Wilhelm Kammeier

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article or section needs to be revised. Details should be given on the talk page. Please help to improve it , and then remove this flag.

Friedrich Wilhelm Ferdinand Kammeier (born October 3, 1889 in Nienstädt (Stadthagen district), † May 23, 1959 in Arnstadt ) was initially a primary school teacher. He later worked as a self-taught historian and writer. While his early literary attempts went largely unnoticed, several of his writings in the 1930s about forgery of medieval documents received some attention.

resume

Wilhelm Kammeier grew up in simple circumstances in what was then the Principality of Schaumburg-Lippe . His father Friedrich Wilhelm Kammeier ran a small farm in Nienstädt in addition to his work as a blacksmith and miner. His mother Wilhelmine Kammeier, née Horstmeier, was born in the neighboring village of Liekwegen . As early as 1912, his mother was mentioned as a widow in the “address book for the Principality of Schaumburg-Lippe”.

From Easter in 1909 to Easter in 1911, Kammeier attended the teachers' seminar in Bückeburg . His academic performance at high school was below average. In the examination to become a candidate for education at the teacher’s seminar, Wilhelm Kammeier achieved a “Sufficient” in the written examination in the subject of history, but in the oral examinations of this subject he finished with three “Insufficient”. There were only three positions available for the six seminarians at the time who had passed the exam, and Ernst Schwerdtfeger, the seminar leader and princely state school inspector at the time, suggested that Kammeier should get a job as a young teacher at the local elementary school in the village of Wendthagen, which is adjacent to Stadthagen .

On March 30, 1911, Ernst Schwerdtfeger judged Wilhelm Kammeier as follows: “Kammeier is a young man who has a tendency to move in higher regions and who runs the risk of losing sight of reality. It is therefore necessary to put him at his side with a sober, practical and energetic man. One such is the teacher Reese in Wendthagen. "

From 1912 to at least 1918, Kammeier worked in Wendthagen as a third teacher, initially on a trial basis, and then later in a permanent position. The teacher Reese and Wilhelm Kammeier had set themselves the goal of further promoting the talented young people of the elementary school even after completing compulsory schooling and to interest them in culture and sport. A kind of evening school grew out of this commitment, in which the young people could train for secondary schools or take professional exams. Linked to this was the founding of a gymnastics club, which still exists today, in which theater was also played. Kammeier was in charge of staging the plays, while Reese took care of the general organization. Wilhelm Kammeier was also active as a writer of plays.

Kammeier, to whom Hans-Helmut Reese attests "inventiveness" and a winning character, probably did not feel at home in the regulated school operations at the time, despite the cooperation that teacher Reese felt was successful. In any case, his position was in the 1921 class of the "Schaumburg- Lippe State Handbook ”as vacant.

Wilhelm Kammeier's journalistic activity began in 1921/1922 with an essay on the subject of "About the racial affiliation of the inhabitants of Schaumburg-Lippe and the Central and North German traditional costumes in general". In 1935 the Adolf-Klein-Verlag published the first four issues of his work on “Forging German History”. Another seven publications on the same topic followed by 1940. Kammeier, although he " behaved in accordance with the system and was in tune with the ruling spirit or rather the demon with his theses " was never a member of the National Socialist German Workers' Party .

Wilhelm Kammeier is registered in “Kürschner Scholars Calendar” of 1940/41 as a private scholar living in Nienstädt with the subjects of “ Historical methodology, history of the Middle Ages, church history, religious history ”.

Wilhelm Kammeier moved to Hanover with his second wife at an unknown point in time . During the Second World War and the air raids on Hanover, he temporarily lived with the Reese couple in Petzen near Bückeburg - he had an occasional letter contact with their teacher Reese since 1923, and the Kammeiers felt safe with the Reese couple during the war - and drove from there occasionally to Hanover.

After the war he lived with his wife in the Thuringian city ​​of Arnstadt (then GDR ), where he died impoverished in 1959.

Historical research

Kammeier declared the methods of historical science of the time for checking sources for authenticity inadequate. He wanted to prove in his books that a large number of medieval documents were " false pieces " that were " outflows of the late medieval, learned universal action to falsify history ". Responsible for these forgeries in the 15th century was a " humanistic action [which] extended over a period of at least a century ". It consisted of a " constantly replenished, learned army of around a thousand men, which was distributed among the individual monasteries and other counterfeit branches of the West "; this had to " master the gigantic task of falsifying medieval history, which was headed by Rome, down to the smallest and most trivial. ". A " great cultural theft committed against the Germanic peoples " happened, or, as the historian Horst Fuhrmann put it in his negative criticism in his Kammeiers theses: it was " all at once the pure Germanism out of the historical sources and the Roman church was manipulated into it ”.

