Georg Sello

Georg Emil Ludwig Sello (born March 20, 1850 in Potsdam , † July 17, 1926 in Oldenburg ) was an archivist and historian .

Live and act

Origin and family

Sello was a son of the head gardener Emil Sello (1816-1893) in Potsdam and brother of Erich Sello .

The family originally came from the Nassau County of Dillenburg and came to Berlin in the first half of the 17th century, where they provided the court gardeners of the Prussian kings in Sanssouci in an uninterrupted row from 1736 and had a prominent position and good contacts at the court.

Education and early years

Sello grew up in Potsdam and attended high school here. From 1868 to 1873 he studied law , German , art history and historical auxiliary sciences in Berlin and Jena . In 1873 he was awarded a Dr. jur. PhD . In 1874 he became a member of the Association for the History of Potsdam , and later also of the Association for the History of the Mark Brandenburg . He initially worked as a trainee lawyer, but in 1877 he switched to the archive service. Prior to that, he had been doing historical research on the side and was commissioned by Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm in 1876 ​​to track down the graves of the Brandenburg margraves in the monastery church of Lehnin . This work reinforced his desire to give up his legal career and turn to historical research. In 1877 he took a leave of absence and did a trial service in the Wroclaw State Archives . In the following year he asked to be released from the judicial service and worked at the Secret State Archives in Berlin in 1878/79 . In 1880 he worked as archives secretary in the Koblenz State Archives , and from 1884 as archivist in the Magdeburg State Archives .

Activity in Oldenburg

On June 1, 1889 he was appointed archivist and took over the management of the “ducal house and central archives” in Oldenburg - after 1919 the Oldenburg Central Archives , today the Lower Saxony State Archives in Oldenburg  - from 1905 onwards with the title of Secret Archives Councilor.

Gravestone in the Gertrudenfriedhof

The call to Oldenburg was based on several publications on the history of Brandenburg , including about Potsdam and Sanssouci, the Harlunger Berg near Brandenburg, the city and monastery of Brandenburg, Perleberg legal antiques (his last Brandenburg work in 1903 dealt with Roland von Perleberg ), Roland columns, Lehnin, court system and aldermen right Berlin until the 15th century, the Neumärkische Jews privilege Margrave Louis the Elder of Brandenburg of 1344, the Chronica marchionum Brandenburgensium and Margrave Albrecht the bear . In the years 1886 to 1898 he published as a corresponding member six articles in the annual reports of the Altmark Association for Patriotic History and Industry in Salzwedel , among which Heinrici de Antwerpe, can. Brandenb., Tractatus de urbe Brandenburg (22nd annual report, volume I), Memorien im Stendaler Dom (22nd annual report, volume II) and Archbishop Dietrich Kagelwit von Magdeburg (23rd annual report, volume I) stand out.

In Oldenburg he dealt with the reorganization and reorganization of the archive according to a strict "origin principle", whereby his aim was to structure the archive based on the structure of the authorities and the state constitution of the Grand Duchy. Its greater significance, however, lies in the expansion of Oldenburg historiography and in its connection to the scientific and methodological level of historical research. For this purpose, the Oldenburg Regional Association for History, Natural History and Local History initiated its activities, which had previously concentrated almost exclusively on archaeological finds and monuments. For this activity, he published extensive works on the history of Oldenburg and its parts of the country. He has published almost 200 papers on the old duchy and its parts of the area as well as the neighboring areas, such as the Landwürden , the Saterland , Östringen and Rüstringen, etc. are recognized as flawless work and are cited. "Sello was distinguished by his critical mind, excellent knowledge of sources and sharp reviews." ( W. Vogel ) The outstanding work was The Territorial Development of the Duchy of Oldenburg , which went to press in 1917. In 1918 he was elected a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences . He belonged to the Oldenburg Regional Association for Archeology, which at his suggestion was expanded to include a department for regional history, and was the first editor of the Oldenburg Yearbook (today's title), which he founded together with his assistant Hermann Oncken in 1892. In 1905 he was promoted to the Secret Archives Council. After reaching the age of 70, Sello, who had many opponents due to his polemical nature of criticism, retired “against his declared will” (A. Eckhardt). Offended by the lack of recognition of his work, he withdrew into private life and died in 1926.

An oil portrait painted by Bernhard Winter in 1926 is said to be in Jever Castle , Sello's estate in the Lower Saxony State Archives in Oldenburg.

Rating

When Sello took office, the Oldenburg regional historiography made the transition from the inevitably "amateurish" regional historiography, operated by interested laypeople, to professional historiography.

His research was characterized by his enormous knowledge, thorough knowledge of sources and careful compilation of scientific facts, but Sello did not have the time and strength to write a comprehensive and readable account of the history of the State of Oldenburg due to the richness of the material.

family

Sello married Maria geb. Fürbringer (1855–1915), the daughter of the merchant Julius Heinrich Fürbringer. The couple had two children, the daughter Ilse (* 1894) and the son Wolfgang (1891–1968), who became a senior teacher.

