Peter Nitsche

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Peter Nitsche (born May 23, 1933 in Breslau , Silesia ; † December 24, 2018 ) was a German historian and Eastern European historian with a focus on Russian medieval studies .

life and work

Peter Nitsche spent his childhood in Breslau and Bad Lauchstädt near Merseburg . He attended elementary school in Breslau and grammar school in Breslau and Merseburg. After graduating from high school, he studied Slavic studies with Eugen Häusler in Halle and with Reinhold Olesch and Eastern European history with Günther Stökl in Cologne . He spent an academic year in Belgrade as a scholarship holder of the German Academic Exchange Service . Especially the years of study in Cologne influenced Nitsche's career and his interests in philology and the Russian Middle Ages. The academic year in Belgrade shaped his understanding of the history, language and mentality of the peoples of the former Yugoslavia . In 1961 he finished his studies with a linguistic dissertation on the topic “The geographical terminology of Polish”.

His first professional years already showed his shift in interests towards Eastern European history and contemporary historical and political issues. He initially worked as a research assistant at the " Ostkolleg " of the " Federal Agency for Civic Education ". From 1964 to 1972 he worked as a university assistant at the seminar for Eastern European history at the University of Cologne at Stökl. During this time he translated large parts of one of the most important sources on the history of Russia in the high and late Middle Ages, namely the so-called "Moscow svod from the end of the 15th century", a chronicle that like no other the rise of Moscow from an insignificant partial principality to a political and ecclesiastical center in the northeast of what was then Russia. He examined the rise of Moscow from a different perspective in his habilitation thesis “Grand Duke and Heir apparent. The succession policy of the Moscow rulers of the Ryurikid house ”. It became a standard work of German Russian mediavistics. Nitsche completed his habilitation in 1971 at the University of Cologne.

1973 Nitsche received a professorship for Eastern European history at the University of Münster . Just one year later, in 1974, he accepted the call - as successor to Georg von Rauch - to the full professorship for Eastern European history at the seminar of the same name at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel . For many years he was active in the university's self-government, in the Senate of the Christiana Albertina , in the Faculty Convention and for two years (1978/79) as Dean of the Philosophical Faculty and two more as Vice Dean. In joint colloquia and conferences, as the representative of the editing department, he maintained the collaboration between the Kiel historians and the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan .

He has written numerous publications, monographs, articles in collective editions and essays. In his publications, in lectures and seminars, he always tried to counter prejudices and stereotypes about the Eastern European peoples. He saw an important task in conveying scientific knowledge beyond the framework of the university to broader sections of the population. In this context he gave well over 300 lectures in many different cities and villages of Schleswig-Holstein as part of the “Schleswig-Holstein University Society”. From 1986 to 1994 he was Scientific Director of this society.

In 1998 Nitsche retired.

Fonts (selection)

Monographs

  • The geographical terminology of Polish (= Slavic research. 4, ISSN  0583-5437 ). Böhlau, Cologne et al. 1964, (at the same time: Cologne, university, dissertation, 1961).
  • The rise of Moscow. Excerpts from a Russian chronicle. Translated, introduced and explained. 2 volumes. Verlag Styria, Graz et al. 1966–1967;
    • Volume 1: Until the beginning of the 15th century (= Slavic historians. 4, ZDB -ID 184472-6 ). 1966;
    • Volume 2: From the beginning of the 15th to the beginning of the 16th century (= Slavic historians. 5). 1967.
  • Grand Duke and Heir to the Throne. The succession policy of the Moscow rulers until the end of the Rjurikidenhaus (= Cologne historical treatises. 21). Böhlau, Cologne et al. 1972, ISBN 3-412-96372-0 (At the same time: Cologne, University, habilitation paper, 1971).
  • The Mongol period and the rise of Moscow (1240–1538). In: Manfred Hellmann , Klaus Zernack , Gottfried Schramm (Hrsg.): Handbook of the history of Russia. Volume 1: Manfred Hellmann (Ed.): Until 1613. From the formation of the Kiev Empire to the Moscow Zartum. Half volume 1. Hiersemann, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-7772-8111-5 , pp. 534-715.
  • “I don't believe in the Greeks, but in Christ”. Russians and Greeks in the self-image of the Moscow state on the threshold of modern times , Droste, Düsseldorf 1991 (= Studia humaniora. Series minor , volume 4), ISBN 3-7700-0822-7 .

Editorships

  • The rise of Moscow. Excerpts from a Russian chronicle , 2 volumes, Styria, Graz 1966/1967 (= Slavic historians , volumes 4 and 5).
  • The beginnings of the Moscow state (= ways of research . 340). Darmstadt, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft 1977, ISBN 3-534-05784-8 .
  • The Eastern European holdings of the Eutin State Library , Boyens, Heide 1989 (= catalogs of the Eutin State Library , Volume 1), ISBN 3-8042-0473-2 .
  • Prussia in the province. Contributions to the 1st German-Polish Historians' Colloquium as part of the cooperation agreement between the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel , Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1991 (= Kieler Werkstücke. Series F, Contributions to Eastern European History , volume 1), ISBN 3-631-42727-1 .
  • The successor states of the Soviet Union. Contributions to history, economics and politics (= Kieler Werkstücke. Series F: Contributions to Eastern European history. Vol. 3). Published with the collaboration of Jan Kusber . Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1994, ISBN 3-631-47794-5 .

literature

  • Eckhard Hübner, Ekkehard Klug, Jan Kusber (eds.): Between Christianization and Europeanization. Contributions to the history of Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages and early modern times. Festschrift for Peter Nitsche on his 65th birthday (= sources and studies on the history of Eastern Europe. 51). Steiner, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-515-07266-7 .
  • Jan Kusber, Ludwig Steindorff : On the death of Peter Nitsche. In: Year books for the history of Eastern Europe , Vol. 67, 2019, Issue 1, pp. 178–179 ( online ).

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Jan Kusber , Ludwig Steindorff: To the death of Peter Nitsche. In: Yearbooks for the history of Eastern Europe , vol. 67, 2019, issue 1, pp. 178–179, here: p. 179 ( online ).
  2. ↑ Jan Kusber, Ludwig Steindorff: To the death of Peter Nitsche. In: Yearbooks for the history of Eastern Europe , vol. 67, 2019, issue 1, pp. 178–179, here: p. 179 ( online ).
personal data
SURNAME Nitsche, Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian
DATE OF BIRTH May 23, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw , Silesia
DATE OF DEATH December 24, 2018