Gerhard Pfeiffer (historian)

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Gerhard Pfeiffer (born February 14, 1905 in Breslau ; † July 17, 1996 in Nuremberg ) was a German archivist and historian .

Gerhard Pfeiffer attended Maria-Magdalena Gymnasium from 1911 to 1923 and then studied at the Universities of Breslau and Tübingen. His academic teacher was Hermann Reincke-Bloch . In 1929 he received his doctorate under Reincke-Bloch in Breslau with a thesis on The Breslau patriciate in the Middle Ages . Pfeiffer asked about the social composition of the patriciate and the social stratification of the medieval city and also considered problems of economic history. The work became the standard work. After a school substitute, he entered the higher archive service in Berlin-Dahlem. In 1930 he became an assistant at the State Archives in Münster . There he had the task of collecting and sorting through the files and documents of the Rhineland occupation. At the end of 1932 he became a state archivist. During this time he worked on the Westphalian document book for the 13th and 14th centuries for Westphalia. In June 1934 he became a full member of the Historical Commission for Westphalia . In 1945 he left the commission. In 1939 he was given the position of director of the Nuremberg City Archives . In 1940 he was given a teaching position at what was then the Hindenburg University of Economics and Social Sciences in Nuremberg, and in the same year he presented a decisive study of the beginnings of the Egidienkloster in the Hohenstaufen era. In 1942 he was called up for military service. In Belgium Pfeiffer was used as a local commander.

At the end of 1945 he was released from American captivity. Pfeiffer played a key role in the reconstruction of the Nuremberg City Archives. In 1951 Pfeiffer received a teaching position for Bavarian church history at the Erlangen Theological Faculty, in 1957 he became an honorary professor. In 1959 he was able to complete the first volume of the Nuremberg Document Book, which went up to the 13th century. In the same year he became a full member of the Commission for Bavarian State History at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. Since 1961 he has taught Bavarian and Franconian regional history as an associate professor and since 1965 as a full professor at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg . In 1971 he retired. In 1965 he was elected scientific director of the Society for Franconian History and remained in this position until 1976. He was deputy scientific director until 1982.

Pfeiffer researched the history of Silesia , Westphalia and Franconia . Further research focuses on the imperial city of Nuremberg, the Upper German imperial cities, the Reformation and the peace in the country . In 1965 he published the Franconian Life Pictures . In 1971 he published the two-volume work Nuremberg. History of a European City is an overall presentation of the history of Nuremberg that is still valid today.

Fonts

  • Bavaria and Brandenburg-Prussia. A historical comparison. CH Beck, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-406-07394-8 .
  • Sources on the history of the Franconian-Bavarian peace organization in the late Middle Ages (= publications of the Society for Franconian History. Series 2: History of the Franconian District. 2 = Series of publications on the Bavarian state history. 69). CH Beck, Munich 1975, ISBN 3-406-10469-X .
  • as editor: Nuremberg. History of a European City. CH Beck, Munich 1971, ISBN 3-406-03394-6 (Unchanged reprint. Ibid 1982, ISBN 3-406-08764-7 ).
  • The Wroclaw patriciate in the Middle Ages (= representations and sources on Silesian history. 30, ZDB -ID 503418-8 ). Trewendt & Granier, Breslau 1929, (Licensed edition, reprint. Scientia, Aalen 1973, ISBN 3-511-06330-2 ).

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personal data
SURNAME Pfeiffer, Gerhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German archivist and historian
DATE OF BIRTH February 14, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw
DATE OF DEATH July 17, 1996
Place of death Nuremberg