Gustav Adolf Bergenroth

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Gustav Adolf Bergenroth (born February 26, 1813 in Oletzko , East Prussia, † February 13, 1869 in Madrid ) was a German historian.

Life and Research Returns

Bergenroth studied law at the Albertus University in Königsberg . He had been a member of the Corps Masovia since 1833 . After the exams he entered the Prussian state justice service. In the German Revolution of 1848/1849 he was dismissed from the Prussian civil service as a “revolutionary club leader and press leader”. In 1850 he helped Gottfried Kinkel escape from the Spandau Citadel . He then went to California , but returned to Europe in 1851 and in 1857 devoted himself to thorough studies in English archives of the Tudor era .

In 1860 he went to turn for research purposes by Simancas in Spain and was awarded the contract for the British government a Regestenwerk on England relevant documents in Spanish archives such as the Archivo General de Simancas to work out. By chance he met Wilhelm Maurenbrecher , who had just completed his habilitation , who had presented his teacher Heinrich von Sybel in Bonn with a paper on Emperor Maximilian II and the German Reformation and who was also staying at the archive in Simancas until 1863. Maurenbrecher was working on a biography of Charles V . Although he valued Bergenroth personally, he criticized Bergenroth's theses on Johanna the Madman more than clearly. He rejected the assumption that Johanna wasn't mad at all. In his assessment, Maurenbrecher relied, in addition to Bergenroth's own work, on Louis Prosper Gachard , who, based on his own studies in Simancas, had raised doubts about this suspicion, which was repeatedly expressed and corroborated by Bergenroth. Bergenroth summarized his results and views on the question of the madness of the Spanish queen in the essay published in 1868 Emperor Karl V and his mother Johanna .

A short time later Bergenroth died in Madrid "from the consequences of a malignant fever" ( in consequence of a malignant fever ).

“His life is a novel. In 1848, when he was already a senior judge, he joined the revolution and stood on the barricade at the corner of Taubenstrasse. In the following year B. wrote to Manteuffel that his political views did not allow him to remain in the civil service for the time being; he would have to wait a time when another minister was in charge of the judiciary. Then he went to Frankfurt, soon afterwards to America on behalf of a company that wanted to buy land in California. When he arrived in San Francisco, he lost everything and was left with nothing. He gathered around 70 colonists from different nations, over whom he rose to become chief, and now founded an independent principality in which he lived as an autocrat. He got into trouble with the Americans and went to England. He is as well versed in the 16th and 17th centuries as if he had lived with all the outstanding personalities of that time. He is now preparing to write a story of Emperor Charles V. "

- Kurd v. Schlözer (1867)

In spite of widely recognized expertise and knowledge of sources, the majority of contemporary historians did not take him very seriously, and his seemingly absurd special opinions and revelations were dismissed as sensationalist showmanship. In addition to the assumption that Joan the Mad was not mentally ill, his assertion that Catherine of Aragon had a love affair with her confessor before and after her marriage to King Henry VIII , as well as his posthumously published account of the fate of Don Carlos on the basis of his posthumous account of the fate of Don Carlos also aroused Sources he examined gave offense to contemporary specialist audiences because he was contradicting the leading authorities at the time, such as Leopold von Ranke or Sybel, who, however, did not have his specific knowledge of files, and because his representations often did not fit into the sublime image that one had of great historical figures Gestalten drew. His early death, which prevented him from completing his own dramatic history, added to this negative judgment. A reassessment of Bergenroth's research results by the current historical science is still largely pending.

Bergenroth was also no longer able to realize the project for Emperor Karl V mentioned by Schlözer. His source works, on the other hand, still represent an important fund for research into early modern diplomacy.

Works

The Regestenwerk über England was published under the title: Calendar of letters, despatches and state papers relating to the negotiations between England and Spain, preserved in the archives of Simancas and elsewhere (London 1862–68, 3 volumes) The three volumes published during Bergenroth's lifetime formed the beginning of a posthumously continued standard work:

  • Volume 1. Henry VII. 1485-1509 .
  • Volumes 2–8. Henry VIII. 1509– [1546] 12 BC
  • Volumes 9-10. Edward VI. 1547– [1552]
  • Volumes 11. Edward VI. and Mary. 1553 .
  • Volumes 12. Mary. January – July 1554 .
  • Volumes 13. Philip and Mary. July 1554 - November 1558

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1930, 89/192
  2. ↑ Bergenroth, Gustav Adolf . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 2, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 733.
  3. ↑ Gustav Bergenroth: Emperor Karl V and his mother Johanna . In: HZ , 20, 1868, pp. 231-270. Here p. 234 f. - Wilhelm Maurenbrecher's replies: Bergenroth's Johanna von Kastilien . In: Preussische Jahrbücher , 25, 1869, pp. 260–282. - Studies and sketches on the history of the Reformation period . Leipzig 1874, pp. 75-98. The first essay is primarily about the refutation of Bergenroth's thesis, in the "studies and sketches" it is more about the biography of Johanna, her importance for the Spanish kingdom and the empire of Charles V and later Ferdinand I, the as his brother is Archduke of Austria. Mario Todte: Wilhelm Maurenbrecher as a Reformation historian. A discipline-historical assessment. Leipzig 2002, p. 60 f. - Ursula Naumann: El Caballero Gustavo Bergenroth. How a Prussian researcher wrote history in Spain . Insel Verlag 2020, p. 223. -Alfredo Alvar Ezquerra: Intercambios culturales intangibles: Maurenbrecher en Simancas (1862–1863), la Dieta de Augusta y el epistolario de Cantonay (1566) . In: Lutero, su obra y su época (= Colección del Instituto Escurialense de Investigaciones Históricas y Artísticas . Volume 55). Edited by F. Javier Campos. San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Madrid RCU Escorial-Mª Cristina, Servicio de Publicaciones, Madrid 2017, ISBN 978-84-617-9687-8 , pp. 179–209 ( PDF; 3.9 MB ; PDF-p. 168– 198). Here p. 184 f.
  4. ↑ Historical magazine , Volume 20, pp. 231–270 ( archive.org ).
  5. ↑ Calendar of State Papers, Spain , Volume 3, Part 1, 1525-1526. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1873 (foreword by the editor).
  6. ^ Kurd v. Schlözer: Roman letters , under March 1, 1867
  7. ^ Reinhold Pauli :  Bergenroth, Gustav Adolf . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, pp. 369-372.
  8. ↑ Bergenroth: Calendar of letters, despatches and state papers relating to the negotiations between England and Spain, preserved in the archives of Simancas and elsewhere . Volume 1. Public Record Office, 1862
personal data
SURNAME Bergenroth, Gustav Adolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chronicler
DATE OF BIRTH February 26, 1813
PLACE OF BIRTH Oletzko
DATE OF DEATH February 13, 1869
Place of death Madrid