Werner Näf

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Memorial stone at the Falkenburg in St. Gallen, in memory of the Vadian biographer

Werner Näf (born June 7, 1894 in St. Gallen , † March 19, 1959 in Gümligen ) was a Swiss historian .

Näf, an Evangelical Reformed Christian, was born as the son of the Budapest merchant Gustav Näf (1847–1930) and Hermine Billwiller (1860–1922). Gustav Näf had been based in St. Gallen since 1890. Werner Näf married the physiotherapist Hanna Linder (1885–1962), daughter of a Basel pastor , in 1920 . The marriage remained childless.

After attending the classical grammar school in St. Gallen and then studying in Geneva , Zurich , Berlin and Munich , where he received his doctorate in 1917 as a student of Erich Marcks . The subject of the dissertation was The Swiss Sonderbund War as a prelude to the German Revolution of 1848 . In 1919 he obtained his high school teacher diploma in Zurich and then taught until 1925 at the municipal secondary and secondary school for girls in St. Gallen and as a lecturer at the St. Gallen Commercial College . From 1925 he held a full professorship for general history at the University of Bern , where he mainly taught and researched modern history. In 1948/49, Näf was rector of the University of Bern. He took up residence in Gümligen near Bern.

Näf's writings on modern history, such as the manual-like overview work The Epochs of Modern History , were in part consciously aimed at educated laypeople who were looking for an orientation framework in history. With a universal historical approach, he wanted to counteract a “provincial narrowing” of Swiss historiography. In addition to his general historical work, Näf was concerned with the history of his hometown St. Gallen in many ways. An extensive biography about the humanistic reformer and St. Gallen mayor Vadian (Joachim von Watt) became his main work.

Näf was one of the most important activists in several historical organizations of his time. Above all, he was a leader in the General History Research Society of Switzerland. From 1947 he was a full member of the historical commission of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences .

In 1955 Näf was the first recipient of the Reuchlin Prize of the city of Pforzheim . The Swiss National Science Foundation , to which Näf was one of the first research councils, founded the Werner Näf Prize in 1960 in his memory.

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SURNAME Näf, Werner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss historian
DATE OF BIRTH June 7, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Gallen
DATE OF DEATH March 19, 1959
Place of death Gümligen