Constance working group for medieval history

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The Constance Working Group for Medieval History e. V. is an association founded in 1960 for the purpose of "promoting medieval historical research", which aims to develop important and advanced issues in medieval studies . The means for this are the conferences on the island of Reichenau , which are held twice a year with international experts. The Konstanz working group is one of the most renowned institutions for German-speaking medieval research. The publication series Lectures and Research resulting from the conferences is one of the most respected series in the study of the Middle Ages.

history

Institutionally, the association was preceded by the municipal institute for historical research in the Lake Constance region , which was established by the city of Constance in 1951; The Constance archivist Otto Feger has been in charge of founding such an institute since 1945 . When the medievalist Theodor Mayer succeeded in winning over the plans in 1950, the “Municipal Institute for Landscape Science of the Lake Constance Region” was founded on October 30, 1951. Heinrich Büttner gave the keynote address. In the first years after the establishment of the working group meetings also were Mainau Castle , Schloss Zeil in Donaueschingen and Lindau held. Since 1957 the conferences have taken place exclusively on the island of Reichenau. The Hotel Kaiserpfalz served as a conference venue for forty years. In 1997 the hotel was closed and sold to the Sparkasse. The premises were demolished. However, the working group stayed on the island and holds the meetings twice a year in the family rest home on Markusstrasse. Because of the necessary renovation work there, the conferences took place in autumn 2013 and spring 2014 on the north bank of the Untersee in Haus St. Elisabeth in Hegne . At the conferences, discussions and lectures are held in closed circles. The results of the conferences will only be made available to the public with the conference minutes and, above all, with the printed conference proceedings in the series of lectures and research . Public lectures are rarely on the program of individual conferences.

At the conference practice of the Constance Working Group for Medieval History, Anne Christine Nagel emphasizes the tendency towards continuity with the time before 1945. The two days a year were based on the “war effort of the humanities” . Mayer had already practiced this as a leader in 1941. In addition, the conferences before and after the war were interdisciplinary and took place under a given topic.

In March 1960, the Konstanz Working Group was founded . According to Nagel, this was done primarily with the intention of gaining access to the funds promised by the Federal Ministry of the Interior. In addition to Mayer, the founding members included the medievalists Karl Bosl , Walter Schlesinger , Helmut Beumann , Heinrich Büttner, Eugen Ewig , Otto Feger and Franz Steinbach as well as the Munich Byzantinist Hans-Georg Beck . Most of the founding members were relatively young. Eight of them were in active service as university lecturers. By 1969 the number of members increased by eight, by 1979 by seven, by 1989 by eleven and by 1999 by a further nineteen members. In 1999 the working group had 38 members. 24 university locations were represented in the district. Until 2001 there were no women among the members of the working group apart from the secretary Traute Endemann . In the mid-1960s, Anne Christine Nagel fought a “class war, professors vs. Archivists ”, which in the meantime poisoned the climate in the Konstanz working group. The association chairmen were regularly among the most renowned representatives of their field.

The results of the conferences have been published in the Lectures and Research series since 1952 . Volume 87 was published in 2019; the contributions are available in digital form except for the three most recent years. From volume 81, English summaries of all contributions were introduced. These publications are supplemented by the series of special volumes , which are monographs that were created in the vicinity of the association and in which 57 volumes had appeared by 2015.

According to Werner Paravicini , the Constance working group was "a reservoir for those who came short after 1945". It took a long time before new topics were taken up by the working group. Anne Christine Nagel dealt with the question of whether and in what form the working group contributed “to the reintegration of German historians into the community of European historical studies”. According to Nagel, the district remained “an outsider company” until the early 1980s. This opinion is controversial in the professional world. According to Nagel's conclusion, the working group "certainly did not hinder the reintegration of German historical studies into the European context, [...] but did not particularly promote it either".

