Konrad Maurer

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Oil portrait of Konrad Maurer, painted in 1876 by Knud Bergslien , owned by the University of Oslo

Konrad Heinrich Maurer , from 1876 Ritter von Maurer (born April 29, 1823 in Frankenthal (Palatinate) , † September 16, 1902 in Munich ) was a Bavarian legal historian , philologist and Nordicist . Maurer is considered one of the most important researchers of the Old Norse legal and constitutional history.

Life

youth

Konrad Maurer was born in 1823 as the only son of Georg Ludwig von Maurer and Friederike Maurer. Heydweiller born. He also had an older sister, Charlotte (1821–1874). In 1826 the family moved from the Palatinate to Munich because the father had been appointed professor of German legal history at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich . Konrad Maurer grew up here and lost his mother at the age of seven. He spent two years of his childhood in Greece, where his father, who had been Bavarian Imperial Councilor since 1831 , was appointed to the Regency Council of King Otto . The family then moved back to Munich.

Konrad Maurer was tutored by private tutors and completed his school education in 1839 at the old grammar school (today Wilhelmsgymnasium Munich ). As a teenager, encouraged by his uncle, the Heidelberg chemist Leopold Gmelin , he felt a great inclination towards the natural sciences, especially mineralogy . However, he bowed to his father's will and studied law in Munich, Leipzig and Berlin. The philologist Leonhard Spengel , the legal scholar Wilhelm Eduard Albrecht , the legal historian Carl Gustav Homeyer , the constitutional lawyer Karl von Richthofen and the founder of German philology and classical studies Jacob Grimm were influential to Maurer during his student days .

In 1844 he passed the examination for the legal civil service and then worked for the first years at the royal district court in Au .

1846-1857

Middle-aged Konrad Maurer

Maurer received his doctorate in Munich in 1845 at the age of 22 with the dissertation on the nature of the oldest nobility of the German tribes in their relationship to common freedom and from 1847, against his own will, was appointed extraordinary professor of rights at the University of Munich. In 1855 he was promoted to full professor of German private law and German constitutional law .

Maurer developed a special interest in the Nordic peoples and their culture, literature and history, especially Iceland and Norway . By appropriating the Scandinavian languages, including Icelandic, he was able to tap into the Scandinavian medieval legal sources. In 1852 he published his first major work on the legal history of Iceland, The emergence of the Icelandic state and its constitution . In it he emphasized the function of the Althings as the first European parliament and the role of the law spokesman elected for three years . Since the latter had no influence on the executive (this was in the hands of the Goden ), Maurer saw this as an early model of the separation of powers .

Maurer brought Iceland, which had been ruled by Norway since the 13th century and by Denmark in the 19th century and at that time was in an ongoing constitutional battle with Denmark for its independence, not only with research interests, but also with great respect and sympathy. From 1848 to 1874 he wrote several essays in which he uncompromisingly advocated the Icelandic side. His article The Island of Iceland and the Danish Basic Law, which appeared in three parts in the Allgemeine Zeitung in 1856 and translated into Icelandic a year later, proved to be particularly influential . Maurer supported the pioneer Jón Sigurðsson , with whom he was personally friends. In Iceland, Maurer is still one of the country's most important foreign sponsors.

In 1855/56 Maurer published his second major work, The Conversion of the Norwegian Tribe to Christianity in two volumes, one of the most important religious-historical works of the 19th century, in which he gives a comprehensive picture of the pagan religion of the Teutons. "To this day, his description of the conversion of the Norwegians can be considered the most important work ever written by a German historian on the medieval history of Norway."

Trip to Iceland in 1858

In 1858 Maurer traveled to Iceland at the age of 35 and spent the summer months there. From Copenhagen he reached Reykjavík Bay by steamboat . On horseback, accompanied by two Icelanders and another German scientist, the mineralogist Georg Winkler, he then crossed the little-developed island on an adventurous expedition and visited pastors, farmers, old thing sites, scenes of the sagas and natural monuments such as Þingvellir , geyser , den Goðafoss or Surtshellir . His reputation as a scholar and friend of Iceland, and his fluency in the language, proved to be of great help.

Inspired by the Brothers Grimm, Konrad Maurer used this trip to collect Icelandic folk tales , which he published in book form after his return. This was the first major publication of Icelandic sagas in German. Maurer also wrote a detailed travel report about this trip to Iceland, but never published it in his life. The manuscript of this book, which was thought to be lost and whose existence was only known from Maurer's letters, was rediscovered in 1972 by Kurt Schier in the possession of Maurer's descendants. In 1997 the travelogue was published in Icelandic. The German original text was published in 2017.

