Walter North

Walter Carl Norden (born June 2, 1876 in Emden , † July 11, 1937 in Davos ) was a German historian and local scientist. He endeavored to provide a theoretical foundation for administrative science and to anchor it in university teaching. To this end, in 1928 he initiated the founding of the first “Municipal Science Institute” in Berlin .

Live and act

Walter Norden, son of the physician Carl Joseph Norden (1836–1903), studied history, economics , philosophy as well as German and classical philology in Bonn and Berlin after graduating from high school in 1894 . He visited with Wilhelm Dilthey , Gustav v. Schmoller , Hans Delbrück , Max Lenz and Paul Scheffer-Boichorst lectures. The latter supervised Nordens doctoral thesis on the Fourth Crusade , with which he received his doctorate in 1898 . In May 1902 he addedHabilitation “The Papacy and the Latin Empire of Constantinople”, a work that later formed the second section of his work “The Papacy and Byzantium”. The completion of the habilitation process was delayed because Norden was accused of the thematic proximity of the dissertation and habilitation thesis “Spezialistentum”. But since he had already brought his manuscript “The Papacy and Byzantium”, which covered a much larger period, almost ready for publication, he received his habilitation in 1903.

Norden initially taught medieval history as a private lecturer . In 1916 he received the title of professor. From 1919 he concentrated on the areas of civics and communal science . In 1921 he was appointed associate professor and in 1922 commissioned to teach local government. On August 22, 1928, on Nordens initiative, the “Institute for Local Science” was founded at the University of Berlin in order to scientifically train lawyers and economists for the career of higher municipal officials. Aside from Norden as director, the institute only consisted of an assistant, but it soon became very busy. In addition to academic teaching, a specialist library was set up and a series of publications established. The aim of the north was to separate administrative studies from economics and finance, statistics and political science and to establish it as a separate science.

Because of his Jewish origin, Norden was given leave of absence with immediate effect on April 29, 1933 under the “ Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service ”. On November 23, 1933, he was released from his teaching post and deposed as director of the “Institute for Local Science”, which was taken over by Nord's assistant Kurt Jeserich . Norden moved to Switzerland , where he died in 1937 in the presence of his brother, the classical philologist Eduard Norden .

Fonts

• The Fourth Crusade in the context of the West's relations with Byzantium. B. Behr, Berlin 1898.
• The papacy and Byzantium. The separation of the two powers and the problem of their reunification until the fall of the Byzantine Empire (1453). Behr, Berlin 1903; Franklin, New York 1958, DNB 575264500 , OCLC 16749161 .
• Principles for the representation of the church's efforts to unite in the Middle Ages. In: Historical magazine . 1909.
• The final problem with Widukind and Helmold. In: New archive of the Society for Older German History for the promotion of a complete edition of the source writings of German histories of the Middle Ages. 1912, pp. 791-799.
• Archbishop Friedrich von Mainz and Otto the Great. On the development of the German state idea in the Ottonian period. Ebering, Berlin 1912.
• Political and administrative studies as a basic civic science. Ebering, Berlin 1919.
• What does administrative science mean and why? , Heymann, Berlin 1933.
• with Ernst Schellenberg: The voluntary labor service based on previous experience. Investigation based on a survey by the Municipal Science Institute, taking into account the ordinance on voluntary labor service of July 16, 1932 and the latest implementation regulations. Vahlen, Berlin 1932.

literature

• Ullrich Scheideler : Urban research under the linden trees. The Municipal Science Institute at the University of Berlin . In: Der Städtetag , 1991, no. 1, pp. 12–15.
• Wilt Aden Schröder : Norden, Walter Carl (PDF; 111 kB). In: Biographisches Lexikon für Ostfriesland , Vol. 2, Aurich 1997, pp. 269-274.

Web links

• Portrait photography Walter Nordens