Johannes Janssen (historian)

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Johannes Janssen
Johannes Janssen, picture of old age
Johannes Janssen on an altarpiece by Heinrich Nüttgens , Frankfurt, Kaiserdom St. Bartholomäus
Grave in the Frankfurt main cemetery

Johannes Janssen (born April 10, 1829 in Xanten , † December 24, 1891 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German Catholic priest and historian .

Life

At the age of fourteen, Johannes Janssen began an apprenticeship as a coppersmith at the request of his father, but was later allowed to continue attending school and went to the Rector's School in Xanten. From 1846 to 49 he attended the Petrinum grammar school in Recklinghausen, which he graduated from high school. In his letters home, he proved to be an interested observer of the turbulent revolutionary time of 1848/49 in the formerly Electoral Cologne city. He then studied theology in Münster and Leuven . In 1851 he decided to switch to history . He studied in Bonn , where he received his doctorate in 1853 with a thesis on the abbot Wibald von Stablo and Corvey . In 1854 he completed his habilitation in Münster.

Due to his friendship with the Frankfurt historian Johann Friedrich Böhmer , he decided to accept a call as a professor of history at the municipal high school in Frankfurt am Main . He was ordained a priest in 1860 . After Boehmer's death, Janssen took leave for a longer study visit to Rome. However, he turned down an offer to join the diplomatic service of the Roman Curia . Instead he returned to school in Frankfurt.

Although he had developed a pro-Prussian attitude in the 1860s, under the influence of the Kulturkampf he turned into a staunch critic of Bismarck's actions against the Catholic Church. In 1875 he was elected to the Prussian House of Representatives for the Center Party in the constituency of Montjoie - Schleiden - Malmedy . In the fall of 1876, however, he resigned his mandate and went back to the Frankfurt grammar school. In 1880 he was appointed by Pope Leo XIII. appointed Apostolic Protonotary (highest level of honorary prelate).

From 1854 Janssen was a member of the Catholic Reading Association Berlin, now KStV Askania-Burgundia in the KV .

Janssen died on December 24, 1891 in Frankfurt am Main. His grave is in the Frankfurt main cemetery .

plant

Janssen was one of the main exponents of so-called ultramontane historiography and was also considered the most important Catholic historian at the time. He was heavily influenced by Ignaz von Döllinger's early historiography . His most influential work is The History of the German People since the End of the Middle Ages , published in eight volumes from 1878 to 1894. In this work he showed himself to be a staunch opponent of the Lutheran Reformation and tried to prove that the Protestants were responsible for the social, political and confessional restlessness in Germany during the 16th and 17th centuries. Through his ties to the Catholic Center Party, he tried, with some success, to transfer the convictions he had set out in the history of the German people to daily politics.

His view led to numerous controversies, especially on the part of Protestants, u. a. with August Ebrard , Max Lenz , Hermann Baumgarten , which he himself made public with the works A Word to My Critics (1882) and A Second Word to My Critics (1883). In the debates, scientific objectivity was often overshadowed by the passionate excitement that characterized the period after the Kulturkampf. (This was equally true for the historiography of both denominational camps.) One of the few Protestant historians who tried to classify Janssen's work objectively was Wilhelm Maurenbrecher , albeit without approving of Janssen's basic tendency to view history . Maurenbrecher emphasized - in contrast to the usual criticism from the Protestant side - the expressive language, which is committed to the sources, and the clear presentation of the material in Janssen. Although he does not share Janssen's one-sided view, he praised his efforts to portray the negative consequences of the Reformation, which Protestant church historians, historians and theologians used to overlook in his day.

Despite some one-sided tendencies in his work, the importance of Janssen's work has not been denied. The numerous editions that even Leopold von Ranke did not achieve confirm this impressively. Its influence must be considered long-lasting. Friedrich Nietzsche's negative assessment of the Reformation and Martin Luther - in contrast to the Protestant narrative of the 19th century about the great reformer and proclaimer of freedom - goes back in part to his reading of Janssen's history of the German people since the end of the Middle Ages . It was noticeable until the 1920s, although denominational tensions were already beginning to decrease during the First World War . Important Catholic representatives of a new image of Luther in the 20th century are Adolf Herte , Joseph Lortz , Hubert Jedin , Erwin Iserloh , Peter Manns and Otto Hermann Pesch . This is also recognized by the Protestant side. B. Gottfried Maron .

