Hermann Kownatzki

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cologne, city archive around 1897, later a private library and from 2014 part of a hotel

Hermann Kownatzki (born January 19, 1899 in Cologne ; † May 28, 1991 ibid) was a German archivist and historian .

Life

Studies and professional training

After the First World War, Kownatzki studied history, German and Latin philology in Munich and Bonn . His Bonn dissertation , which he wrote on the history of the post, was published in 1923. From October 1925 to March 1927, Kownatzki then took part in courses for the scientific archive service at the Secret State Archives in Berlin-Dahlem .

The New York Times reported on December 8, 1946 about the retrieval of archival goods with British vans from the French zone of occupation

Professional background

Before the Second World War, Hermann Kownatzki worked as the city archivist in Elbing , East Prussia . During this time he published several articles in the Elbinger Jahrbuch from 1928 to 1936 .

As a result of the political changes that occurred as a result of the lost war, Kownatzki had returned to his hometown of Cologne. Since there was apparently nothing incriminating against him, he was appointed by the British military government from October 1945 to the end of November 1946 as the provisional head city archivist of the Cologne archive . During this interim period he managed the rebuilding of the orphaned archive and mainly dealt with the repatriation of the archival holdings that had already been relocated at the beginning of the war by the archive manager Erich Kuphal and his colleague Arnold Güttsches .

Grave of the Kownatzki family

At the end of 1946, Erich Kuphal, who had previously been suspended by the military, was reinstated as a manager of the city archive. Kownatzki continued to work for the city institution. During this time, various publications by Kownatzki in the year books of the Cologne History Association fell.

Documents from the city archive also date from this period, which reflect the correspondence between Hermann Kownatzki and Lord Mayor Ernst Schwering and the Düsseldorf Ministry of Finance. They substantiate discussions which have as their content an elevation of Kownatzki's position.

Hermann Kownatzki retired in 1962 and died in Cologne at the age of 92. The family burial site is in the Melaten cemetery (hall 74).

Works

  • History of the term and concept of the post plus an appendix about the time the post was created . Dissertation, Bonn 1923. In: Archive for Post and Telegraphie 51 (1923), pp. 377-423
  • Bridgehead Elbing - Prussian Leader , Elbing, Preußenverlag, 1936
  • Several articles in: Elbinger Jahrbuch. Journal of the Elbinger Altertumsgesellschaft and the municipal collections of Elbing (ElbingJb) from 1928 to 1936, including:
  • Seal, coat of arms and flags of Elbing , Issue 9, 1931, p. 113 ff
  • Reports from the Elbing City Archives. 3. The development of the city archive from 1927/28 to 1931/32, in: ElbingJb Heft 10, 1932, p. 140
  • Elbinger Siegel , issue 12/13 1936, p. 201 ff
  • From Cologne mainly reports from the city archive (about the city archive, development of the archive, loss of archives etc.)
  • Cologne from a historical perspective , Cologne 1957
  • The tasks of historical science in the present and the present tasks of Cologne city history , in Jb.Kölner Geschichtsverein 28, 1953
  • On the question of the importance of tradition in the present , in Jb. KölnerGV 31/32, 1957
  • Task and future of the archives in the Federal Republic of Germany in: Im Schatten von St. Gereon. Erich Kuphal on July 1, 1960 , published by the Cologne History Association 25, 1960, pp. 224–228
  • Archive concept and archive science , in: Archivalische Zeitschrift 59 (1963), pp. 147–158.
  • Sigillum burgensium - Sigillum civitatis , Cologne 1973

Editorial activity

  • Cologne History in Individual Representations , Volume 1 - Hans Vogts : Cologne in the Mirror of Art , Balduin Pick Verlag, Cologne 1950

literature

  • Ulrich S. Soenius, Jürgen Wilhelm (Ed.): Kölner Personen-Lexikon . Greven, Cologne 2007, ISBN 978-3-7743-0400-0 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ulrich S. Soenius, Jürgen Wilhelm, p. 298
  2. ↑ Exhibition brochure of the city archive for its 150th anniversary (PDF; 3.2 MB), p. 61
  3. ↑ Ulrich S. Soenius, Jürgen Wilhelm, p. 298
  4. ↑ Files on the repatriation: Access 397, No. 73 in the archive
  5. ↑ Exhibition brochure of the city archive for its 150th anniversary (PDF; 3.2 MB), p. 61
personal data
SURNAME Kownatzki, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German archivist and historian
DATE OF BIRTH January 19, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH May 28, 1991
Place of death Cologne