church of History . Selected essays and lectures. tape 1 . Freiburg / Br. 1966, p. 104 .
  4. ↑ Schwaiger, LThK, 3rd ed., Vol. 9, Col. 474

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Seppelt, Franz Xaver
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German church historian
DATE OF BIRTH January 13, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw
DATE OF DEATH July 25, 1956
Place of death Munich