Moriz knight

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Moriz Ritter (born January 16, 1840 in Bonn ; † December 28, 1923 there ) was a German historian . Ritter taught as a history professor at the University of Bonn (1873–1911). From 1908 to 1923 he was President of the Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences .

Live and act

The son of the classicists Franz Ritter attended by Ludwig Schopen led Gymnasium in Bonn . From 1857 he studied history, literature and philosophy at the University of Bonn , whereby Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann particularly influenced him. He spent the winter semester of 1860/61 at the University of Berlin , where he met Leopold von Ranke , whose ideal of science he felt committed to throughout his life. For the summer semester of 1861 he moved to Munich , where Carl Adolf Cornelius became aware of him. In 1862 Ritter received his doctorate in Bonn under Heinrich von Sybel , Dahlmann's successor, with a thesis on the Roman Emperor Diocletian (De Diocletiano novarum in re publica institutionum auctore commentatio) . In 1862, Cornelius brought him to Munich to work on the historical commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences . There, in the Wittelsbach Correspondence department headed by Cornelius, Ritter edited sources on the history of the Union as part of the series of letters and acts on the history of the Thirty Years' War in the times of the predominant influence of the Wittelsbachers . Ritters' post- doctoral thesis, History of the German Union , was supervised by Cornelius . From the preparations of the Confederation to the death of Emperor Rudolph II (1598–1612) , with whom he completed his habilitation in Munich in 1867. From 1867 to 1873 he was a private lecturer in Munich, in 1873 he was appointed professor there. In the winter semester of 1873/74 he was given a full professorship at the University of Bonn as the successor to Franz Wilhelm Kampschultes . Ritter taught and researched there until his retirement after the summer semester of 1911. In 38 years, Ritter completed 135 courses, 65 of them on the Middle Ages. In total, Ritter supervised 28 doctoral students. His most famous doctoral student was Georg von Below . Ritter was rector of the University of Bonn in 1895/96 . From 1883 he was an extraordinary member of the historical commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and from 1908 to 1923 its president. He was also a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences (since 1892), a corresponding member of the Prussian Academic Sciences (since 1907) and an associate member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences (since 1870). In 1919 he received an honorary doctorate from Bonn University . Ritter married in 1870. The marriage resulted in a daughter, Wilhelmine (1872–1902), who in turn married Walter Goetz . Ritter died in December 1923 at the age of 83.

Ritter was a historian who, since joining the Historical Commission , had specialized to a high degree in the era of the Counter Reformation and the Thirty Years' War . For the commission he edited three source volumes for the period from 1598 to 1614 with a total of 3000 pages on the history of the Protestant Union and the prehistory of the Thirty Years War: The founding of the Union. 1598–1608 (1870), Die Union und Heinrich IV. 1607–1609 (1874) and Der Jülich War of Succession (1877). He continued his history of the German Union , with the first volume of which he completed his habilitation, with the second volume published in 1873. The Bonn years were then shaped by the work on his magnum opus, German history in the age of the Counter Reformation and the Thirty Years' War , the completion of which occupied Ritter for over twenty years. The work was published in three volumes in 1889, 1895 and 1908, with the final volume dealing with the history of the Thirty Years War, the course of which Ritter presented comprehensively until 1635 and concluded with a summary chapter until 1648. Ritter's presentation, based on his excellent knowledge of the archival sources, has retained its relevance to the present: Geoffrey Parker called Ritter's work “fundamental and irreplaceable”, Dieter Albrecht “as an overall design unsurpassed”. In addition to his specialty, Ritter dealt with the history and theory of the science of history, for example, since 1884 he offered a college on history in Bonn . After completing his German history, he increasingly published on this topic and summarized his research in 1919 in the monograph The development of the science of history viewed in the leading works . With research on the outbreak of the First World War, he went into the field of contemporary history since 1918, which is an exception in Ritter's work. He refuted the assertion of the German ambassador in London in 1914, Karl Max von Lichnowsky , who saw Germany as responsible for the war. After an intensive study of the files, Ritter made the responsibility on all sides. He only assigned a more active role to Russia.

Fonts (selection)

  • History of the German Union. From the preparations for the covenant to the death of Emperor Rudolph II (1598–1612). Two volumes. Hurter, Schaffhausen 1867 and 1873.
  • Saxony and the Jülich succession dispute. Munich 1873
  • German history in the age of the Counter Reformation and the Thirty Years War. (1555-1648). Three volumes. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1974, ISBN 3-534-01162-7 (unchanged reprographic reprint of the 1st edition, Stuttgart 1889, 1895 and 1908).
  • The outbreak of the world war according to Lichnowsky's allegations and according to the evidence of the files. Munich 1918.
  • The development of historical science is considered in the leading works. Hildesheim 2005, ISBN 3-487-12089-5 (reprint of the Munich edition 1919).

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Moriz Ritter  - Sources and full texts

Remarks

  1. ↑ See Moriz Ritter: Leopold von Ranke. His spiritual development and his historiography. Speech at the beginning of the rectorate of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität on October 18, 1895. Stuttgart 1896 ( digitized version ).
  2. ↑ Moriz Ritter: History of the German Union. From the preparations for the covenant to the death of Emperor Rudolph II (1598–1612). Vol. 1, Schaffhausen 1867.
  3. ↑ Maximilian Lanzinner: Moriz Ritter - Historian of “one-sidedness”? In: Institute for History (Ed.): 150 Years of the Historical Seminar. Profiles of Bonn History. Income from a lecture series. Siegburg 2013, pp. 69–85, here: p. 78.
  4. ↑ Geoffrey Parker: The Thirty Years War. Frankfurt am Main 1987, p. 344.
  5. ↑ Dieter Albrecht: Maximilian I of Bavaria 1573-1651. Munich 1998, p. 489.
  6. ↑ In addition to the monograph The Outbreak of the World War according to Lichnowsky's claims and according to the evidence in the files, also the extensive article Germany and the Outbreak of World War in the Historical Journal 121 (1920), pp. 23-92.
  7. ↑ Maximilian Lanzinner: Moriz Ritter - Historian of “one-sidedness”? In: Institute for History (Ed.): 150 Years of the Historical Seminar. Profiles of Bonn History. Income from a lecture series. Siegburg 2013, pp. 69–85, here: p. 77.
personal data
SURNAME Knight, Moriz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian
DATE OF BIRTH January 16, 1840
PLACE OF BIRTH Bonn
DATE OF DEATH December 28, 1923
Place of death Bonn