Georg von Below

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Georg Anton Hugo von Below (born January 19, 1858 in Königsberg ; † October 20, 1927 in Badenweiler ) was a German constitutional and economic historian and an influential member of the Pan-German Association .

Life

He came from the old von Below family of officers and officials . His grandfather was the Prussian Lieutenant General Gustav von Below . His parents were Friedrich Karl Bogislav von Below (1825–1875) and his wife Maria Karoline Elisabeth, born von der Goltz (1835–1905). The father was a wing adjutant to King Friedrich Wilhelm IV and from 1849 to 1852 a member of the Prussian mansion .

At the University of Bonn studied Below u. a. with the medievalist Moriz Ritter and Wilhelm Maurenbrecher, who was already known to him from Königsberg . He received his doctorate from Ritter in Bonn in 1883. His habilitation took place in Marburg in 1886. In 1886 he obtained an extraordinary professorship in Königsberg and in 1891 he became a full professor for Medieval and Modern History in Münster . Appointments to Marburg (1897), Tübingen (1901) and finally in 1905 to Freiburg im Breisgau , where he taught until his retirement in 1924.

In 1897 Below was elected a full member of the Historical Commission for Westphalia , in 1899 he resigned. In 1903 he became an honorary member of the Tübingen Wingolf and was instrumental in founding the Freiburg Wingolf in 1911 , of which he also became a member. From 1904 to 1906 he was chairman of the German Association of Historians . He was a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences , the Heidelberg Academy (1909), the Vienna Academy of Sciences (1916) and the Prussian Academy of Sciences (1922).

Below was editor of the quarterly journal for social and economic history since 1903 and since 1910 co-editor of the historical journal for years . In the historical commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences , to which he had been a member since 1903, he headed the department “ The Chronicles of German Cities ” from 1904 as successor to the historian and expert in the field of urban history research Karl Hegel , from 1914 the “Deutsche Handelsakten "And from 1920 to 1927 the" Yearbooks of German History ".

In 1899 Below married the factory owner's daughter Minna Wiebel. The children Herta (1891–1963), Gerd (1893–1945), Ernst (1896–1915) and Werner (1899–1918) emerged from the marriage.

meaning

Georg von Below was one of the most distinguished and most contentious conservative historians of his time and played an important role in the debate about Karl Lamprecht's approach to cultural studies . His conviction that the strong nation-state is the desirable goal of history because it alone can secure the "welfare of its subjects", led Below to a decidedly evaluative historiography. The first part of his book The German State of the Middle Ages , planned as a standard work, was therefore a general account with differing views (including Otto von Gierke's cooperative theory ); however, a second part never appeared.

On the basis of his view of history, Below, as the last historian to be taken seriously, defended Heinrich von Sybels' thesis in the fundamental controversy between Sybel and Julius Ficker , according to which the Italian and imperial policy of the Middle Ages was fatal because it had prevented the development of a German nation-state .

Below is now considered to be one of the main representatives of a methodologically and politically conservative German historical studies that succeeded in blocking methodological innovations at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. He emerged as one of the main opponents of Karl Lamprecht in the methodological dispute in historical science .

Below discussed questions of method intensively with Max Weber , the co-founder of German sociology , whom he held in high regard, although he rejected sociology as a special discipline. His criticism of sociology went so far that he defamed the installation of the first sociological chairs after 1918 as a measure to bring about socialism . This sparked sharp controversies with Ferdinand Tönnies and Leopold von Wiese .

According to Hermann Aubin, the "romantic idealism " in Below's conception of history originated " primarily from his traditional Lutheran religiosity, and secondly from his national consciousness, which despite its specifically Prussian descent was generally German."

Below was also politically active since 1907 as the head of a free conservative group. He was also one of the founders (with Houston Stewart Chamberlain , Dietrich Schäfer , Heinrich Claß and others) of the ethnic and anti-Semitic magazine of the Pan-German Association of Germany's Renewal (1917) and remained its co-editor until at least 1924. Together with Othmar Spann , he edited the Herdflamme series .