Works (selection)

• Potsdam and Sans-Souci. Research and sources on the history of the castle, town and park. Schottländer, Breslau 1888; Facsimile: KD Becker, Potsdam 2009, ISBN 978-3-941919-01-3 .
• The seal of the Margraves of Brandenburg of the Ascanian tribe. In: Märkische research. XX. Tape. , ed. from the Association for the History of the Mark Brandenburg, Ernst & Korn, Gropius'sche Buch- und Kunsthandlung, Berlin 1887, pp. 263-300.
• Chronica Marchionum Brandenburgensium. Based on a manuscript from the Trier city library and the pulkawa's excerpts. In: Research on Brandenburg and Prussian history. Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1888, pp. 111-180 ( digitized version ).
• The Cistercian monastery Hude near Oldenburg. Schulze, Oldenburg / Leipzig 1895 ( digitized version ); Reprint: Verlag Make a book, Neukirchen 2006, ISBN 3-939119-45-8 .
• Oldenburg cartography up to the end of the 18th century. In: Deutsche Geographische Blätter, XVIII, Bremen 1895 , published by the geographical society in Bremen by Dr. Moritz Lindeman, pp. 350-371
• Studies on the history of Oestringen and Rüstringen. Ad. Allmers, Varel 1898 ( Digitalisat the SLUB Dresden ).
• Saterland's Older History and Constitution. Schulze, Oldenburg / Leipzig 1896 ( digitized version ); Reprint: Ostendorp, Rhauderfehn 1980.
• Historical sources of the castle and castle-seated family von Borcke. 5 volumes. ( Digitized by the Digital Library of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern)
  • Vol. 1 Until the end of the 14th century. Berlin 1901.
  • Vol. 2 Until the end of the 15th century. Berlin 1903.
  • Vol. 3.1 certificates. Berlin 1907.
  • Vol. 3.2 Sidonia Brocke. Mixed documents. Hall 1910.
  • Vol. 4 documents, files and letters from the 14th to 19th centuries. Hall 1912.
  • Vol. 5 registers. Hall 1921.
• Oldenburg shipping in old and new times. Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1906 ( digitized version ).
• The territorial development of the Duchy of Oldenburg. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1917; Reprint: H. Th. Wenner, Osnabrück 2005, ISBN 3-87898-087-6 .
• Östringen and Rüstringen: Studies on the history of land and people. After the author's death, ed. from his son. A. Littmann, Oldenburg i. Cit. 1928 ( digitized version ).

See also

• Family tree of the gardener family Sello (extract)

literature

• Albrecht Eckhardt : Georg Sello (1850–1926), life and work. In: Georg Sello: The territorial development of the Duchy of Oldenburg. 2. Reprint. H. Th. Wenner, Osnabrück 2005, ISBN 3-87898-087-6 .
• Hans Friedl: Sello, Georg Emil Ludwig. In: Hans Friedl u. a. (Ed.): Biographical manual for the history of the state of Oldenburg . Edited on behalf of the Oldenburg landscape. Isensee, Oldenburg 1992, ISBN 3-89442-135-5 , p. 667 ff. ( Online ).
• Willy Hoppe : Georg Sello, a researcher from the Brandenburg region. In: Research on Brandenburg and Prussian history. Volume 39, 1927, pp. 300-312 (with list of publications).
• Hermann Lübbing : Oldenburg. Historical contours. Heinz Holzberg, Oldenburg 1971, ISBN 3-87358-045-4 .
• Dieter Pötschke: Georg Sello's contribution to research into the history of Berlin and Brandenburg as well as to research on Roland. In: Yearbook for Brandenburg State History. Volume 37, 1986, pp. 79-97.
• Dieter Pötschke: Georg Sellos researches on the history of the city of Potsdam and on the German legal history. In: Yearbook for Brandenburg State History. Volume 44, 1993, pp. 176-188.
• Wolfgang Ribbe : Archivists as Brandenburg State Historians. The life pictures from three generations. In: Felix Escher (Ed.): Collectanea Brandenburgensia. Festschrift for Eckart Henning on his 65th birthday (= yearbook for Brandenburg regional history. Vol. 55). Landesgeschichtliche Vereinigung für die Mark Brandenburg, Berlin 2004, pp. 100–121 (on Georg Sello, pp. 107–116).
• Werner Vogel: Georg Sello. Lawyer, archivist and historian. In: Friedrich Beck , Eckart Henning (Ed.): Brandenburgisches Biographisches Lexikon. Verlag für Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam 2002, ISBN 3-935035-39-X , p. 368.

Web links

• Literature by and about Georg Sello in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 225.