Gerhard Menk

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gerhard Menk (born March 17, 1946 in Nisterau ; † October 18, 2019 ) was a German historian and archivist .

Life

After primary school, Gerhard Menk attended the municipal secondary school in Bad Marienberg and graduated from the State New Language High School Altenkirchen in the spring of 1966. From the summer semester of 1966 he studied at the University of Frankfurt am Main , then went to Geneva for the summer semester of 1969, where he studied at the University of Geneva and at the Institut Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales . In addition to Jacques Freymond (1911–1998), the former Czechoslovak Foreign Minister Jiří Hájek and Saul Friedländer were his academic teachers here. For the winter semester 1969/70 he moved to the University of Vienna , where his academic teachers were in particular Gerald Stourzh , Heinrich Lutz and Herwig Wolfram . In the 1970 summer semester he returned to Frankfurt University to take the first state examination for teaching at grammar schools in 1971 (with Jochen Bleicken and Friedrich Hermann Schubert, among others ).

From the summer of 1971 he began his dissertation with Friedrich Hermann Schubert in Frankfurt, with a grant from the Fritz Thyssen Foundation allowing extensive research trips to the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary and Czechoslovakia and finally to the United States. At the same time he was a research assistant and assistant at the history seminar of the university at Notker Hammerstein . In 1975 he received his doctorate with the thesis: "The High School Herborn in their early days 1584–1660" , which was printed in 1981 by the Historical Commission for Nassau.

In 1975 he started an archive traineeship at the Hessian Main State Archive in Wiesbaden , which he completed with the archival state examination in September 1977 at the Marburg Archive School . From October 1977 he recorded files of the OMGUS inventory in Washington DC for the state of Hesse , at the beginning of 1978 he took up an archive position in the Hessian State Archives in Marburg , where he was responsible for the records of the county and the principality of Waldeck until his retirement and from 2006 also was responsible for the files of the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel. From 1979 to 1995 he was a lecturer at the Marburg Archive School; there he was also a member of the examination board. In 1981 he took part in the three-month stage of the Archives Nationales in Paris, where he acted as speaker.

In 1981 he was the only specialist historian to be appointed co-editor of the “Geschichtsblätter für Waldeck” . He left his mark on this magazine through numerous articles up until 2003. In addition, he published several biographies and monographs on the history of the county, principality and Free State of Waldeck . In particular, the recently published studies on the Waldeck politician and teacher Otto Hufnagel and on "Waldeck in the Third Reich" attracted a lot of attention.

In 1986 Menk took over a teaching position at the University of Giessen , in 2005 he was appointed honorary professor in recognition of his achievements ; also in 2005 he received the science award of the Hessian Minister for Science and Art . As chairman of the Marburg branch of the Association for Hessian History and Regional Studies (1998-2007), Menk held numerous colloquia, including on "The University of Marburg in the 1920s" , on Hessian Chronicles, the Greifswald professor and Waldeck church historian Victor Schultze and on the Hessian minister of education and judge at the Federal Constitutional Court Erwin Stein .

On March 31, 2011, he retired as archivist.

Menk was a member of the Historical Commission for Hesse and the Historical Commission for Nassau and the Association for Constitutional History , as well as a member of several scientific advisory boards. He has published publications on the history of science and education, church history, constitutional and administrative history, as well as archive history between the High Middle Ages and the 20th century.

According to an obituary from the Hessian State Archives , he had a significant impact on Hessian historical research with his publication, which was broad in terms of time and topic .

