Tradition (history)

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In historical studies , tradition is information that is passed on - mostly in oral or written form - with the intention of informing contemporaries , but above all posterity, about the present or the past. According to the source typology and systematics developed by Ernst Bernheim , the counterpart to the traditional source is the remnant , which was created without the intention of historiographical transmission, mostly for time-bound, practical considerations.

Structure of the tradition according to Bernheim
  1. Oral tradition
    1. Song and story
    2. legend
    3. Legend
    4. anecdote
    5. A winged word
    6. saying
  2. Written tradition
    1. Inscriptions
    2. Genealogical records and similar lists
    3. Annals and Chronicles
    4. biography
    5. memoirs
    6. Pamphlets, newspapers, public letters
  3. Pictorial tradition
    1. drawing
    2. painting
    3. sculpture

In a traditional source, the author reports on the past and the present, whereby he already selects, evaluates or summarizes. Bernheim calls the traditional sources collectively "reports". This has advantages for today's historians, as they get a quicker overview of what happened and learn something about the ideas of the author. The disadvantage is that the author may write incorrectly, one-sidedly or even with fraudulent intent.

Examples of sources of tradition are speeches, letters, reports, protocols of results and historical works by earlier historians, which are no longer regarded as secondary literature today.

A remnant, on the other hand, was originally produced for its own, time-bound purpose, for example an invoice that was only intended to document a business transaction.

The distinction depends on the respective historical question, which means that the same source can be remnants or tradition depending on the question. A memorial, for example, is a tradition for a question about the event or the person it commemorates, and a remnant for a question about the memorial culture of the epoch in which it was erected.

Source criticism of tradition has to reconstruct the original version of the source through text criticism and form criticism (for example in biblical texts, doctrinal fairy tales, prayer collections, myths). On the other hand, it has to find out the falsification of the traditional events caused by the intention to deliver, but also through self-deception (cf. ideology criticism ).

literature

  • Johann Gustav Droysen: History. Lectures on the encyclopedia and methodology of history , ed. by Rudolf Huebner. R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1937, pp. 38-84.
  • Johann Gustav Droysen: Outline of the History, Leipzig 1868, pp. 14–15 [1]
  • Ernst Bernheim: Introduction to the science of history . 3rd edition, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Leipzig 1926, especially pp. 104–132.
  • Alfred Heuss : Remnants and Tradition. On the phenomenology of historical sources . In: Archiv für Kulturgeschichte 25, 1934, pp. 134–183.
  • Ernst Opgenoorth, Günther Schulz: Introduction to the study of modern history . 7th edition. Schöningh, Paderborn u. a. 2010, pp. 49-86

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ernst Bernheim: Introduction to the science of history . 3rd edition, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Leipzig 1926, pp. 106–124.
  2. ↑ For example in Ernst Bernheim: Introduction to History . 3rd edition, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Leipzig 1926, p. 104.