Richard Konetzke

Richard Konetzke (born March 20, 1897 in Hangelsberg near Berlin ; † May 29, 1980 in Schleiden / Eifel ) was a German historian .

Richard Konetzke studied history, German and philology in Marburg and Berlin . He received his scientific training particularly from Otto Hintze and Friedrich Meinecke . In 1921 he did his doctorate under Meinecke and Ernst Troeltsch with the thesis Isaak Iselin and the state thought of the Enlightenment . After completing his doctorate, he entered the higher education service. Studies in Spanish archives followed in 1925 on the history of enlightened absolutism in Spain. The research led to the work published in 1929 on The Politics of Count Aranda , in which he pays tribute to the work of the Spanish statesman Pedro Abarca . From 1930 he was a teacher. Konetzke's account of the history of the Spanish and Portuguese people , published in 1939, became the standard work for Iberian history from a German perspective. In 1941 he was commissioned by the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Berlin to conduct research on the history of Spanish colonization in America. He was largely released from his school duties. In 1943 his basic work The Spanish Empire was published . In 1944 he went to Spain to do archival research. He paid particular attention to the social history of colonial Hispanic America.

Konetzke continued his research on Latin American history from 1952 to 1954 as a Research Associate at Duke University in Durham . In 1954 he was given a teaching position in Cologne. In 1955 his habilitation took place there. In the same year he became a scientific councilor and in 1956 an adjunct professor. Konetzke taught since 1961 as an associate professor for Iberian and Latin American history at the University of Cologne and was also director of the Iberian Latin American department of the history seminar. Since 1964 he was honorary professor at the University of Cordoba . In 1964, together with Hermann Kellenbenz , he founded the yearbook for the history of the state, economy and society in Latin America . In 1965 he retired. His successor was his student Günter Kahle in 1967 . 1973 Konetzke was awarded the Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Federal Republic of Germany. Konetzke is considered one of the founders of Latin American history.

Fonts (selection)

• Count Aranda's policy. A contribution to the history of the Spanish-English world antagonism in the 18th century , Ebering, Berlin 1929.
• History of the Spanish and Portuguese People , Publ. Bibliograph. Institute, Leipzig 1939.
• The Spanish Empire. Basics and development , Callwey, Munich 1943.
• Discoverer and Conqueror of America. From Christopher Columbus to Hernán Cortés , Fischer, Frankfurt a. M. 1963.
• The Indian cultures of ancient America and the Spanish-Portuguese colonial rule, Fischer, Frankfurt a. M. 1965 (Fischer-Weltgeschichte, Volume 22)
• Latin America. Discovery, conquest, colonization. Collected essays , Böhlau, Cologne 1983 (Latin American research, volume 10), ISBN 3-412-06681-8 .

literature

• Günter Kahle: Necrology. Richard Konetzke 1897–1980 . In: Historische Zeitschrift , Vol. 231 (1980), pp. 518-520.
• Günter Kahle: Necrology Richard Konetzke . In: Yearbook for the history of the state, economy and society of Latin America , Vol. 18 (1981), pp. VII – IX.
• Hermann Kellenbenz : Richard Konetzke on his 70th birthday . In: Yearbook for the history of the state, economy and society of Latin America , Vol. 4 (1967), pp. XV – XXVI.

Web links

• Literature by and about Richard Konetzke in the catalog of the German National Library

Remarks

1. ↑ Announcement of awards of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. In: Federal Gazette . Vol. 25, No. 71, April 11, 1973.