Chairperson

literature

  • Traute Endemann (ed.): History of the Konstanz working group. Development and structures 1951–2001. Thorbecke, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 978-3-7995-6907-1 .
  • Johannes Fried (Hrsg.): Forty Years Constance Working Group for Medieval History. Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1991, ISBN 3-7995-6905-7 .
  • Anne Christine Nagel : “Summit of Medievalists”. The Constance Working Group for Medieval History. In: Ulrich Pfeil (Hrsg.): The return of German historical studies to the “ecumenism of historians.” An approach to the history of science (= Paris historical studies. Vol. 89). Oldenbourg, Munich 2008, ISBN 3-486-58795-1 , pp. 73-89 ( digitized version )
  • Anne Christine Nagel: In the shadow of the Third Reich. Medieval research in the Federal Republic of Germany 1945-1970 (= forms of memory. Vol. 24). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-525-35583-1 , pp. 156-187.
  • Jürgen Petersohn (Ed.): The Constance Working Group for Medieval History. The members and their work. A bio-bibliographical documentation (= publications of the Constance Working Group for Medieval History on the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary 1951–2001. Vol. 2). Thorbecke, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-7995-6906-5
  • Stefan Weinfurter : Locations of Medieval Studies. The Konstanz working group as reflected in its meetings. In: Peter Moraw and Rudolf Schieffer (eds.): The German-speaking Medieval Studies in the 20th Century (= lectures and research. Vol. 63). Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2005, ISBN 3-7995-6862-X , pp. 9–38 ( digitized version )

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Konstanzer Arbeitskreis ( Memento of the original from March 27, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.konstanzer-arbeitskreis.de
  2. ^ Anne Christine Nagel: In the shadow of the Third Reich. Medieval research in the Federal Republic of Germany 1945–1970. Göttingen 2005, p. 176 f.
  3. ^ Anne Christine Nagel: In the shadow of the Third Reich. Medieval research in the Federal Republic of Germany 1945–1970. Göttingen 2005, p. 177.
  4. ^ Anne Christine Nagel: In the shadow of the Third Reich. Medieval research in the Federal Republic of Germany 1945–1970. Göttingen 2005, p. 178.
  5. ^ Anne Christine Nagel: In the shadow of the Third Reich. Medieval research in the Federal Republic of Germany 1945–1970. Göttingen 2005, p. 186 f. with note 84, quotation from a letter from the Konstanz archivist Otto Feger to Walter Schlesinger from April 19, 1964.
  6. ^ Werner Paravicini: Between admiration and contempt. French and German Medieval Studies since the last war. In: Peter Moraw, Rudolf Schieffer (Ed.): The German-speaking Medieval Studies in the 20th Century. Ostfildern 2005, pp. 175–230, here: p. 199 ( online ).
  7. ^ Anne Christine Nagel: "Summit of Medievalists". The Constance Working Group for Medieval History. In: Ulrich Pfeil (Hrsg.): The return of German history to the “ecumenism of historians.” An approach to the history of science. Munich 2008, pp. 73–89, here: p. 75.
  8. ^ Anne Christine Nagel: "Summit of Medievalists". The Constance Working Group for Medieval History. In: Ulrich Pfeil (Hrsg.): The return of German history to the “ecumenism of historians.” An approach to the history of science. Munich 2008, pp. 73–89, here: p. 88.
  9. ^ Matthias Werner : The beginnings of the German Historical Institute in Paris and the return of German history to the 'ecumenical movement of historians'. The publications on the 50th anniversary of the founding of the DHIP as a contribution to scientific and contemporary history and its Rhenish references. In: Rheinische Vierteljahrsblätter . Vol. 79 (2015) pp. 212–245, here: p. 232.
  10. ^ Anne Christine Nagel: "Summit of Medievalists". The Constance Working Group for Medieval History. In: Ulrich Pfeil (Hrsg.): The return of German history to the “ecumenism of historians.” An approach to the history of science. Munich 2008, pp. 73–89, here: p. 89.