Friedrich Thimme

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Friedrich Wilhelm Karl Thimme (born February 12, 1868 in Crimderode , † June 1938 near Berchtesgaden ) was a German historian and politically influential publicist.

Life

After graduating from high school in 1887, the son of a Protestant pastor studied history and political science in Göttingen . He had ten siblings, his brother Wilhelm became a pastor and university professor, and his sister Magdalene became a teacher. In 1892 Friedrich Thimme received his doctorate in Göttingen with a thesis on "The internal conditions of the Electorate of Hanover under the Franco-Westphalian rule", with which he also won a lavish prize from the Beneke Foundation. Nevertheless, failed in his attempt to Göttingen habilitation . After a career as a professor was closed to him, he did research as a private scholar on the Prussian history of the 19th century. From 1902 he was employed full-time at the Hanover City Library , in 1913 he was appointed head of the library of the Prussian mansion - probably through the mediation of his friend Friedrich Meinecke .

Caused a stir of - by his parents and his career to date - conservative- Protestant dominated Thimme in the First World War , when he, together with the union leader Carl Legien the anthology The workers in the New Germany edited. This book, half of which was written by bourgeois scholars and half by leading functionaries of the SPD and the Free Trade Unions , appeared in 1915 as a journalistic symbol for the “ national community ” during the war, which he repeatedly invoked in numerous articles. In contrast to many other bourgeois-conservative politicians and scholars, Thimme held on to this ideal of overall social harmony even after the war.

The Great Politics , Volume 12.2 (1922)

Like Meinecke, he went "from a monarchist of the heart to a republican of reason" and was close to the liberal parties in the Weimar Republic . In 1920 he became head of the library of the Reichstag , but he spent most of his working time working on the "German documents on the outbreak of war in 1914". Originally planned by the Reich government as a “White Book” to justify Germany in the war guilt issue, 40 volumes on the foreign policy of the pre-war period were published under the title “The Great Politics of the European Cabinets”, edited by Johannes Lepsius , Albrecht Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Thimmes.

His comments on these documents as well as his other journalistic activities showed Thimme as a proud and patriotic German. As with Gustav Stresemann , who was familiar with him , his nationalism remained free of chauvinism and racism. In 1926, Thimme accused Ernst Jünger that his “nationalism and anti-Semitism could end in the annihilation and extermination of the German 'Jewish race'.” In 1932, Thimme played a leading role in a call against Adolf Hitler for the election of Paul von Hindenburg ; after the " seizure of power " he resigned from the Hanoverian regional church in protest against the German Christians .

At the age of 70, Thimme did not return from a mountain hike on the Watzmann in 1938 . His body was found a few weeks later.

Friedrich Thimme's children are the German-American art historian and archaeologist Diether Thimme (1910–1987), the archaeologist Jürgen Thimme (1917–2010) and the historian Annelise Thimme (1918–2005).

literature

Web links

Wikisource: The Great Politics of the European Cabinets 1871–1914  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Annelise Thimme: Once around the clock. The Stresemann controversy from 1927 to 1929 . In Hartmut Lehmann (Hrsg.): Historikerkontroversen (= Göttingen Discussion on History , Volume 10). Wallstein, Göttingen 2000, ISBN 3-89244-413-7 , p. 36.
personal data
SURNAME Thimme, Friedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thimme, Friedrich Wilhelm Karl (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian and publicist
DATE OF BIRTH February 12, 1868
PLACE OF BIRTH Crimderode
DATE OF DEATH June 1938
Place of death near Berchtesgaden