Karl Adolf Menzel

Karl Adolf Menzel (born December 7, 1784 in Grünberg , † August 19, 1855 in Breslau ) was a German educator , consistorial councilor and historian .

Life

Karl Adolf Menzel: Modern history of the Germans from the Reformation to the federal act. Title page of the first volume, 1826

After the death of his father, an administrative clerk, Karl Adolf Menzel came to Breslau in 1790 in the care of his mother's brother, the philologist and writer Georg Gustav Fülleborn , who particularly promoted his historical interest. Menzel graduated from Elisabethgymnasium and then studied Protestant theology in Halle . After the first exam, he became a teacher at Johann Wilhelm Oelsner's private school in Breslau, and during this time he began to publish local history. In 1807 he took over the management of a private school in Liegnitz . In 1809, at the age of 25, he became a grammar school professor at the Elisabethgymnasium in Breslau, and in 1814 he became vice-rector and, associated with it, head of the Bibliotheca Rehdigerana . In 1813, during the stay of the Prussian royal family in Breslau, he taught history to Princes Wilhelm and Carl . In 1815 he began a long polemic against the gymnastics movement , the Breslau gymnastics feud ; his opponent in Breslau was Franz Passow .

In 1824 Menzel was appointed to the consistorial council. His task was to oversee the entire higher education system in the province of Silesia , which he exercised with energy and strict performance requirements. His main work, the Modern History of the Germans from the Reformation to the Federal Act , appeared in twelve volumes from 1826 to 1848 and was reprinted from 1854. In it he endeavored to overcome the points of view that were determined by the respective denominational standpoint at the time, but, according to Leopold von Rankes' judgment, placed the Reformation in too negative a light.

With the Raumer Ministry (from 1850) Menzel got into a fundamental disagreement and finally asked for his release, which was honored in 1855.

literature

• Colmar Grünhagen :  Menzel, Karl Adolf . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1885, p. 380 f.
• Karl Adolf Menzel . In: Theodor Westrin (Ed.): Nordisk familjebok konversationslexikon och realencyklopedi . 2nd Edition. tape 18 : Mekaniker – Mycale . Nordisk familjeboks förlag, Stockholm 1913, Sp. 144-145 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).

Web links

Commons : Karl Adolf Menzel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Works by and about Karl Adolf Menzel  in the German Digital Library
• Karl Adolf Menzel in the Internet Archive
• Portrait in the culture portal West-Ost