Since 1979 the publishing house for holistic research and culture, classified as right-wing extremist according to the Constitutional Protection Report 1998, has published reprints of its works on medieval “falsification of history”, often summarizing smaller writings. In 1982 this publisher published a book entitled The Falsification of the History of Early Christianity , which Kammeier allegedly wrote in the years 1942-1956.

In addition, the Cologne-based association “Wilhelm Kammeier e. V. ”or the authors Uwe Topper and Christoph Pfister , who refer to Kammeier's books. Some of Heribert Illig's writings , whose book The Invented Middle Ages, appears at times like a variation of Kammeier's “historical falsification” writings, received greater public attention, with simultaneous unanimous rejection from specialist science . Individual statements and even sources indicate that they were apparently adopted by Kammeier without Illig making this clear to his readers.

criticism

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

Kammeier encountered very contradicting reactions from contemporary reviewers of his works: Established historians unanimously expressed their rejection of the claims made by Kammeier, sometimes in very clear terms. In particular, they pointed to a lack of knowledge of the methods and results of scientifically conducted historical research that could not be overlooked. Another point of criticism was that Wilhelm Kammeier never looked at the originals of the documents. According to his own statements, he was denied access to these by the relevant archives. In German racist papers, however, Kammeier's writings were judged cautiously positive.

Works (selection)

  • Some Chinese-Mongolian root words in Lower Saxony . In: Lower Saxony. Low German magazine for people and homeland security in words and pictures . Volume 28, 1922/23, pp. 31-34.
  • The falsification of the documented sources of the German Middle Ages . 35 pages, Adolf Klein Verlag, Leipzig 1935.
  • The truth about the history of the late Middle Ages . Comprehensive facsimile print of the publishing house for holistic research, 426 pages, Wobbenbühl 1979
  • New evidence for the falsification of German history . Adolf Klein Verlag, Leipzig 1936.
  • The falsification of the history of early Christianity . (Created 1942 to 1956) Edited from the author's estate and edited by Roland Bohlinger. Publishing house for holistic research, Wobbenbühl 1982.

literature

  • Horst Fuhrmann , Alfred Gawlik : The Kammeier case . In: Miloslav Polívka, Michal Svatoš (eds.): Historia docet. Sborník prací k poctě šedesátých narozenin prof. PhDr. Ivana Hlaváčka . Prague 1992, ISBN 80-85268-14-0 , pp. 73-92.
  • Horst Fuhrmann: The Kammeier case and no end . In: Horst Fuhrmann: The Middle Ages are everywhere. From the present of a past time. CH Beck, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-406-40518-5 , pp. 244-251.
  • Horst Fuhrmann: Middle Ages. Time of forgeries . In: Horst Fuhrmann: Invitation to the Middle Ages . 5th edition. CH Beck, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-406-32052-X , pp. 195-210.

