Jan Dhondt

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Jan Dhondt (born January 20, 1915 in Gentbrugge near Gent , † August 20, 1972 in Beirut ) was a Belgian medievalist and historian.

Life

Jan Dhondt attended the Athenaeum in Ghent and studied from 1933 at the University of Ghent , graduating in 1937. His teachers in Ghent included François Louis Ganshof (the successor to Henri Pirenne , who retired in 1930 ), Hans Van Werveke and Hubert Van Houtte . He also studied in Paris. In 1938 he received his doctorate on Heinrich I. After winning a scholarship competition in 1939, he did research for the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique and was archivist at the General Reich Archives (Algemeen Rijksarchief) in Brussels from 1942 to 1944 . In this capacity he was involved in the publication of the first part of the negotiations of the States General of the Netherlands (for the years 1427–1477). In October 1944 he held a substitute professorship in Ghent, became a lecturer in contemporary history in 1945 and a full professor in 1948. He died of a heart attack in Beirut, where he was stopping over, and is buried there.

From 1962 to 1970 he was visiting professor and from 1963 to 1966 rector of the University of the Congo in Lubumbashi .

In addition to medieval history (beginnings of the Germanic-Romance language border, Carolingians, France in the 11th century, the county of Flanders before the 13th century), he also dealt with the history of the States General and the history of the labor movement in Belgium and the social and economic history of the 19th century . and 20th century. Although he was a Medievalist by nature, he even set up the Department of Modern History at the University of Ghent after the war, which did not exist before his appointment. In 1955 he founded the Inter-University Center for Contemporary History in Belgium (Interuniversitair Centrum voor Hedendaagse Geschiedenis) and with Jan Craeybeckx he founded the journal Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Nieuwste Geschiedenis in 1969 .

He maintained close personal contacts with the Annales School in France.

Dhondt came from a liberal and anti-clerical family. After initially being influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche , after 1936 he was strongly influenced by Marxism, was on the independence front during the war, briefly in the Communist Party after the war and was then close to the Belgian Socialist Party. He took part in their seminars in Klemskerke and wrote in their monthly magazine Sozialistische Standpunkte .

In 1947 and 1948 he received the Prix Gobert of the Académie des Inscriptiones et Belles Lettres in Paris.

After his death, the University of Ghent donated the Jan Dhondt Prize, which is awarded annually, to the best history students.

He was married to Lea Sevens and had two children.

Fonts

As a writer

  • Les origines de la Flandre et de l´Artois , Arras 1944
  • Ghent , Antwerp 1947
  • Etudes sur la naissance des Principautés Territoriales de France (IXe-Xe siècles) , Bruges 1948 (for this he received the Prix Gobert)
  • Historians' offices , Antwerp 1965 (collection of articles)
  • Henri Pirenne , historien des institutions urbaines , 1966
  • Histoire de Belgique , Que-sais-je?, Paris 1968
  • The early Middle Ages , Fischer Weltgeschichte , Volume 10, Fischer Taschenbuchverlag 1968 (with a short biography)

As editor

  • Geschiedenis van de socialist arbeidersbewegung in België , Uitgeverij Ontwikkeling Antwerp, 1960–1967

literature

  • Art. Dhondt, Jan . In: HWJ Volmuller (ed.): Nijhoffs geschiedenislexicon. Nederland en België . Martinus Nijhoff, 's-Gravenhage 1981, ISBN 90-247-9078-6 , p. 152.

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Art. Dhondt, Jan . In: HWJ Volmuller (ed.): Nijhoffs geschiedenislexicon. Nederland en België . Martinus Nijhoff, 's-Gravenhage 1981, p. 152.
personal data
SURNAME Dhondt, Jan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian historian
DATE OF BIRTH January 20, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Gentbrugge
DATE OF DEATH 20th August 1972
Place of death Beirut