Janssen has a special place in German historiography because - before Karl Lamprecht - he was the first to write a kind of social history . He wanted to portray the negative consequences of the Reformation. In doing so, he came up with the thesis that the Reformation destroyed a “bloom of the late Middle Ages”. Janssen relied on art history, which was a real boom during this period. However, he overlooked the need for reform in the church and late medieval society. He deliberately highlighted the weaknesses of the Reformation and avoided highlighting the achievements and modern achievements of the epoch - especially among the Protestants.

One of the later most important representatives of this conception of history was Ludwig von Pastor . Janssen also maintained close contact with him. Other important representatives were Hartmann Grisar and Heinrich Denifle .

Archbishop and missionary Alois Benziger (1864–1942), who was important for Indian church history , was a private student of Johannes Janssen as a young man in Frankfurt.

Commemoration

In Recklinghausen, the "Johannes-Janssen-Straße" and a plaque commemorate Janssen's place of residence as a student.

Janssen's major works

  • Frankfurt's imperial correspondence along with other related documents from 1376–1519
  • Joh. Friedrich Böhmer's life, letters and smaller writings . Herder, Freiburg 1868.
  • Joh. Friedrich Böhmer's life and views. Adapted from the author's larger work: “Joh. Friedrich Böhmer's life, letters and smaller writings ” . Herder, Freiburg 1869.
  • The history of the German people since the end of the Middle Ages (8 vols., Herder, Freiburg, 1878-1894), which has seen numerous editions, has been supplemented and improved by Ludwig Pastor. The greater part of it was also translated into English by MA Mitchell and continued by A.M. Christie London, 1896 ff.
  • Schiller as a historian . Herder, Freiburg, 2nd rework. Ed. 1879.
  • France's lust for the Rhine and anti-German politics in earlier centuries . Herder, Freiburg, 2nd edition. 1883.

literature

  • Robert Hippe: Johannes Janssen (1829–1891) as a historian , Masch. Diss. Jena 1950.
  • Hubert Jedin : Research into the history of the church's Reformation since 1876 , Münster 1931 (deals with the dispute with Janssen, among other things).
  • Hubert Jedin:  Janssen, Johannes. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 10, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1974, ISBN 3-428-00191-5 , p. 343 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Franz Meister: Memory of Johannes Janssen , Frankfurt 1896.
  • Ludwig von Pastor : Johannes Janssen , Freiburg 1893.
  • Ludwig von Pastor:  Janssen, Johannes . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 50, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1905, pp. 733-741.
  • Ludwig von Pastor (Ed.): Janssens Briefe , 2 vols., Freiburg 1920.
  • Joachim Schüffler: Johannes Janssen in the mirror of criticism. A contribution to the history of the Reformation at the end of the 19th century , Masch. Diss. Jena 1967.
  • Mathieu Schwann: Johannes Janssen and the history of the German Reformation: A critical study , Mehrlich, Munich 1893. Digitized
  • Mario Todte: Wilhelm Maurenbrecher and the Lutheran Reformation: To deal with the denominational interpretations of Luther in the second half of the 19th century: a study of the history of reception , Leipzig 2001. ISBN 3-935693-08-7 (deals with Maurenbrecher's position on Catholic historiography, especially Janssens).
  • Walter Troxler: An outsider of historiography: Johannes Janssen 1829-1891. Studies on the life and work of a Catholic historian , Pro Business, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-939430-37-7 .
  • Bernd Wildermuth :  Johannes Janssen (historian). In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 2, Bautz, Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-032-8 , Sp. 1552-1554.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Paul Verres: Festschrift for the 500th anniversary of the municipal high school in Recklinghausen. Recklinghausen 1929.
personal data
SURNAME Janssen, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Catholic priest and historian
DATE OF BIRTH April 10, 1829
PLACE OF BIRTH Xanten
DATE OF DEATH December 24, 1891
Place of death Frankfurt am Main