Ludwig Schlesinger (historian)

Ludwig Schlesinger, lithograph by Adolf Dauthage , ca.1880

Ludwig Schlesinger (born October 13, 1838 in Oberleutensdorf ; † December 24, 1899 in Leitmeritz ) was a German-Bohemian historian and politician .

Life

Ludwig Schlesinger was a son of the master plumber August Wilhelm Schlesinger and Marie Schlesinger, nee. Helbig. He was married to Ida Meissler († 1897), with whom he had two children.

He attended high schools in Komotau and Brüx . From 1857 he then studied history, philosophy, classical philology and mathematics at the University of Prague, where he was chairman of the reading and speech hall for German students in 1858/59 (1862 Dr. phil., 1863 teaching qualification). During his studies in 1861 he became a member of the Albia Prague fraternity . From 1865 to 1868 teacher at the German secondary school in Prague , he became director of the municipal secondary school in Leitmeritz in 1869 and of the Prague German girls' high school in 1876.

In 1862, the Association for the History of Germans in Bohemia , which was co-initiated by Schlesinger, was founded with the aim of combining popular education, historical research and politics. From 1870 to 1890 Schlesinger acted as editor of the association's communications , in 1877 he was elected its vice-president and in 1892 president. In addition, he belonged to numerous other associations with national political and national education objectives, for example the German Association for the Dissemination of Non-Profit Knowledge (founded in 1869) in Prague; In 1891 he became deputy chairman of the newly founded Society for the Promotion of German Science, Art and Literature in Bohemia .

Schlesinger's historiographical work is closely linked to the German-Bohemian criticism of František Palacký's Geschichte von Böhmen (5 vols., 1836–67), primarily by Constantin von Höfler (1811–1897), Schlesinger's academic teacher and first vice-president of the history association Germans in Bohemia was presented. On behalf of the association, Schlesinger wrote a Popular History of Bohemia (1869, 1870) in order to honor the contribution of German Bohemians to the national history and to raise their national awareness through historical retrospect. The publication of numerous city chronicles and document books, which he suggested (partly supervised by himself), aimed in the same direction.

Schlesinger was involved in local and party politics: from 1870 he was a member of the Bohemian state parliament and from 1885 state committee assessor, where he led the financial department. After the death of Franz Schmeykal (1826–94) he, an early proponent of an administrative division of Bohemia, took over the leadership of the German Liberal Party in Bohemia. In the separation into a nationally more explicit and a more moderate wing in 1896/97, however, he gathered the more moderate forces in the German Progressive Party , the establishment of which was prepared during a plenary meeting of the Association for the History of Germans in Bohemia . Even after the Baden language ordinances were passed (April 1897), Schlesinger did not want to break off all contacts with the government, as in his view of the world the national principle ranked behind the liberal principle, for whose practical implementation a centrally organized state offered better conditions in his view.

Works

as editor

• City book of Brüx up to the year 1526. Prague / Leipzig / Vienna 1876 ( e-copy ).
• The chronicle of the city of Elbogen . 1879
• Simon Hüttel's chronicle of the city of Trautenau . 1881
• Deed book of the city of Saaz . 1892

as an author

• History of Bohemia . Prague and Leipzig 1869 ( e-copy ).
• The position of the Germans in the history of Bohemia . 2nd edition, Prague 1870 ( e-copy ).
• Saaz's document book . In: Communications from the Association for the History of Germans in Bohemia . Volume 11, Prague 1873, pp. 1-13 .
• The nationality relations in Bohemia. 1886
• On the history of industry in Oberleutensdorf . In: Communications from the Association for the History of Germans in Bohemia . Volume 3, Prague 1865, pp. 87-92 and pp. 133-148 .

as well as numerous other articles in the communications of the Association for the History of Germans in Bohemia and in the collection of charitable lectures of the Association for the Dissemination of Charitable Knowledge.

Awards

• Member of the Society for the Promotion of German Science, Art and Literature in Bohemia and of the Central Committee for the German Ore and Giant Mountains
• Honorary member of the Lusatian Society of Science and the Luxembourg Society for Classical Studies
• Great gold medal for arts and science
• Honorary citizen of the city of Oberleutensdorf .

literature

• A. Bachmann: In: Mittheilungen des Verein für Geschichte der Deutschen in Böhmen 38. 1900, pp. 345–452 (P)
• J. Husák, R. Schránil: Sněm království českého 1861–1911. [The Diet of the Kingdom of Bohemia 1861–1911], 1911
• G. Firchan: The Association for the History of Germans in Bohemia in the Change of Current Events. 1923, pp. 69-116
• H. Kuhn (Ed.): Sudeten Germanism yesterday a. today. 1986, pp. 37, 42
• J. Kwan: ​​In: HH Hahn, H. Hein (Hrsg.): Politische Mythen im 19. u. 20th century 2005
• H. Partisch: Austrians from Sudeten German tribe. VII, 1970, p. 41 f.
• M. Neumüller: The association for the history of the Germans in Bohemia. In: F. Seibt (Hrsg.): Associations and historical care in the Bohemian countries. 1986, pp. 179-208
• Ottův slovník naučný XXII. 1904
• Peter Urbanitsch :  Schlesinger, Ludwig. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-428-11204-3 , p. 64 ( digitized version ).
• Wininger: ÖBL; Biography Lexicon Bohemia. Biography Lexicon Burschenschaft I (P).
• Constantin von Wurzbach : Schlesinger, Ludwig . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 30th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1875, p. 92 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Sub-Volume 5: R – S. Winter, Heidelberg 2002, ISBN 3-8253-1256-9 , pp. 247-248.

Web links

Wikisource: Ludwig Schlesinger  - Sources and full texts