Paul Kirn

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Paul Kirn (born December 10, 1890 in Basel , † February 16, 1965 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German historian . From 1935 to 1959 Kirn taught as a professor of medieval history at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main .

Live and act

Paul Kirn attended the St. Thomas School in Leipzig . From 1911 to 1914 he studied history, classical philology and German studies under Gerhard Seeliger at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen and Leipzig University . He was wounded in World War I and received the Iron Cross .

In 1920 he was promoted to Dr. phil. doctorate with a thesis on the document system and the office of the Archbishops of Mainz in the fifteenth century . After that he worked as a teacher. He completed his habilitation in 1926 with a thesis on Frederick the Wise and the Church . He initially worked as a private lecturer at the University of Leipzig and became an adjunct professor in 1932. In November 1933 he signed the professors' declaration of Adolf Hitler at German universities and colleges . He was also involved in the "border struggle" in the Saar area . From 1935 he worked in the successor of Ernst Kantorowicz as a professor for medieval history at the Frankfurt University. There he researched the emergence of nationalism. He also taught historical auxiliary sciences . After 1945 he was considered unencumbered and helped to rebuild. His retirement followed in 1959. Kirn’s academic students included Werner Goez , Carlrichard Brühl and Dietrich Andernacht . Kirn died in Frankfurt in 1965.

Kirn was a member of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica and the Scientific Society at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt.

Kirn's source definition turned out to be very powerful. It is still used today in current presentations and introductions to the science of history. According to Kirn's definition, sources are “all texts, objects or facts from which knowledge of the past can be gained”.

Fonts (selection)

Monographs

  • Introduction to the science of history (= Göschen Collection. Vol. 270). Edited by Joachim Leuschner . 6th edition. De Gruyter, Berlin et al. 1972, ISBN 3-11-006101-5
  • Frederick the Wise and the Church. His ecclesiastical policy before and after Luther's emergence in 1517. Represented from the files in the Thuringian State Archives in Weimar (= contributions to the cultural history of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Vol. 30). Reprint of the Leipzig, Berlin 1926 edition. Hildesheim 1972, ISBN 3-8067-0128-8
  • Political history of the German borders. 4th improved edition. Bibliographisches Institut Mannheim 1958.
  • From the early days of the national feeling. Studies on German and French history as well as on the nationality struggles on the British Isles. Koehler & Amelang, Leipzig 1943.
  • Documentation and the office of the Archbishops of Mainz in the fifteenth century. Winter, Heidelberg 1929.

Editorships

  • Thomas Müntzer's correspondence. Based on the manuscripts and the oldest templates. Edited by Heinrich Böhmer and Paul Kirn. Leipzig, Berlin 1931 (= writings of the Saxon Commission for History ).
  • State and personality. Erich Brandenburg on his 60th birthday . Offered by Alfred Doren , Paul Kirn, Johannes Kühn and others in Leipzig in 1928.

literature

  • Ekkehard Kaufmann (Ed.): Festgabe for Paul Kirn on his 70th birthday. Given by friends and students. E. Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 1961.
  • Jörg-Peter Jatho, Gerd Simon: Giessen historian in the Third Reich. Focus Verlag, Giessen 2008, ISBN 978-3-88349-522-4 , p. 53 f.
  • Carsten Kretschmann: Commitment to Germany? The historians Walter Platzhoff and Paul Kirn in the “Third Reich”. In: Jörn Kobes and Jan-Otmar Hesse (eds.): Frankfurt scientists between 1933 and 1945. Wallstein, Göttingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-8353-0258-7 , pp. 5-32.
  • Heribert Müller : “Incidentally, it has a very unfamiliar character; it is unaffected by the pros or cons of a political attitude. ”The Frankfurt historian Paul Kirn. In: Evelyn Brockhoff, Bernd Heidenreich , Michael Maaser (ed.): Frankfurter Historiker. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2017, ISBN 978-3-8353-1749-9 , pp. 81-104.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Paul Kirn: Introduction to the science of history. 5th revised and supplemented edition, Berlin 1968, p. 29. Quoted from: Volker Sellin : Introduction to History. 2nd, revised edition, Göttingen 2001, p. 44.
personal data
SURNAME Kirn, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian
DATE OF BIRTH December 10, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel
DATE OF DEATH February 16, 1965
Place of death Frankfurt am Main