Web links

See also

References and comments

  1. ↑ a b c Horst Fuhrmann and Alfred Gawlik: The Kammeier case , in: Miloslav Polívka and Michal Svatoš (eds.), Historia docet. Sborník prací k poctě šedesátých narozenin prof. PhDr. Ivana Hlaváčka, Prague 1992; Page 73–92
  2. ↑ In the subject of mathematics, he only achieved a “not sufficient”; his “seminar certificate” shows several “unsatisfactory” achievements; so in natural history, harmony and history.
  3. ↑ The full text of Schwerdtfeger's submission can be found in: Fuhrmann / Gawlik: Der Fall Kammeier , in: Miloslav Polívka and Michal Svatoš (eds.), Historia docet. Sborník prací k poctě šedesátých narozenin prof. PhDr. Ivana Hlaváčka, Prague 1992; Page 78.
  4. ↑ According to Hans-Helmut Reese, the son of the teacher Reese, Kammeier is said to have written the play “The Seamless Shirt”, which was performed at the time, Reese said in a letter dated April 11, 1991 to Horst Fuhrmann. Printed by Fuhrmann / Gawlik: The Kammeier case , in: Miloslav Polívka and Michal Svatoš (eds.), Historia docet. Sborník prací k poctě šedesátých narozenin prof. PhDr. Ivana Hlaváčka, Prague 1992; Page 83f., Note 17
  5. ↑ possibly also the play “Athene” from 1912, which, however, received poor reviews, by Kammeier. At least there is a corresponding entry under the name "Wilhelm Kammeier" - unfortunately without further details on the person - in Max Geißler: Guide through the German literature of the twentieth century , Weimar 1913, page 262. Geißler judges the play: " A play" Athene ”(1912) means little dramatically or poetically. ... The impression is mostly amateurish "
  6. ↑ Hans-Helmut Reese wrote: " When he spoke, there was friendliness on his face, he had a winning effect "; see. Fuhrmann / Gawlik: The Kammeier case , in: Miloslav Polívka and Michal Svatoš (eds.), Historia docet. Sborník prací k poctě šedesátých narozenin prof. PhDr. Ivana Hlaváčka, Prague 1992; Page 84, note 26
  7. ^ Fuhrmann / Gawlik: The Kammeier case , in: Miloslav Polívka and Michal Svatoš (eds.), Historia docet. Sborník prací k poctě šedesátých narozenin prof. PhDr. Ivana Hlaváčka, Prague 1992; Page 83f., Note 17
  8. ↑ Hans-Helmut Reese writes that Kammeier left school "around 1923"; see: Fuhrmann / Gawlik: The Kammeier case , in: Miloslav Polívka and Michal Svatoš (eds.), Historia docet. Sborník prací k poctě šedesátých narozenin prof. PhDr. Ivana Hlaváčka, Prague 1992; Page 84, note 19
  9. ↑ Published in the journal Lower Saxony. Low German magazine for people and homeland security in words and images , Volume 27, 1921/22, pages 513-534 and 555-557
  10. ↑ A complete list of Kammeier's publications can be found in Fuhrmann / Gawlik: Der Fall Kammeier , in: Miloslav Polívka and Michal Svatoš (eds.), Historia docet. Sborník prací k poctě šedesátých narozenin prof. PhDr. Ivana Hlaváčka, Prague 1992; Page 85ff.
  11. ^ According to information from December 17, 1990 from the main state archive in Hanover, not in the denazification files, and according to information from December 28, 1990, there are no files in the "Berlin Document Center" either; see. Fuhrmann / Gawlik: The Kammeier case , in: Miloslav Polívka and Michal Svatoš (eds.), Historia docet. Sborník prací k poctě šedesátých narozenin prof. PhDr. Ivana Hlaváčka, Prague 1992; Page 84, note 24
  12. ↑ Kürschner's German Scholars Calendar 1940/41, edited by Gerhard Lüdtke, 6th edition, 1st volume Berlin 1941; Column 860
  13. ↑ So Hans-Helmut Reese in his letter to Fuhrmann; see. Fuhrmann / Gawlik: The Kammeier case , in: Miloslav Polívka and Michal Svatoš (eds.), Historia docet. Sborník prací k poctě šedesátých narozenin prof. PhDr. Ivana Hlaváčka, Prague 1992; Page 84, note 26
  14. ↑ So Roland Bohlinger in his afterword to the reprint edition by: Wilhelm Kammeier: Die Fälschung der deutschen Geschichte , 4th edition of the facsimile print Struckum (no year; approx. 1985) of the edition published in 1935 by Adolf Klein Verlag
  15. ^ Wilhelm Kammeier: The falsification of German history , 4th edition of the facsimile print Struckum (no year; approx. 1985) of the edition published by Adolf Klein Verlag in 1935; Page 73
  16. ↑ a b c Wilhelm Kammeier: The historical world riddles. Answers to my critics , (= Völkisches Awakening; Volume 10), Leipzig 1937; Page 26
  17. ^ Wilhelm Kammeier: The historical world riddles. Answers to my critics , (= Völkisches Awakening; Volume 10), Leipzig 1937; Page 27
  18. ↑ Horst Fuhrmann: Middle Ages. Zeit der Forgerungen , in: ders., Invitation to the Middle Ages, 5th edition Munich 1997; Page 197
  19. ↑ see literature by and about the book in the catalog of the German National Library
  20. ^ Federal Constitutional Protection Report, 1998; P.75, cit. in Bundestag printed paper 14/859 of April 23, 1999
  21. ↑ So Roland Bohlinger in his foreword to The Truth About the History of the Late Middle Ages
  22. ↑ So Roland Bohlinger in his foreword
  23. ↑ Hartmut Boockmann commented on this in the editorial on GWU. Issue 10, 1997
  24. ↑ cf. Chladek; Lehmann, " Illig remains true to himself "
personal data
SURNAME Kammeier, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kammeier, Friedrich Wilhelm Ferdinand (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chronology critic
DATE OF BIRTH October 3, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Nienstädt (district of Stadthagen)
DATE OF DEATH May 23, 1959
Place of death Arnstadt