Kaspar Elm

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Kaspar Joseph Elm (born September 23, 1929 in Xanten ; † February 5, 2019 in Berlin ) was a German historian . Elm taught as a professor at Bielefeld University (1969–1974) and at the Free University of Berlin (1974–1997). He was one of the leading explorers of medieval religious orders.

Live and act

Kaspar Elm, son of Kaspar Johann Elm and Euphemia geb. Rüther, attended elementary school from 1936 and then from 1940 to 1944 the Rector's School in Xanten (today's Stiftsgymnasium Xanten ). From 1946 he attended the Dionysianum high school in Rheine and in 1950 began studying history, German philology and Latin philology at the University of Münster , which he continued from 1952 at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau and from 1953 again in Münster in 1955 with the Completed state examination. His most important academic teacher was Herbert Grundmann .

After completing his legal clerkship from 1956 to 1957, Elm was a research assistant at the University of Münster from 1958 to 1962, where he received his doctorate in 1959 with his dissertation The Tuscan Hermitism of the 12th and 13th Centuries . During his time as a research assistant at the University of Freiburg with Otto Herding from 1962 to 1964, Elm completed his habilitation in 1964 with the text History and Self-Understanding of the Latin Chapter of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem and was university lecturer at the University of Freiburg until 1968. From 1969 to 1974 Elm was a university professor at Bielefeld University. There he played a key role in the development and expansion of the Faculty of History and Philosophy. and then worked as a university professor at the Free University of Berlin until his retirement in October 1997. In 1999 Elm was visiting professor at the University of California , and in 2000 at the University of Budapest . Elm had numerous PhD students. However, no school developed in the sense of a group of students with a common research area.

His main research interests include ecclesiastical historical topics such as religious movements, orders and heresies , the crusades and the Holy Land. He founded the series of the Berlin Order Studies . During his activity as a university professor, Elm also held a number of different offices, including Vice President of the Commission Internationale d'Histoire Ecclésiastique Comparée, full member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts Salzburg , member of the Central Directorate of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica , full member the Historical Commission for Westphalia (since 1972), corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen (since 1982), Chairman of the Diocesan History Association Berlin, member of the Approval Committee of the German Research Foundation and reviewer for the Max Planck Society and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation . In addition, Elm received the Hedwig Medal for special services to the Archdiocese of Berlin and an honorary doctorate from the University of Giessen .

Elm got involved in numerous social projects in the Holy Land . He was a member of the German Association of the Holy Land . In 1987 Kaspar Elm was appointed Knight of the Order of Knights of the Holy Sepulcher by Cardinal Grand Master Maximilien de Fürstenberg and invested in Karlsruhe on October 17, 1987 by Bishop Franz Hengsbach , Grand Prior of the German Lieutenancy . He was Commander of the Order. According to Nikolaus Staubach , Elm has earned merit in elevating traditional medieval religious research to the rank of a mediaeval sub-discipline by combining detailed research with general, intellectual, educational and social-historical issues from the area of ​​association interests.

He was married. There were four children from the marriage, including the ancient historian Susanna Elm . Elm died at the age of 90 on February 5, 2019 in Berlin. He was buried in the St-Annen-Friedhof .

Fonts

A list of publications appeared in: Franz Josef Felten , Nikolas Jaspert (ed.): Vita Religiosa in the Middle Ages. Festschrift for Kaspar Elm on his 70th birthday (= religious studies. Vol. 13). Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-428-09965-6 , pp. 961-979.

  • Contributions to the history of the Wilhelmite order. (= Münster research , 14). Cologne / Graz 1962.
  • Sources on the history of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher in northwestern Europe from German and Dutch archives (1191–1603). Brussels 1976.
  • Medieval religious life in Westphalia and the Lower Rhine. (= Studies and sources on Westphalian history , 27). Paderborn 1989.
  • Vitasfratrum. Contributions to the history of the hermit and mendicant orders of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries . (= Saxonia Franciscana , 5). Werl 1994.
  • Umbilicus Mundi. Contributions to the history of Jerusalem, the Crusades, the Order of the Regulated Canons of the Holy Sepulcher and the Knightly Orders. (= Instrumenta Canonissarum Regularium Sancti Sepulcri , 7). Bruges 1998.

literature

  • Franz Josef Felten, Nikolas Jaspert (Ed.): Vita Religiosa in the Middle Ages. Festschrift for Kaspar Elm on his 70th birthday. (= Religious studies. Vol. 13). Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-428-09965-6 .
  • Ralf Lützelschwab: Obituary for Kaspar Elm (1919−2019) . In: Cistercienser Chronik 126 vol. (2019), pp. 341–343.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Franz Josef Felten, Nikolas Jaspert: For guidance. In this. (Ed.): Vita Religiosa in the Middle Ages. Festschrift for Kaspar Elm on his 70th birthday. Berlin 1999, SX – XV, here: S. XII.
  2. ↑ Franz Josef Felten, Nikolas Jaspert: For guidance. In this. (Ed.): Vita Religiosa in the Middle Ages. Festschrift for Kaspar Elm on his 70th birthday. Berlin 1999, SX – XV, here: S. XIV.
  3. ↑ See the review on Kaspar Elm. Medieval religious life in Westphalia and on the Lower Rhine in: Historische Zeitschrift 255, 1992, pp. 745–746, here: p. 746.
  4. ↑ Obituary notice Kaspar Elm . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of February 16, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Elm, Kaspar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Elm, Kaspar Joseph (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian
DATE OF BIRTH September 23, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Xanten
DATE OF DEATH 5th February 2019
Place of death Berlin