The historiography of Germany deals with the manner in which historians have depicted, analyzed and debated the history of Germany. It also covers the popular memory of critical historical events, ideas and leaders, as well as the depiction of those events in museums, monuments, reenactments, pageants and historic sites, and the editing of historical documents.
Medieval and early modern Diarium Europaeum was a journal on the history of the German-speaking lands founded by Martin Meyer (Philemerus Irenicus Elisius) and published between 1659 and 1683 in 45 volumes. Very precise editing of historic documents was a main concern in the 19th century, as exemplified by Monumenta Germaniae Historica. It published many thousands of documents, both chronicle and archival, for the study of German history (broadly conceived) from the end of the Roman Empire to 1500. The MGH was founded in Hanover in 1819. The first volume appeared in 1826. The editor from 1826 was Georg Heinrich Pertz (1795 to 1876); in 1875 he was succeeded by Georg Waitz (1813–1886) . Many eminent medievalists participated in the project, searching for and annotating documents.David Knowles, "The Monumenta Germaniae Historica'." in Knowles, ed, (1963): 63-97. in JSTOR
The Die Deutschen Inschriften project begun in 1934 collects and redacts medieval and early modern inscriptions in Germany.
Justus Möser (1720-1794) was a German jurist best known for his innovative history of Osnabrück (1768) which stressed social and cultural themes.W. J. Bossenbrook, "Justus Möser's Approach to History," in Medieval and Historiographical Essays in Honor of James Westfall Thompson (Chicago, 1938), pp 397-422.
19th century Hegel and Marx
Another important German thinker was Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, whose theory of historical progress ran counter to Ranke's approach. In Hegel's own words, his philosophical theory of "World history... represents the development of the spirit's consciousness of its own freedom and of the consequent realization of this freedom."Lectures, p. 138. This realization is seen by studying the various cultures that have developed over the millennia, and trying to understand the way that freedom has worked itself out through them:
Hegel's main historical enterprise was to study the emergence of the idea of freedom. Starting with China and India, which gave a very limited scope to freedom, he moves to ancient Persia and Greece, which had much more sophisticated views, and then to Rome, which added a policy of rule by law. Christianity added a positive spirit to the Roman idea of freedom, but during the Middle Ages, according to Hegel, tight Church control led to stagnation. The breakthrough for freedom came during the Renaissance, and especially during the Reformation. Hegel concludes that the constitutional monarchy of the Germanic and Scandinavian states, and Britain, represents so far the highest stage of freedom. He dismisses democracy as a step backward. He uses a three-stage approach: the status quo is the "thesis", the challenge to it (as represented by Socrates, Christianity, and Luther) is the "antithesis" with the outcome being a synthesis at a higher stage of development of freedom.Marnie Hughes-Warrington, Fifty key thinkers on history (Routledge, 2007) pp 135-43.
Karl Marx followed the Hegelian dialectic method, but inverting it to make material factors (especially economic factors) superior to virtual forces.Sidney Hook, From Hegel to Marx: studies in the intellectual development of Karl Marx (1994). Marx introduced the concept of historical materialism into the study of world historical development. In his conception, the economic conditions and dominant modes of production determined the structure of society at that point. In his view five successive stages in the development of material conditions would occur in Western Europe. The first stage was primitive communism where property was shared and there was no concept of "leadership". This progressed to a slave society where the idea of class emerged and the State developed. Feudalism was characterized by an aristocracy working in partnership with a Church and the emergence of the nation state. Capitalism appeared after the bourgeois revolution when the capitalists (or their merchant predecessors) overthrew the feudal system and established a market economy, with private property and parliamentary democracy. Marx then predicted the eventual proletarian revolution that would result in the attainment of socialism, followed by Communism, where property would be communally owned.Gerald Allan Cohen, Karl Marx's theory of history: a defence (2nd ed. 2000) onlineHughes-Warrington, Fifty key thinkers on history (2007) pp 215-24.
