Godefroid Kurth

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Godefroid Kurth (born May 11, 1847 in Arlon , † January 4, 1916 in Asse ) was a Belgian historian . He became known for his history of the city of Liège in the Middle Ages and his history of Belgium, for the Catholic origins de la civilization modern for the development of modern Europe and for his defense of the medieval guild system.

Life

Godefroid Kurth bust in Arlon

His father came from Cologne, was a soldier and later a police commissioner in Arlon , his mother from Arlon, so that he grew up in Luxembourgish . He attended the Athenaeum in Arlon and Liège, where he won several national prizes as a student, and studied at the École normal in Liège, graduating in 1869. He then taught history at the Athenaeum in Liège. In 1873 he received his doctorate (Caton l'ancien, étude biographique) and professor at the University of Liège . In 1906 he left the university after having encountered considerable difficulties due to his strictly Catholic positions. In addition, Kurth campaigned primarily for the preservation and maintenance of the German language and for this purpose founded the "Association for the maintenance and improvement of the German mother tongue in German-speaking Belgium" in 1893. After the outbreak of World War I, he let this commitment rest and the association was later dissolved. It was not until 1931 that the “Bund der Deutsch-Belgier” was founded in the Luxembourg municipality of Tüntingen by, among others, the Germanist Heinrich Bischoff , which was to revive and continue Kurth's vision.

Kurth dealt with the Franconian Empire (Merovingian), including a biography of Clovis I , the High Middle Ages, the history of the city of Liège in the Middle Ages and Belgium, and church history. He also examined the history of the language border in Belgium using the etymology of place names.

He actively represented a Catholic point of view both in his academic views and in his teaching, fought against the view of history of Protestant historians such as Leopold von Ranke and wrote school books about history from a Catholic point of view. He was friends with Henri Pirenne , who was his pupil in Liège. From 1893 to 1903 he was politically active in Liège for the Christian Democrats.

One of the most important traffic arteries of Liège, along the Meuse, was named in his honor in Quai Godefroid Kurth .

Fonts

  • Les origines de la civilization modern 1886
  • Histoire poétique des Mérovingiens, 1893, Gallica
  • Clovis 1896
  • Notger de Liège et la civilization au Xe siècle, 1905
  • La cité de Liège au Moyen Age, 1909
  • La frontière linguistique en Belgique et dans le Nord de la France, 1898
  • L'église aux tournants de l'histoire 1898
  • Sainte Clotilde 1897
  • Sainte Boniface 1902
  • La nationalité belge 1913
  • Notre nom national 1910
  • Qu'est-ce que le moyen âge?, Congrès international des catholiques, Freiburg, August 19, 1897, wikisource
  • Étude Franques, Volume 1, Paris, Brussels, 1919, Gallica
  • German Belgium and the German Association, Arlon and Aubel 1896
  • Saint Grégoire de Tours et les études classiques au VIe siècle, 1878
  • La lèpre en Occident avant les Croisades, 1891
  • Les Nationalités en Auvergne au VIe siècle, 1900
  • Les Ducs et les comtes d'Auvergne au VIe siècle, 1900

literature

  • Fernand Neuray : Une grande figure nationale: Godefroid Kurth, Un demi siècle de vie Belge. Librairie Nationale d'Art et d'Histoire. 242 p. In-8. 1931.
  • Georges Goyau Un historien belgium. Monsieur Godefroid Kurth , Revue des deux Mondes, Volume 37, 1907, pp. 367-395
  • Henri Pirenne Notice sur Godefroid Kurth , Annuaire de l'Academie Royale de Belgique, Volume 90, 1924, 193-261
  • Alfred Cauche Godefroid Kurth (1847-1916). Le patriote, le chrétien, l'historien , Brussels 1922
  • Jules Closon Godefroid Kurth , Liber memorialis de l'université de Liège, Volume 1, Liège 1936, pp. 248-302
  • Ernst Striefler Gottfried Kurth. A German-Belgian borderland fate , Leipzig, Hirzel 1941
  • Adriaan Breukelaar:  Kurth, Godefroid. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 4, Bautz, Herzberg 1992, ISBN 3-88309-038-7 , Sp. 835-836.
  • Geneviève Warland Reception and perception of German history among Belgian epigones: Paul Fredericq (1850–1920), Godefroid Kurth (1847–1916), Henri Pirenne (1862–1935), in Hubert Roland, Marnix Beyen, Greet Draye (eds.) Deutschlandbilder in Belgium 1830–1940, Waxmann, Studies on the History and Culture of North West Europe 22, 2011, pp. 219–261

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Heinz Warny: Heinrich Bischoff - and the Federation of German Belgians . In: Lebensbilder from Ostbelgien , Volume 2, Grenz-Echo Verlag, Eupen 2019, pp. 25–26