Herbert Lüthy (historian)
Herbert Ernst Karl Lüthy (born January 15, 1918 in Basel ; † November 16, 2002 there ) was a Swiss historian .
Life
Born in Basel in 1918 as the fifth son of the India missionary Ernst Lüthy-Dettwyler, Herbert Lüthy studied history, Romance languages and French literature in Paris , Zurich and Geneva after graduating from high school (1937, St. Gallen Cantonal School) . In 1942 he did his doctorate with Hans Nabholz in Zurich. Various economic history and journalistic work followed. From 1946 to 1958 Lüthy lived as a freelance journalist and historian in Paris. After his habilitation in 1958, he was appointed professor of general and Swiss history in German at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich ; In 1971 he moved to the University of Basel . In 1980 he left prematurely for health reasons emeritus . Afterwards he was a member of the board of directors of the Association for the Publication of Swiss Monthly Issues , for which he had written various articles since the 1960s, such as the article “Switzerland as an Antithesis” (1961). Lüthy has received several awards for his outstanding scientific achievements. He returned the honorary doctorate awarded to him in 1968 by the University of Geneva in protest after the university had appointed the sociologist Jean Ziegler as full professor. From 1975 to 1979 Lüthy was a member of the International Committee of the Red Cross .
Lüthy died in November 2002 in Basel; he was married and the father of two sons.
Journalistic and scientific work
From 1942 to 1944 Herbert Lüthy wrote, among other things, the weekly chronicle of the Second World War for the St. Galler Tagblatt . During his time in Paris he was twice a year correspondent for the Zürcher Tat ; from 1949 onwards he wrote mainly for renowned international magazines ( The Month , Berlin; Preuves , Paris; Encounter , London; Commentary , New York and others). In 1954 he published the book “France's watches go differently” , which became one of the most important publications by a foreigner during the French post-war period. With his translation of selected essays by Michel de Montaigne (1953) he made this author better known in the German cultural sector. In 1959 and 1961, Lüthy's two-volume standard work on banking and financial history, La Banque Protestante en France de la Révocation de l'Édit de Nantes à la Révolution (1685–1794) , was published in Paris .
Work edition
The Herbert Lüthy work edition in the book publisher NZZ Libro is laid out in seven volumes. The first two volumes include the little weekly newsreels from the St. Galler Tagblatt under the title Five minutes after twelve and France's clocks go differently . Volumes III and IV contain essays on a wide range of international and Swiss subjects from the years 1940 to 1990. Volume V follows works from the years 1941 to 1990 that deal with France, as well as a complete bibliography of Lüthy's work. The work edition concludes with the new edition of the two-volume Banque Protestante en France . To make the work easier to access, each volume is preceded by an introduction, and a detailed appendix contains notes and explanatory comments that make it easier to understand the text and allow the individual texts to be placed in their historical and political context.
Honors
In 1969 Lüthy was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .
Web links
- Literature by and about Herbert Lüthy in the catalog of the German National Library
- Adrian Scherrer: Lüthy, Herbert. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- Website on Herbert Lüthy , by Irene Riesen and Urs Bitterli, with full texts of various essays
- Joachim Fest : The lost art - historiography as science and literature. A reflection on the historian Herbert Lüthy , Neue Zürcher Zeitung, March 4, 2006
- Urs Bitterli : In the presence of history - on the death of Herbert Lüthy , Neue Zürcher Zeitung , November 18, 2002
- Philipp Gut : Herbert Lüthy: Melancholy of History , Die Weltwoche , 26/2007
- Urs Bitterli: Herbert Lüthy, incorruptible pioneer of contemporary history - A tribute to his hundredth birthday. , Neue Zürcher Zeitung, January 13, 2018
Individual evidence
- ↑ See Urs Bitterli : In the presence of history. On the death of Herbert Lüthy , NZZ Online, November 18, 2002.
- ↑ Switzerland as an antithesis
- ↑ Basler Chronik: March 1st, 1977 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Website of the Basler Stadtbuch, accessed on December 26, 2011.
- ^ American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Book of Members ( PDF ). Retrieved April 18, 2016
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lüthy, Herbert |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Lüthy, Herbert Ernst Karl (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss historian |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 15, 1918 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Basel |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 16, 2002 |
| Place of death | Basel |