Thomas R. Kraus

Thomas R. Kraus (born January 7, 1949 in Recklinghausen ; † April 12, 2019 in Aachen ) was a German historian and long-time director of the Aachen City Archives .

Live and act

After completing his studies, Kraus took up a position in the municipal archive of the city of Aachen and was appointed deputy director in 1979. Two years later he received his doctorate as Dr. phil. with the dissertation "The origin of the rule of the Counts von Berg up to the year 1225". After the archive director Herbert Lepper retired in 1997, Kraus was appointed as his successor. He headed the archive until his own retirement in 2014. Kraus was also a member of the Aachen History Association , which he headed from 1996 to 2015 as chairman.

His main organizational task was the planning and implementation of the move of the city archive in 2012 from the previous rooms in the grass house and those in the branch in the baroque factory to the former main building of Rhein-Nadel Automation on Reichsweg in Aachen.

Kraus was the author and editor of several books, especially with reference to the history of the city of Aachen, as well as numerous articles for various specialist journals. His main work were volumes 3 to 7 of the regests of the imperial city of Aachen . In 1994 he also conceived a large exhibition on the French period in Aachen, shown in the coronation hall of the Aachen town hall, entitled On the way to modernity - Aachen in the French period 1792/93, 1794–1814 ; He also presented a comprehensive catalog manual for this exhibition. From 2011 he was one of the editors of a seven-volume city history with the title: Aachen. From the beginning to the present , the first, second, third and fifth volumes of which have already been published.

Thomas R. Kraus was married to Claudia Rotthoff-Kraus, historian and board member of the History Association of the Diocese of Aachen . He found his final resting place in Aachen's Westfriedhof .

Fonts (selection)

• The emergence of the state rule of the Counts von Berg up to 1225 , Schmidt, Neustadt an der Aisch, dissertation 1981, OCLC 164980626
• Jülich, Aachen and the Reich . Verlag der Mayer'schen Buchhandlung, Aachen 1987; ISBN 978-3-87519-109-7
• On the way to the modern age. Aachen in the French period 1792/1793, 1794–1814 . Handbook catalog for the exhibition , Aachen 1995 (supplements to the magazine of the Aachener Geschichtsverein; Volume 4), ISBN 978-3-98027-051-9
• "Europe sees the day shine ...": the Aachen Peace of 1748 , Verlag des Aachener Geschichtsverein, Aachen 1998, ISBN 978-3-87707-524-1
• Regests of the Imperial City of Aachen (including the Aachen Empire and the Imperial Burtscheid Abbey)
  • Volume 3: 1351-1365, Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 1999, ISBN 978-3-7700-7603-1
  • Volume 4: 1366-1380, Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 2002, ISBN 978-3-7700-7616-1
  • Volume 5: 1381-1395, Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 2005, ISBN 978-3-7700-7625-3
  • Volume 6: 1396–1400, Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 2008, ISBN 978-3-7700-7631-4
  • Volume 7: Supplements 1251–1400, Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 2012, ISBN 978-3-7700-7639-0
• Thomas Kraus (eds.), Marc Engels and Silke Raab: Forced labor in the city of Aachen: Foreign deployment in a West German border town during the Second World War . Verlag der Mayer'schen Buchhandlung, Aachen 2002, ISBN 978-3-87519-200-1
• The Aachen city accounts of the 15th century . Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 2004, ISBN 978-3-7700-7622-2
• Aachen from the beginning to the present .
  • Volume 1: The Natural Basics. From prehistory to the Carolingians . Verlag der Mayer'schen Buchhandlung, Aachen 2011. ISBN 978-3-87519-251-3
  • Volume 2: Karolinger, Ottonen, Salier 765–1137 . Verlag der Mayer'schen Buchhandlung, Aachen 2013 ISBN 978-3-412-50815-9
  • Volume 3/1: Urban Development and Events. 1138 to 1500. Verlag der Mayer'schen Buchhandlung, Aachen 2014. ISBN 978-3-87519-257-5
  • Volume 3/2: Areas of Life. 1138 to 1500 . Verlag der Mayer'schen Buchhandlung, Aachen 2015. ISBN 978-3-87519-259-9
  • Volume 5: From imperial city to “bonne ville”: Aachen at the time of the French Republic and under Emperor Napoleon I (1792–1814) . Together with Frank Pohle (Ed.), Schmidt, Neustadt ad Aisch 2018. ISBN 978-3-87707-144-1

Web links

• Literature by and about Thomas R. Kraus in the catalog of the German National Library
• Vincent Seidel: An outstanding connoisseur of Aachen's city history has died , in: Aachener Nachrichten of April 14, 2019
• Obituary notice on aachen-gedenken.de from April 20, 2019
• List of publications on regesta-imperii.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The “great” city history is coming! , Announcement from the Aachen History Association