Johannes Hohlfeld

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Johannes Hohlfeld (born January 1, 1888 in Reichenbrand , † April 21, 1950 in Leipzig ) was an important German genealogist and historian .

Life

Johannes Hohlfeld was born as the son of the deacon Richard Johannes Hohlfeld and his wife Ida Kathinka, geb. Meissner born. After his birth, the family moved to Elstertrebnitz in 1888 , where the father got a job as pastor, which he held until 1912. Johannes Hohlfeld attended from 1899 to 1907 the King Albert Gymnasium in Leipzig and studied from 1908 at the University of Leipzig and Vienna Historical Sciences , Germanic and Classical Philology and a doctorate in 1911 on the topic "city bills as historical sources. A contribution to the source studies of the late Middle Ages. Explained on the example of the Pegau city bills of the 14./15. Century " . During his studies in 1907 he became a member of the Arion-Altpreußen singers . On January 1, 1912, he became assistant to the “Central Office for German Personal and Family History” in Leipzig , which he headed from 1924 until his death in 1950 as managing director. This institution still exists today as the German Central Agency for Genealogy . He was also an employee of the Leipzig publishing house Bibliographisches Institut , whose centenary he wrote in 1926.

Services

Under the difficult conditions of a flattening "family research " by the National Socialists, Johannes Hohlfeld stuck to a scientific genealogy . The Reichssippenamt put a file on “Doubts about the National Socialist sentiments of Dr. Johannes Hohlfeld ”. In 1934 the Nazi regime stopped the new edition of its unpopular “German Reich History in Documents”. After a short break, Hohlfeld turned around and ingratiated himself with the Nazis. A contemporary document is cited as evidence:

"Hohlfeld, who was still in the state party camp in the autumn of 1932, took into account the economic situation of the National Socialist revolution, which he" experienced with a warm heart "(Vol. 3, p. V), in which under the pseudonym: ' Johann von Reichenbrand 'published works: "Twenty Years of German Wrestling" <1932> wrote a German story from 1914 to 1933. Here, however, the NSDAP experiences a significantly different assessment than in his "History of the German Reich" (1926), where he accused it of "a purely negative, caustic criticism of everything that existed, a thoughtless anti-Semitism" (p. 751). Now the "immigrant Austrian demagogue Adolf Hitler" has become the "historically appointed leader of the new Germany" (p. 244). If, in the introduction (p. VII), Hohlfeld calls the historian "a backward-looking prophet", this can in no way mean that historical events, as here, may be judged from the point of view of the business cycle. "

Publications (selection)

  • History of the German Empire 1871–1924. Hirzel, Leipzig 1924 (2nd, supplemented edition. Ibid. 1926, as: History of the German Empire. 1871–1926. ).
  • The Bibliographical Institute. Festschrift for its centenary. Bibliographical Institute, Leipzig 1926.
  • From Joseph Meyer's years of traveling. A life episode in letters. London 1817-1820. For the centenary of the Bibliographical Institute. Bibliographical Institute, Leipzig 1926.
  • Genealogy and Volkish Question. In: Quarterly magazine for politics and history. Vol. 2, 1929, ZDB -ID 508957-8 , pp. 131-137.
  • Hundred years of booksellers association in Leipzig. Festschrift on the occasion of the centenary of the Association of Booksellers in Leipzig. Publishing house of the Booksellers Association, Leipzig 1933.
  • Leipzig families. Family tables, pedigree and descendant tables. 3 volumes. Central Office for German Personal and Family History, Leipzig 1933–1939.
  • as editor with Karl Steinmüller and Friedrich Wecken: German pedigree. Volume 6: as editor: German family tables (= family and ancestry tables of the Central Office for German Personal and Family History. Volume 16, ZDB -ID 1020455-6 ). Central Office for German Personal and Family History, Leipzig 1938.
  • The Oldenburg to Oldenburg family and the Munich-based Oldenbourg family of publishers. A family chronicle over 4 centuries. R. Oldenbourg, Munich 1940.
  • From genealogy to family history. A change in the history of ideas in Germany. In: Familiengeschichtliche Blätter. Vol. 42, 1944, ZDB -ID 124255-6 , Col. 1-8.
  • The German Revolution 1848/49. Foundations, course, decline, continuation. Wunderlich, Leipzig 1948

literature

  • Herbert Helbig:  Hohlfeld, Johannes. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-428-00190-7 , p. 506 ( digitized version ).
  • Klaus Hohlfeld: Johannes Hohlfeld - life and work. In: Family and People. Journal of Genealogy and Population Studies. Vol. 3, 1954, ISSN  0174-996X , pp. 148-150.
  • Harald Lönnecker : Johannes Hohlfeld (1888–1950) - German singer, genealogist and politician. In: then and now. Yearbook of the Association for Corporate Student History Research. Vol. 46, 2001, ISSN  0420-8870 , pp. 185-226.
  • Harald Lönnecker: German song and politics. The singer Johannes Hohlfeld (1888–1950) - an unknown aspect of the biography of an important German genealogist. In: Herold Yearbook. NF Vol. 7, 2002, ZDB -ID 184513-5 , pp. 153-188.
  • Volkmar Weiss : Johannes Hohlfeld (1888–1950). In: Gerald Wiemers (ed.): Sächsische Lebensbilder (= sources and research on Saxon history. Vol. 22). Volume 5. Verlag der Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Leipzig 2003, ISBN 3-515-08417-7 , pp. 247-270.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Paul Meißner (Ed.): Alt-Herren-Directory of the German Singers. Leipzig 1934, p. 162.
  2. ^ The survival of Hohlfeld as managing director of the central office in the years 1933–1939 . In: Volkmar Weiss: Prehistory and consequences of the Aryan ancestral pass: On the history of genealogy in the 20th century. Arnshaugk, Neustadt an der Orla 2013, ISBN 978-3-944064-11-6 , pp. 192–212.
  3. ↑ Hans Volz : From overthrow to National Socialist revolution. 1918-1933 . In: Annual reports for German history. Vol. 9/10, 1933/1934 (1936), ISSN  0075-286X , pp. 365-392, especially p. 372

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Hohlfeld, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German genealogist and historian
DATE OF BIRTH January 1, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Reichenbrand near Chemnitz
DATE OF DEATH April 21, 1950
Place of death Leipzig