Helmut Dahm (archivist)

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Helmut Walter Dahm (born August 3, 1913 in Elberfeld ; † May 31, 1996 in Düsseldorf ) was a German historian and archivist .

Life

Gravestone on the reformed cemetery Hochstrasse (Wuppertal)

Dahm was born as the son of an architect in Elberfeld in the Bergisch district, but grew up in Kassel due to relocation . After graduating from high school in Kassel, he studied history, geography and English in Kiel , Munich , Berlin and Marburg . He received his doctorate in 1939 from the University of Marburg with a thesis on "The honorary degrees of the clerical and secular classes of the Middle Ages". In the same year he was drafted into the Wehrmacht and returned from the war six years later seriously wounded - he was to remain unable to walk for life due to the injuries.

In 1948, Helmut Dahm was an archive trainee at the main state archive in Düsseldorf, taking part in the first scientific course at the Marburg Archive School, which had just been founded at the time, and was the best in the course. As an assessor of the archives service, he then worked for the Düsseldorf main state archive , at times also for the Rhineland archives advisory office , which was temporarily located at the North Rhine-Westphalian archives administration after the war.

From 1954 he was responsible for the journal Der Archivar as editor of the main state archive . At the beginning of the 1960s he faced new challenges in Düsseldorf with the establishment of the ministerial archive and the department for regional historical documentation. In 1965 he was appointed to the North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of Education as an archivist and head of the state's archives administration . He held this office until his retirement (1978).

Helmut Dahm was chairman of the Association of German Archivists from 1967 to 1977 , member of the Executive Council of the International Archives Council (1974–1978) and President of the section of professional associations in the International Archives Council (1976–1980).

From 1966 to 1989 he was chairman of the Association for Rhenish Church History .

He died in 1996 at the age of 82.

Honors

literature

  • Festival ceremony for Helmut Dahm. In: The archivist . Vol. 26, 1973, Issue 3, pp. 370-623.
  • Hans Schmitz: Helmut Dahm †. In: The archivist. Vol. 49, 1996, No. 4, Col. 759-769 (see also Col. 757 f.)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Announcement of awards of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. In: Federal Gazette . Vol. 30, No. 194, October 13, 1978.
  2. ↑ Merit holders since 1986. State Chancellery of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, accessed on March 11, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Dahm, Helmut
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dahm, Helmut Walter (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian and archivist
DATE OF BIRTH August 3, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Elberfeld
DATE OF DEATH May 31, 1996
Place of death Dusseldorf