Fonts

  • The origin of the German city constitution. Voss, Düsseldorf 1892 ( digitized version ).
  • The state constitution in Jülich and Berg up to 1511. A study of the history of the constitution. 3 (in 4) parts. 1885-1891;
    • Part 1: The class basics. The forerunners of the country-class constitution. In: Journal of the Bergisches Geschichtsverein . Vol. 21 = NF Vol. 11, 1885, pp. 173-256 ( digitized ; independent: Voss, Düsseldorf 1885, digitized );
    • Part 2: The time of the Bergisch legal code. In: Journal of the Bergisches Geschichtsverein. Vol. 22 = NF Vol. 12, 1886, pp. 1-79 ( digitized version ; independent: Voss, Düsseldorf 1886, digitized version );
    • Part 3: History of direct state taxes up to the War of the Geldr Succession. 1. In: Journal of the Bergisches Geschichtsverein. Vol. 23 = NF Vol. 13, 1887, pp. 195–202 ( digitized version ; independent: Voss, Düsseldorf 1890);
    • Part 3: History of direct state taxes up to the War of the Geldr Succession. 2. In: Journal of the Bergisches Geschichtsverein. Vol. 24 = NF Vol. 14, 1887, pp. 39-55 ( digitized version ; independent: Voss, Düsseldorf 1891).
  • The duel and the Germanic concept of honor. Brunnemann, Kassel 1896 ( digitized version ).
  • The older German urban system and bourgeoisie (= monographs on world history. 6, ZDB -ID 500713-6 ). Velhagen & Klasing, Bielefeld et al. 1898 ( digitized ).
  • Territory and city. Essays on German constitutional, administrative and economic history (= historical library. 11, ZDB -ID 986105-1 ). Oldenbourg, Munich et al. 1900 ( digitized ; 2nd, significantly changed edition. Ibid. 1923).
  • Parliamentary suffrage in Germany (= culture and life. Vol. 21, ZDB -ID 256330-7 ). Curtius, Berlin 1909.
  • The German state of the Middle Ages. Volume 1: The general questions. Quelle & Meyer, Leipzig 1914.
  • German historiography from the Wars of Liberation to our days. History and cultural history. Quelle & Meyer, Leipzig 1916.
  • Problems of economic history. An introduction to the study of economic history. Mohr, Tübingen 1920 ( digitized version ).
  • as editor with Hans von Arnim : German rise. Images from the past and present of the right-wing parties. Franz Schneider, Berlin 1925 (3rd – 5th thousand as: German national heads. Character images from the past and present of the right-wing parties. Franz Schneider, Leipzig 1928).
  • To the dispute about the essence of sociology. In: Yearbooks for Economics and Statistics . Vol. 69 = 124, No. 3/4, 1926, ISSN  0021-4027 , pp. 218-242, JSTOR 23823283 .
  • The Italian imperial policy of the German Middle Ages. With particular reference to the politics of Friedrich Barbarossa. A contribution to the question of historical judgment formation (= historical journal . Supplement. 10). Oldenbourg, Munich et al. 1927.

literature

Web links

Commons : Georg von Below  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ^ Georg Anton Hugo von Below. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences; accessed on February 20, 2015.
  2. See especially Marion Kreis: Karl Hegel. Historical significance and scientific history location (= series of publications of the Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. 84). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen et al. 2012, ISBN 978-3-525-36077-4 , p. 310 ff. (Also: Erlangen-Nürnberg, University, dissertation, 2010). See e-book and reading sample .
  3. Hans Cymorek: Georg von Below and the German History in 1900. Steiner, Stuttgart 1998, p 75 miles.
  4. ^ Hermann Aubin:  Below, Georg Anton Hugo von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1955, ISBN 3-428-00183-4 , p. 32 f. ( Digitized version ).
  5. ^ Cover pages of the first eight volumes of the magazine "Deutsche Erneuerung"; Basic information about the journal: http://d-nb.info/01216867X ; the membership in the Pan-German Association mentioned: Ascan Gossler: Journalism and Conservative Revolution. The “German Volkstum” as an organ of right-wing intellectualism 1918–1933 , LIT Verlag, Münster 2001, p. 111.
  6. Only this volume appeared. Michael O. Krieg: Not more than that. Volume 1: A-L (= Bibliotheca Bibliographica. Vol. 2, Part 1). Krieg, Bad Bocklet et al. 1954, p. 61.