Publications (selection)

  • The Herborn High School in its early days (1584-1660). A contribution to the higher education system of German Calvinism in the age of the Counter Reformation , Wiesbaden 1981 (publication of the Historical Commission for Nassau, 30).
  • Zacharias Fridenreich (ca.1573 to ca.1645). A Lutheran lawyer as a publicist and practitioner in the early 17th century . In: Hans-Peter v. Haferkamp, ​​Peter Oestmann, Joachim Rückert (ed.): Journal of the Savigny Foundation for Legal History: German Department . tape 109 , no. 1 , August 1, 1992, p. 246–334 , doi : 10.7767 / zrgga.1992.109.1.246 .
  • Georg Friedrich von Waldeck (1620-1692). A biographical sketch , Arolsen 1992 (Waldeckische Historische Hefte, 3).
  • The way to the Waldeck residence Arolsen , Arolsen 1996 (Waldeckische Historische Hefte, 5).
  • The End of the Free State of Waldeck - Possibilities and Limits of Small State Existence in the Empire and Weimar Republic , second considerably expanded edition, Waldeckischer Geschichtsverein eV, Bad Arolsen 1998, ISBN 3-932468-04-X .
  • The "Memories" of Pastor Jonas Hefentreger-Trygophorus in context. Reference fields and significance of chronocal tradition in the 16th century , Bad Arolsen 2000 (Waldeckische Historische Hefte 6).
  • as editor: Landgrave Moritz the scholar of Hessen-Kassel. A Calvinist Between Politics and Science , Marburg 2000 (Contributions to Hessian History 15).
  • Waldeck's contribution for today's Hesse 2nd considerably expanded edition, Hessian State Center for Political Education, Wiesbaden 2001, ISBN 3-927127-41-8 .
  • as editor: Angus Fowler, a Scot with a European cultural mandate. Speeches at the ceremony for the award of the Federal Cross of Merit 1st class in the historic town hall of the university town of Marburg on December 18, 2000 , Marburg 2001.
  • Gustav Könnecke (1845-1920). A life for archives and cultural history , Marburg-Kassel 2004 (writings of the Hessian State Archives Marburg 13, as well as Hessian research on historical regional and folklore 42).
  • as co-editor (together with Andreas Hedwig ): Erwin Stein (1903-1992). Political work and ideals of a post-war Hessian politician , Marburg 2004.
  • as co-editor (together with Wilhelm A. Eckhardt): Christian Wolff and the Hessian Universities , Marburg 2004 (Contributions to Hessian History 18).
  • An "antique gentleman." Life and work of the Hessian monument conservator and technical pioneer Ludwig Bickell (1838-1901) , Marburg 2005; also in: Elmar Brohl , Gerhard Menk (ed.): Ludwig Bickell. A monument conservator from the very beginning , Stuttgart 2005.
  • From Bismarckian to Liberal. The politician and teacher Otto Hufnagel (1885-1944) in Waldeck and Frankfurt am Main , 2 vols., Marburg 2006.
  • Regional history, archives and politics. The Hessian state historian and archivist Karl Ernst Demandt (1909-1990) , Marburg 2009.
  • Waldeck in the Third Reich. Requirements and effects of National Socialism in the north of Hesse , Wiesbaden-Korbach 2010.
  • Between the pulpit and the chair. - Protestant priest and professor profiles from the 16th to the 20th century - Selected essays , Marburg 2011.
  • as publisher: Friedrich Uhlhorn : History of the Counts of Solms between the Reformation and the Peace of Westphalia. Darmstadt 2011.
  • Political liberalism in Hesse between the Weimar Republic and the post-war period - Rudolf Büttner, Margarete Grippentrog and the German Democratic Party of Fulda. Fulda 2012, ISBN 978-3-7900-0441-0 .

Articles and archival publications are listed on the Justus Liebig University website (see under web links ).

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Murk, Obituary, p. 21
  2. ↑ History sheets - Waldeckischer Geschichtsverein
  3. ^ Murk, Obituary, p. 21
  4. ^ Murk, Obituary, p. 21
  5. ↑ HMWK press release
  6. ^ Obituary of the Hessian State Archives, published in the Oberhessische Presse on November 1, 2019
personal data
SURNAME Menk, Gerhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German archivist and historian
DATE OF BIRTH March 17, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Nisterau
DATE OF DEATH 18th October 2019