Group biography

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A group biography is a biographical reference work that restricts itself to a specific group when it comes to selecting the people portrayed. Such groups can be determined by:

  • Gender (example: Chambers biographical dictionary of women. ), Here in particular the very numerous works that intersect with other specializations, for example on women working in a certain discipline (examples: Philosophinnen-Lexikon. Leipzig 1997; Delia Gaze (ed. ): Dictionary of woman artists. London & Chicago 1997)
  • social class, for example members of the nobility (example: Gothaischer Hofkalender )
  • political party (example: Jürgen Mittag: The Württemberg SPD in the Weimar Republic. Vierow near Greifswald 1997)
  • Weltanschauung (example: John Button: The radicalism handbook. London 1995)
  • Denomination (Example: Hellmuth Hecker: Life Pictures of German Buddhists. Konstanz 1996 f.)
  • Religious culture, especially Judaism (example: David Korn: Who is who in Judaism? Munich 1996)
  • sexual orientation (example: Karen-Susan Fessel, Axel Schock: Out! 500 famous gays, lesbians and bisexuals. Berlin 1997)

A separate group is formed by the specialist biographies that represent members of a scientific discipline (example: Who was who in egyptology. London 1995) and, in some cases, it is difficult to distinguish the professional biographies with practitioners of a certain profession (example: Alma Kreuter: German-speaking neurologists and psychiatrists. Munich 1996). This also includes the large group of literary encyclopedias (example: Killy literary encyclopedia ). Specialized biographies that are limited to academics and recognized scientists are also referred to as scholars ' lexicon .

Disciplines or professions that are often the subject of specialist or professional biographies: explorers , film directors , photographers , Germanists , historians , lawyers , artists , art historians , musicians , natural scientists , philosophers , political scientists , writers , sexologists , sociologists .

Finally, there are the institutional biographies , which are limited to members of an institution, for example a scientific society (example: membership directory of the German Mathematicians Association ). If such works refer to the members of a (national) professional or professional association, there is an overlap with the professional or professional biography. This also includes information resources on members of clubs and associations, for example student associations (example: Helge Dvorak: Biographisches Lexikon der Deutschen Burschenschaft. Heidelberg 1996–1999).

Works that appear in periodic, updated editions that seek to capture (living) members of a group as completely as possible and usually only offer short biographies are also referred to as calendars , including in particular the nobility calendar (example: Genealogical handbook of the nobility ) and the scholar's calendar (example : Kürschner's German Scholars Calendar ) and the literature calendar , which lists authors and people working in the book industry (example: Kürschner's German Literature Calendar ).

Deviating from the terms described, one designates:

  • the history or representation of the development of a (music) group also as a group biography ,
  • the professional career of a person also as a professional biography ,
  • a chronological representation of the literarily significant events of a year also as a literary calendar .

literature

  • Klaus Schreiber: Biographische Informationsmittel: Typology with examples: Reviews of 836 general and technical collective biographies from the beginning of the nineties to the end of 1998. Vol. 1. Deutsches Bibliotheksinstitut, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-87068-549-2 , p. 30 ff.