Ottokar Israel

Ottokar Israel (born June 14, 1919 in Königsberg ; † September 13, 2004 in Süsel ) was a German historian , archivist and genealogist . From 1970 to 1979 he headed the Braunschweig City Archives .

Life

The son of the Prussian chief tax inspector Alfred Israel spent his childhood in Königsberg until his father was transferred to Görlitz in 1932 . After the National Socialists seized power , the father was dismissed from civil service in 1933 by the law to restore the civil service due to his Jewish origin. Ottokar Israel graduated from the Görlitzer Gymnasium Augustum in 1937 . He was not allowed to study history, so he first studied Protestant theology at the Bethel Church University . He was called up for the Reich Labor Service and the Wehrmacht. After his release from Soviet captivity in 1946, he studied history, German and Protestant theology at the University of Göttingen . He received his doctorate in 1951 from the medievalist Hermann Heimpel with the dissertation The Relationship of the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order to the Reich in the 15th Century , which is still considered a standard work today. Israel passed the first state examination for teaching at grammar schools in 1952 , but switched to the Marburg Archive School , founded in 1949 , where he completed training for the higher archival service. From 1954 he was employed as State Archives Assessor at the Lower Saxony State Archives in Aurich before he was transferred to the Lower Saxony State Archives Osnabrück in 1959 . There he was appointed archivist and deputy director in 1965.

On April 1, 1970, Israel was appointed director of the Braunschweig City Archives as the successor to Richard Moderhack . At the same time he was in charge of the Braunschweig City Library and the public library . During his term of office, the territorial reform came into force on March 1, 1974 , as a result of which the records of up to then 22 independent municipalities were handed over to the city archive. Israel was particularly committed to the publication of urban and regional history topics, including in the Braunschweiger Werkstück and Kleine Schriften series . For many years he headed the working group of Lower Saxony municipal archivists (ANKA) and the German working group of genealogical associations . He was also the managing director of the Braunschweig Historical Society .

On December 31, 1979, Israel retired of its own accord for health reasons.

Fonts (selection)

• The relationship of the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order to the Reich in the 15th century , Marburg (Lahn), Johann-Gottfried-Herder-Inst., 1952.
• The Osnabrück region in old maps, plans and pictures: Exhibition by the Municipal Museum and the Lower Saxony State Archives in Osnabrück from September 22 to October 24, 1959 , exhibition catalog, Osnabrück 1959.

literature

• Manfred RW Garzmann: Obituary for Ottokar Israel 1919-2004 . In: Braunschweigisches Jahrbuch für Landesgeschichte. Volume 86, 2005, pp. 251-253 ( online ).
• Manfred RW Garzmann: An archivist with strong genealogical interests - archivist a. D. Dr. Ottokar Israel on his 80th birthday. In: Quaestiones Brunsvicenses , reports from the Braunschweig City Archives 11/12, Braunschweig 2000, ISBN 3-7752-5790-X , p. 241f.