Karl Demeter

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Karl Demeter (born January 17, 1889 in Marktoberdorf ; † January 2, 1976 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German archivist , historian and sociologist . He worked as the head of the Federal Archives branch in Frankfurt am Main. His study of the German officer corps is still considered a fundamental work today.

Life

Demeter was born in 1889 as the son of a primary school teacher and his wife. From 1899 to 1908 he attended high school near St. Stephan in Augsburg. After graduating from high school, he studied at the Augsburg Lyceum for a year . From 1909 he studied at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich , in 1911 he moved to the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin (with Hans Delbrück, among others ). In 1914 he was with Gustav Roethe in Berlin with the dissertation Studies on Kurmainzer Chancellery Language (c. 1400–1550). A contribution to the history of the New High German written language to the Dr. phil. PhD.

During the First World War , Demeter worked in the war press office in Berlin from 1916 to 1918 . In 1915 he became a full-time employee of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica . In 1920 he joined the Prussian Secret State Archives as a volunteer and in the same year switched to the Reich Archives , where he was the first civilian to become a research assistant. In 1921 he was appointed archivist . In 1933 he was commissioned to head the Frankfurt department of the Reichsarchiv Potsdam. During the war he was a freelance worker at the Ergonomics Institute of the German Labor Front . From 1944 to 1947 he also worked as a consultant at the Sociographical Institute in Frankfurt am Main.

In 1952, the archive was renamed the Federal Archives Branch Office in Frankfurt. In 1954 he retired as director. Demeter was also a lecturer in military history from 1957 and finally an honorary professor at the University of Frankfurt am Main . He was a member of the Frankfurt Historical Commission and Scientific Advisory Board on the board of the Frankfurt Association for History and Regional Studies . His estate is in the holdings of the Frankfurt Institute for Urban History .

Demeter was of Catholic faith, and he represented his father as choir regent.

plant

Demeter published on the subjects of archives , economic and social history and on Prussian-German military history . He also made biographical contributions to the New German Biography (NDB).

Demeter's main work is a social history of the German officer corps. With its methodology and questions, this study, published for the first time in 1930, which dealt with topics such as origin, education, values ​​of honor and views of the officer corps and did not ignore critical questions, was an exception in German history at the time. Relaunched in 1962, it became a standard work of military historiography . Demeter's presentation of the Reichsarchiv from 1969 thematized the anti-republican tendencies within the archive cautiously critically, but predominantly apologetically .

Fonts (selection)

  • Studies of the Kurmainzer chancellery language (c. 1400–1550). A contribution to the history of the New High German written language . Dissertation, Darmstadt, 1916. (published in: Archives for Hessian History and Archeology, born 1917)
  • The German officer corps in its historical-sociological foundations . With a foreword by Hermann Mertz von Quirnheim , Reimar Hobbing, Berlin 1930.
  • 4th, revised and expanded edition: The German Officer Corps in Society and State 1650–1945 . Bernard & Graefe, Frankfurt am Main 1965.
  • English translation by Angus Malcolm: The German Officer-Corps in society and state 1650–1945 . With an introduction by Michael Howard , Praeger, New York a. a. 1965.
  • (Ed.): Greater German Voices 1848/49. Letters, diary sheets, input from the people . Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1939.
  • The Frankfurt Lodge for Unity 1742–1966. A contribution to German intellectual and social history . Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1967.
  • The Reich Archives. Facts and people . Bernard & Graefe, Frankfurt am Main 1969.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Karl Demeter: Studies on Kurmainzer Chancellery Language (c. 1400–1550). A contribution to the history of the New High German written language . Darmstadt 1916, p. 111.
  2. ↑ Karl Demeter: Studies on Kurmainzer Chancellery Language (c. 1400–1550). A contribution to the history of the New High German written language . Darmstadt 1916, p. 5.
  3. ↑ a b c d e Rudolf Vierhaus (Ed.): German Biographical Encyclopedia . 2nd edition, KG Saur Verlag, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-598-25032-0 , p. 547.
  4. ^ A b c Karl Heinz Roth : Intelligence and social policy in the "Third Reich". A methodological-historical study using the example of the Ergonomic Institute of the German Labor Front . KG Saur Verlag, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-598-11166-5 , p. 205.
  5. ^ A b Herbert Grundmann : On the history of the MGH / Monumenta Germaniae Historica 1819–1969 . Reprint from 1969, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-921575-90-7 , p. 33.
  6. ↑ a b Markus Pöhlmann : War history and historical politics: The First World War. The official German military historiography 1914–1956 (= War in History . Vol. 12). Schöningh, Paderborn u. a. 2002, ISBN 3-506-74481-X , p. 27.
  7. ^ A b Karl Heinz Roth: Intelligence and Social Policy in the "Third Reich". A methodological-historical study using the example of the Ergonomic Institute of the German Labor Front . KG Saur Verlag, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-598-11166-5 , p. 303.
  8. ↑ a b c Institute for City History Karmeliterkloster, Frankfurt am Main, inventory of the “Collections” department, call number: S 1/83.
  9. ↑ see list of authors: Otto Büsch, Wolfgang Neugebauer (Ed.): Moderne Prussische Geschichte, 1648–1947. An anthology (= publications of the Historical Commission in Berlin . Volume 52). Volume 1, de Gruyter, Berlin a. a. 1981, ISBN 3-11-008324-8 , p. Xv.
  10. ↑ cf. NDB.
  11. ^ Markus Pöhlmann : War history and history policy: The First World War. The official German military historiography 1914–1956 (= War in History . Vol. 12). Schöningh, Paderborn u. a. 2002, ISBN 3-506-74481-X , p. 228 f.
personal data
SURNAME Demeter, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German archivist, historian and sociologist
DATE OF BIRTH January 17, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Marktoberdorf
DATE OF DEATH 2nd January 1976
Place of death Frankfurt am Main