1859-1888

Bust of Konrad Maurer by Joseph Echteler , 1888, now owned by the National and University Library of Iceland

As an expert in Nordic legal history, Maurer gave lectures in Munich, Oslo and Copenhagen . With that he laid a foundation stone for the subject of Nordic Philology and Scandinavian Studies . In 1865, Maurer was accepted into the Bavarian Academy of Sciences for his pioneering research . From 1867 he was able to concentrate entirely on Nordic legal history. In Germany, Maurer is considered to be "the real pioneer of Nordic-Germanic legal research in Germany, as the founder of a continental German legal school for North-Germanic law, which should reach its climax with Karl von Amira ". In Scandinavia, on the other hand, Maurer is still rated much higher than Amira. In addition to Amira, important students of Maurer were among others Philipp Zorn , Wolfgang Golther , Karl Lehmann and Ernst Mayer .

In 1875, Maurer accepted a call from Christiania University (now Oslo University ) as a visiting professor. In 1876, the Norwegian university wanted to win him over and over and offered Maurer his own chair, which he refused. But he was made an honorary doctorate from the University of Christiania. In the same year Maurer was awarded the Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown and, based on the statutes of the order, raised to the personal nobility . But he refused to use the title of nobility all his life .

Konrad Maurer retired in 1888 for health reasons. His lectures, which he always gave freely, but carefully worked out in writing at home, were collected after Maurer's death by his Norwegian student Ebbe Hertzberg as a further, posthumous, major work in five volumes with a total of 3300 pages.

Family life and society

Masons in old age

A few days after his return from Iceland, Konrad Maurer married Valerie von Faulhaber. The marriage had eight children between 1859 and 1869, two of whom died in childhood. His eldest son Ludwig Maurer (1859–1927) became a professor of mathematics in Tübingen. Markus Maurer (1861–1891) taught history as a private lecturer in Würzburg. The youngest son Friedrich Maurer (1866-1914) became major of the 14th Bavarian Infantry Regiment and married Johanna Dehn, a daughter of the painter Georg Dehn .

Konrad Maurer was close friends with Alois von Brinz . He was also in friendly contact with Theodor Möbius . His Scandinavian friends included Guðbrandur Vigfússon , Peter Christen Asbjørnsen , Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson , Ebbe Hertzberg and Henrik Ibsen . In the 1870s, Maurer's apartment became a regular weekly meeting point for Scandinavian artists, writers and scholars in Munich (including Henrik Ibsen, Marcus Grønvold , Eilif Peterssen , Christian Meyer Ross , Oscar Wergeland and Sophus Bugge ).

Although Maurer was highly regarded as an outstanding scientist and pioneer of Nordic antiquity research, he was increasingly tormented by the fixed thought that he had missed his life through an academic career directed against his will. In old age, Mason became increasingly melancholy and withdrew from society.

tomb

Grave of Konrad Maurer on the old southern cemetery in Munich location

The tomb of Konrad Maurer is on the old southern cemetery in Munich (burial ground 30 - row 13 - 16th) Location . Tomb Mason consists of three stones from Icelandic columnar basalt that the drains from Íslands in 1998 donated on behalf of the Icelandic people.

estate

Maurer's important library, which he inherited from his father and expanded to over 9,000 works, was cataloged in 1903 and sold in 1904. Most of it, including all Nordic works, was acquired through the mediation of Archibald Cary Coolidge of Harvard University . They are now distributed among various libraries in Harvard. The legal works acquired the Bar Association of New York. Part of it is now in the library at Yale Law School and another part is in the library at George Washington University Law School.

A discount Mason is located in the University Library of the University of Munich .

Maurer's correspondence, which is in the National and University Library of Iceland , in the National Archives of Iceland , in the Riksarkivet , in the University Library of Oslo and in Oxford, has hardly been evaluated. It is known that he was in regular correspondence with Jón Sigurðsson, Guðbrandur Vigfússon, Jón Árnason and Gustav Storm, among others .

Honors

Source, unless otherwise stated:

Maurerstraße in the Munich district of Obergiesing-Fasangarten is named after him.

