Hans-Joachim Diesner

Hans-Joachim Diesner (born January 21, 1922 in Böhlitz-Ehrenberg , † October 13, 1994 in Halle an der Saale ) was a German ancient historian .

After graduating from high school in 1940 and briefly doing a commercial job, Diesner was a soldier from 1941 and became an American prisoner of war. From 1945 he studied history and philosophy at the Philosophical-Theological University of Regensburg , from 1946 history, philosophy, English and geography at the University of Leipzig . In 1950 he received his doctorate there under Otto Theodor Schulz and Wilhelm Schubart with a thesis on the Roman imperial coins of the outgoing principle and passed the state examination for teaching at secondary schools the following year. He was then a research assistant and completed his habilitation in 1953 with the book Studies on Social Studies and Augustine's Social Attitude . Reviewers were Adolf Hofmeister and again Schulz. Diesner worked as a lecturer in ancient history at the University of Greifswald until 1956 . In 1956 he moved to the University of Halle-Wittenberg , initially also as a lecturer, from January 1958 as a professor with a teaching position for ancient history. He was also acting director of the Department of Ancient History at the Institute for General History. From 1969 Diesner was a full professor and director of the Department of Ancient History until he was given early retirement in 1977, allegedly for health reasons, but actually because he had traveled to the Federal Republic without a permit.

Diesner was from 1947 a member of the (Eastern) CDU and from 1961 chairman of their working group for university teachers. In 1975 he became a full member of the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig , and in 1982 a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen .

Diesner dealt mainly with late antiquity , the Africa of the Vandals and the Spain of the Visigoths. He also wrote a small popular text on wars of antiquity, in which he interprets the development of war in antiquity in a Marxist way. The leadership of the GDR organized the research in large-scale projects based on the division of labor, which provided the methodological and thematic framework for the projects led by Diesner: historical materialism and the struggle of the masses against the late Roman state.

Fonts

• Studies on the social theory and social attitude of Augustine . Niemeyer, Halle 1954.
• Economy and society at Thucydides . Niemeyer, Halle 1956.
• Greek tyranny and Greek tyrants . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1960.
• Church and State in the Late Roman Empire . Evangelische Verlags-Anstalt, Berlin 1963.
• The fall of Roman rule in North Africa . Böhlau, Weimar 1964.
• Fulgentius von Ruspe as a theologian and church politician . Evangelische Verlags-Anstalt, Berlin 1966. Licensed edition: Calwer Verlag, Stuttgart 1966.
• The vandal kingdom . Koehler and Amelang, Leipzig 1966. Licensed edition: Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1966. (Also Russian translation.)
• God's dream . Koehler and Amelang, Leipzig 1969.
• Wars of ancient times . Deutscher Militärverlag, Berlin 1971. 5th edition. Brandenburg publishing house, Berlin 1990.
• Isidore of Seville and his time . Evangelische Verlags-Anstalt, Berlin 1973. Licensed edition: Calwer Verlag, Stuttgart 1973.
• The Great Migration . Edition Leipzig, Leipzig 1976. Licensed edition: Bertelsmann, Gütersloh 1976. (Also English and French translation.)
• Isidore of Seville and Visigoth Spain . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1977. Licensed edition: Spee-Verlag, Trier 1977.
• Niccolò Machiavelli . Brockmeyer, Bochum 1988.
• Voices on War and Peace in Renaissance Humanism . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1990.
• The political world of Niccolò Machiavelli . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1992.

literature

• Lothar Mertens : Lexicon of the GDR historians. Biographies and bibliographies on the historians from the German Democratic Republic . Saur, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-598-11673-X , p. 173.
• Matthias Willing: Ancient historical research in the GDR. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-428-07109-3 ( Historical Research 45), (see index).

Web links

• Literature by and about Hans-Joachim Diesner in the catalog of the German National Library

Remarks

1. ^ Hans-Dieter Zimmermann: The Seminar for Ancient History at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg from 1945 to 1989 . In: Isolde Stark (ed.): Elisabeth Charlotte Welskopf and the old history in the GDR . Steiner, Stuttgart 2005. pp. 122-123.