Josef Engel (historian)

Josef Engel (born March 5, 1922 in Brühl , † December 17, 1978 in Tübingen ) was a German historian.

Engel attended the old-language grammar school in his hometown, was drafted into the Reich Labor Service and then into the Wehrmacht , in which he served until the end of the war - severely wounded several times. He lost both parents in an air raid on Brühl in March 1945. After a short American captivity, he began his studies in 1946 at the University of Cologne , initially focusing on German studies , but soon focused on history under the influence of Gerhard Kallen , Peter Rassow and Theodor Schieder . In 1950 he was in Schieder with a thesis on Jacob Burckhardt's worldview doctorate and worked subsequently as an assistant at the University of Cologne. There followed in 1958 the habilitation with the unprinted text Congress and State System. Volume I: Latin Middle Ages and Saracen World . In the summer semester of 1961, Engel received an extraordinary position at the University of Mainz , but in the winter semester of 1961/62 he switched to the University of Tübingen as the successor to Hans Rothfels , where he held a chair for Medieval and Modern History. Here Engel researched and taught until his early death, his health badly damaged by the consequences of the war. Volker Press became his successor .

Since his habilitation thesis, Engels' research focus has included the history of international law and the development of the European state system. In addition, he devoted himself intensively to historical cartography and edited the volumes Middle Ages and Modern Times of the widespread work Great Historical World Atlas in the Bavarian school book publisher . With his article published in the historical journal The German Universities and History in 1959 , he made a contribution to the history of science. With Heiko A. Oberman , he was one of the initiators of the Collaborative Research Center for the Late Middle Ages and Reformation of the German Research Foundation , which began its work in 1973 and acted as deputy spokesman for the angel. The contribution From the res publica Christiana to the Powers Europe of the Modern Era, published in 1971 as the introduction to Volume 3 of the Handbook of European History , can be viewed as a great synthesis of Engels' research on the transition from the Middle Ages to the modern age .

Fonts (selection)

• The German universities and history. In: Historische Zeitschrift 189 (1959), pp. 223–378.
• From the late medieval res publica Christiana to the power Europe of the modern age. In: Theodor Schieder (ed.): Handbook of European history. Volume 3. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1971, pp. 1-443.

literature

• Ernst Walter Zeeden : Josef Engel (1922–1978). In: Historische Zeitschrift 229 (1979), pp. 515-518.

Web links

• Part of Josef Engels' estate in the Tübingen University Archives