Important works

  • About the nature of the oldest nobility of the German tribes, in their relation to common freedom. Verlag der literarisch-artisticischen Anstalt, Munich 1846. ( Dissertation ; books.google.com )
  • The creation of the Icelandic state and its constitution. 1852, Textarchiv - Internet Archive
  • The conversion of the Norwegian tribe to Christianity, described in its historical course by sources. Volume I + II. Christian Kaiser, Munich 1855/56. (Digital copies at Google Books : Volume I , Volume II or: Volume I  - Internet Archive , Volume II  - Internet Archive ).
  • The Gull-Þóris Saga or Þorskfirðínga Saga. JC Hinrichs'sche Buchhandlung, Leipzig 1858. books.google.de
  • Icelandic folk tales of the present. Predominantly collected and translated into German based on oral tradition. JC Hinrichs'sche Buchhandlung, Leipzig 1860. books.google.de
  • Iceland, from its first discovery to the fall of the Free State. Christian Kaiser, Munich 1874, archive.org
  • On the political history of Iceland. Collected Essays. Schlicke, Leipzig 1880, archive.org
  • Lectures on Old Norse legal history. 5 volumes 1907–1910 ( posthumously ).
    1. First half: Old Norwegian constitutional law . Second half: Old Norwegian judiciary . 1907, archive.org .
    2. About the Old Norse church constitution and marriage law. 1908, archive.org .
    3. Kinship and inheritance law including lien according to Old Norse law. 1908, archive.org .
    4. The constitutional law of the Icelandic Free State. 1909, archive.org .
    5. Old Icelandic Criminal Law and Judiciary. 1910, archive.org .
  • Íslandsferð 1858. Translated by Baldur Hafstað. Ferðafélag Íslands, Reykjavík 1997, ISBN 9979-9254-5-0 .
  • Alessia Bauer, Kurt Schier (ed.): Konrad Maurer, Journey to Iceland (in the summer of 1858). Annotated edition. 2 volumes. Herbert Utz Verlag, Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-8316-4677-7 .

literature

Web links

Commons : Konrad von Maurer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Konrad von Maurer  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Max Leitschuh: The matriculations of the upper classes of the Wilhelmsgymnasium in Munich. 4 volumes. Volume 4, Munich 1970–1976, p. 16.
  2. ^ Ernst Mayer : Konrad Maurer. In: Journal of the Savignystiftung for legal history. Germ. Dept. 24, 1903, pp. V-XXVII. (Digitized version)
  3. ^ Peter Landau: Konrad Maurer (1823-1902). In: thinkers, researchers and discoverers. A history of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. 2009.
  4. ↑ The island of Iceland and the Danish constitution. In: Allgemeine Zeitung. October 2, 10 and 11, 1856, online: Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 . Reprint: On the political history of Iceland. Collected Essays. Leipzig 1880, pp. 1–32, archive.org . Translation: Um landsréttindi Íslands. Ný Félagsrit, 1857, pp. 54–78, timarit.is
  5. ^ Peter Landau: Konrad Maurer (1823-1902). In: thinkers, researchers and discoverers. A history of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. (2009).
  6. ↑ Translated by Baldur Hafstað as a festival edition on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Icelandic cruising club (Ferðafélag). See review in: Saga, 1998, 36, pp. 350–355 , accessed January 1, 2019
  7. ^ Hans Feine: The legal historians. In: Geist und Gestalt (Biographical contributions to the history of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, mainly in the second century of its existence). First volume: humanities. Munich 1959, p. 228.
  8. ^ Gebhard Carsten: German-Norwegian relations in the field of law in the 19th century. In: Peter-Christian Müller-Graff, Erling Selvig (Ed.): European Law in the German-Norwegian Context. Berlin Verlag, Berlin 2002, pp. 11–36.
  9. ^ Guðbrandur Vigfússon, Theodor Möbius: Fornsögur. 1860, dedication and foreword
  10. ↑ Kurt Schier : Konrad Maurer and the beginning of Nordic studies at the University of Munich. In: Klaus Böldl, Miriam Kauko (ed.): Continuity in criticism. For the 50th anniversary of the Munich Nordic Institute: Historical and Current Perspectives in Scandinavian Studies. (= Rombach Sciences. Nordica. Volume 8). Rombach, Freiburg i. Br. 2005, p. 19ff.
  11. ^ Catalog of the library of the late university professor Konrad von Maurer. Munich 1903, Textarchiv - Internet Archive
  12. ^ Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College 1903-04. (= The University Publication. Vol. II. No. 4). Harvard University, Cambridge MA 1905, p. 214 ff.
  13. ↑ a b c Konrad Maurer . In: Theodor Westrin (Ed.): Nordisk familjebok konversationslexikon och realencyklopedi . 2nd Edition. tape 17 : Lux-Mekanik . Nordisk familjeboks förlag, Stockholm 1912, Sp. 1298 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).
  14. ↑ Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab 1742–1942 , Volume 1
  15. ^ Members of the previous academies. Konrad von Maurer. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences , accessed on May 5, 2015 .
  16. ↑ Chronicle of the LMU, p. 5, quoted in Biró, Harmen: Konrad Maurer's trip to Iceland in 1858 - land acquisition and abandonment. P. 24f.
personal data
SURNAME Mason, Konrad
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Maurer, Konrad Heinrich Ritter von (full name); Mason, Konrad
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German legal historian
DATE OF BIRTH April 29, 1823
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankenthal (Palatinate)
DATE OF DEATH September 16, 1902
Place of death Munich