Ulrich Petersen (historian)

Ulrich Petersen (also: Ulrico Petersen) (* 1656 in Schleswig ; † April 6, 1735 in Schleswig) was a wealthy unmarried lawyer who devoted himself to research into Schleswig-Holstein's history from 1695 to 1735 .

resume

Born in 1656 in the city of Schleswig, the residence of the Gottorper dukes , as the son of a respected merchant and councilor, Ulrich Petersen attended the cathedral school of Schleswig until he was eighteen under the rectors Joachim Rachel and Abel Finckius, and then attended German universities Dedicate law studies . A fortune that his father bequeathed to him, which was considerable at the time, made it possible for him to “get to know foreign peoples' languages, customs and traditions through long journeys” while studying. In 1664 he left his homeland and stayed abroad during the long quarrels between his sovereign, Duke Christian Albrecht , and King Christian V of Denmark . He initially stayed in Braunschweig and Weißenfels , studied in Jena and Altorf , visited Augsburg and Regensburg for a long time , and then continued his studies in France from 1678 . After three years in Paris , Caen , Bourges , Marseille , Avignon, he went to Italy , visited Siena , stayed to study antiquities and art treasures in Rome , Florence , Naples , Bologna , Venice , Milan and returned in 1683 after a two-year stay in Italy, probably on the news of the established peace at home, via France back to his hometown, but without finding long rest here. The flight of Duke Christian Albrecht, the heavy burden of Schleswig due to Danish billeting and contribution, the incorporation of the Gottorpischen possessions in the Duchy of Schleswig by King Christian, the homage that council and citizens had to pay to the new sovereign on July 6, 1684, drove Ulrich Petersen went back into the distance as early as 1684. He went first to the Netherlands and from there to England, where in July 1685 he witnessed the coronation of Jacob II and the revolt and execution of the Duke of Monmouth ; then he moved back to France, where he stayed for two years, only to return to Schleswig in 1687 in the middle of the war. No sooner had he worked out his travel experiences on the basis of his diaries during a two-year stay here, than his wanderlust reawakened. From 1689 onwards he passed through Denmark , Sweden , Livonia, Courland and Prussia and did not return home until 1695. Here he rested from his wanderings and devoted himself to learned historical studies. He remained unmarried, was not looking for an office and was also not active as a lawyer.

The main result of his historical studies was the history of his hometown Schleswig, on which he had worked for almost forty years (1695–1735). After experiencing the heyday of the Gottorp house in his youth, he felt painfully that Schleswig had sunk into a provincial town after the dukes had been driven out.

Life's work

Ulrich Petersen wrote a five-volume chronicle about the history of Schleswig and the surrounding area. This description of "the most noble dukes of Holstein-Gottorp, capital and residence town of Schlesewig" is not just a chronicle of his hometown, but also a monument to his ruling house. Of course, the work only meets today's standards to a limited extent. But the processing in the form of a complex, raw material collection is also of value for today's research because of the numerous documentary messages and copies of lost diplomas it contains. The handwritten original has been in the Royal Archives in Copenhagen since 1761; some copies of it exist. The Chronicle is often quoted even though it has never been fully published.

The Society for Schleswig City History has decided to publish it. The first of the five volumes was written by one of its members, the classical philologist Hans Braunschweig, Director of Studies i. R., edited, d. H. Transferring the text into legible script, translating and explaining many Latin quotations and adapting the unusual sentence structure to today's form. It was published in 2006 together with Hans Wilhelm Schwarz.

Residential building

Since 2007, there has been a plaque on Ulrich Petersen's home in Schleswig, Lange Straße 10, to commemorate him.

literature

• August Sach :  Petersen, Ulrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 26, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1888, pp. 805-807.
• Chronicle of the city of Schleswig / Ulrich Petersen, Volume 1, edited by Hans Braunschweig with the participation of Hans Wilhelm Schwarz, Schleswig, Society for Schleswig City History, 2006, 288 pages

Web links

• Literature by and about Ulrich Petersen in the catalog of the German National Library