Hermann Keussen

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Hermann Keussen's main work, the topography of the city of Cologne in the Middle Ages

Gerhard Emil Hermann Keussen (born June 5, 1862 in Krefeld ; † May 7, 1943 in Munich ) was a German historian and city ​​archivist in Cologne .

Life

Hermann Keussen was born in Krefeld as the son of the city and district school council of the same name and state historian of the Lower Rhine, Hermann Keussen (1829-1894).

After graduating from high school, Keussen studied history at the University of Bonn (1880–82) and at the University of Berlin , with Moriz Ritter , Julius Weizsäcker and Heinrich von Treitschke , among others . He also received his doctorate in Berlin in 1885 .

In 1884 Keussen joined the Cologne City Archives , initially as a volunteer , where he rose to head in 1900 after several career stages. In 1927 he was adopted into retirement.

Nothing is known about the years of retirement until his death in 1943. Hermann Keussen died in Munich in the Neulustheim residential estate .

Research on the history of the city of Cologne

As an archivist, Keussen was primarily concerned with the history of the city. His most important work was the " Topography of the City of Cologne", which he - at times with the assistance of the grammar school teacher and historian Joseph Klinkenberg - worked out in two extensive volumes and published in 1910.

This work was based on the preserved medieval shrine maps of the city. The knowledge extracted from these files was shaped into a work by Keussen over many years, which then recorded and explained the topographical and legal conditions of the city in a generally understandable way.

In the records available to him from the former Cologne shrine districts, the officials had entered all legally relevant transactions. They recorded the properties of all streets and recorded house purchases, inheritances, divisions, donations, pledges or transfers of private home ownership of the citizens since the 12th century. The same was done with all public buildings and facilities such as streets, markets, warehouses, guild houses, customs stations, wells , cemeteries, churches and fortifications in the largest German city of the Middle Ages.

Keussen expanded the knowledge gained in this way by including the writings of the chroniclers Gelenius , Koelhoff and Hermann von Weinsberg . Latin writings, such as the Vita Annonis Minor or the “Vita Heriberti” by Lantbert von Deutz from the city ​​that turned into a metropolis at an early age , brought additional insights that are related to the research results of the historian Lacomblet , the work of Ennen and those of the philologist Gottfried Eckertz or the writings of Friedrich Lau at the end of the 19th century to an overall picture.

The history of the old Cologne University was also of particular concern to Keussen. As with the shrine files, he sifted through their registers from 1389 to 1559 and evaluated them in order to then publish these works in two volumes from 1892 to 1928.

Together with his predecessor Konstantin Höhlbaum , Keussen published volumes 1 and 2 of the “Cologne Inventories (until 1591)” of the “Inventories of the Hanseatic Archives” (1896/1903).

Appreciation

Hermann Keussen, who devoted his entire professional life to the city of Cologne, opened up the city's holdings of traditions during this time, the documentation and detail of which cannot be found in any of the other German cities. His main work, “The Topography of the City of Cologne”, is still regarded today, a hundred years after its publication, as the standard work on the history of Cologne in the Middle Ages.

In Cologne, Keussenstrasse in Cologne-Lindenthal bears his name.

Publications (selection)

  • Topography of the city of Cologne in the Middle Ages. 2 volumes. Cologne 1910, (digitized: Volume 1 ub.uni-koeln.de ; Volume 2 ub.uni-koeln.de ) Reprint: Droste-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1986, ISBN 3-7700-7560-9 and ISBN 3-7700-7561 -7 .
  • The register of the University of Cologne: 1389 to 1559 , edited by Hermann Keussen. Volume 1, 1389-1466. Behrendt, Cologne 1892 (two halves tied together in a ribbon)
  • Ennen, Leonard . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 48, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1904, pp. 380-382.
  • Document book of the city of Krefeld and the old county of Mörs 799–1797. 3 volumes, Krefeld 1938–1940. (Reprinted 1980).
  • Cologne. Become - be - want a German city. With the participation of Hermann Keussen [u. a.] ed. from the city of Cologne in 1928.
  • The old University of Cologne. Cologne History Association, Cologne 1934.
  • Sleeve. Historical reviews. Reprint of the Crefeld 1867 edition provided by Hermann Keussen in 1925.

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Hermann Keussen  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hermann Keussen: Topography of the City of Cologne in the Middle Ages. Cologne 1910, Volume 1, p. 6 *, Note 1, and drawings with reference to J. Klinkenberg.
  2. ^ Hermann Keussen: Topography of the City of Cologne in the Middle Ages. Cologne 1910.
  3. ^ Konrad Adenauer, Volker Gröbe: Streets and squares in Lindenthal . JP Bachem, Cologne 1992, ISBN 3-7616-1018-1 , pp. 87 f.
personal data
SURNAME Keussen, Hermann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Keussen, Gerhard Emil Hermann (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German archivist and historian
DATE OF BIRTH June 5, 1862
PLACE OF BIRTH Krefeld
DATE OF DEATH May 7, 1943
Place of death Munich