Niebuhr Barthold Georg Niebuhr (1776–1831) became Germany's leading historian of Ancient Rome and a founding father of modern scholarly historiography. By 1810 Niebuhr was inspiring German patriotism in students at the University of Berlin by his analysis of Roman economy and government. Niebuhr was a leader of the Romantic Era and symbol of German national spirit that emerged after the humiliating defeat of the German Army by Napoleon at Jena in 1806. He was also deeply rooted in the classical spirit of the Age of Enlightenment in his intellectual presuppositions, his use of philological analysis, and his emphasis on both general and particular phenomena in history. He emphasized use of the techniques that philologists had used to study ancient documents, stressing that historical research had to be based primarily on primary sources.Peter Hanns Reill, "Barthold Georg Niebuhr and the Enlightenment Tradition." German Studies Review (1980): 9-26. in JSTOR
Leopold von Ranke
The modern academic study of history and methods of historiography were pioneered in 19th-century German universities, especially the University of Berlin and the University of Göttingen. Leopold von Ranke (1795-1886) at Berlin was the pivotal influence in this regard, and was the founder of modern source-based history.Frederick C. Beiser (2011) The German Historicist Tradition, p.254Green and Troup (eds.), The Houses of History, p. 2: "Leopold von Ranke was instrumental in establishing professional standards for historical training at the University of Berlin between 1824 and 1871." According to Caroline Hoefferle, "Ranke was probably the most important historian to shape historical profession as it emerged in Europe and the United States in the late 19th century."Caroline Hoefferle, Essential Historiography Reader (Pearson, 2011) p. 68.Georg G. Iggers, "The image of Ranke in American and German historical thought." History and Theory 2.1 (1962): 17-40. in JSTORHughes-Warrington, Fifty key thinkers on history (2007) pp 256-63.
Specifically, he implemented the seminar teaching method in his classroom, and focused on archival research and analysis of historical documents. Beginning with his first book in 1824, the History of the Latin and Teutonic Peoples from 1494 to 1514, Ranke used an unusually wide variety of sources for a historian of the age, including "memoirs, diaries, personal and formal missives, government documents, diplomatic dispatches and first-hand accounts of eye-witnesses". Over a career that spanned much of the century, Ranke set the standards for much of later historical writing, introducing such ideas as reliance on primary sources, an emphasis on narrative history and especially international politics (aussenpolitik).E. Sreedharan, A textbook of historiography, 500 BC to AD 2000 (2004) p 185 Sources had to be solid, not speculations and rationalizations. His credo was to write history the way it was. He insisted on primary sources with proven authenticity.
Ranke also rejected the 'teleological approach' to history, which traditionally viewed each period as inferior to the period which follows. In Ranke's view, the historian had to understand a period on its own terms, and seek to find only the general ideas which animated every period of history. In 1831 and at the behest of the Prussian government, Ranke founded and edited the first historical journal in the world, called Historisch-Politische Zeitschrift.
Nationalism
Across Europe, the nationalization of history took place in the 19th century, as part of national revivals in the 19th century. Historians emphasize the cultural, linguistic, religious and ethnic roots of the nation, leading to a strong support for their own government on the part of many ethnic groups, especially the Germans and Italians. It had a profound impact on Germany, providing strong widespread intellectual support for the unification achieved in 1870-71.Leonard Krieger, The German idea of freedom: History of a political tradition from the Reformation to 1871 (1957). An especially influential German historian was Heinrich von Treitschke (1834-1896).H.W.C. Davis, The political thought of Heinrich von Treitschke (1915). online
Other historians Johann Gustav Droysen (1808–1884) moved from his original interest in Rome to the history of Prussia, He was perhaps most influential for his consideration of the nature of historiography, making a strong case for the autonomy of history regardless of the growing prestige of the sciences.Arthur Alfaix Assis, What Is History For? Johan Gustav Droysen and the Functions of Historiography (2014)Thomas Burger, "Droysen's defense of historiography: a note." History and Theory (1977): 16#2 168–173. in JSTOR
Karl Lamprecht (1856–1915) was the most controversial historian in Germany around 1900. His great goal was to fashion an all-embracing, scientific cultural history of the German nation, challenged the Rankean policies that had become governing tenets of German historiography.Roger Chickering, Karl Lamprecht: a German academic life (1856-1915) (BRILL, 1993).
Wilhelm Dilthey (1833–1911) was a historian, psychologist, sociologist, and philosopher, who held Hegel's Chair in Philosophy at the University of Berlin. Is best known for his philosophy of history, whereby he distinguished the humanities from the physical sciences. A lifelong concern was to establish a proper theoretical and methodological foundation for the "human sciences" (e.g. history, law, literary criticism), distinct from, but equally "scientific" as, the "natural sciences" (e.g. physics, chemistry). He suggested that all human experience divides naturally into two parts: that of the surrounding natural world, in which "objective necessity" rules, and that of inner experience, characterized by sovereignty of the will, personal responsibility for one's actions, an ability to subject everything to reasoning and to protect one's own autonomy. Historians used his approach to rebuff arguments that history was not fully "scientific."Michael Ermarth, Wilhelm Dilthey: The critique of historical reason (1978).
In religious history, Adolf von Harnack (1851–1930) and Ernst Troeltsch (1865–1923) were highly influential well beyond Germany. Harnack's history of early Christianity gave a liberal Protestant interpretation. Troeltsch's explored the sociology of Christian believers, which he based on the sociology of Max Weber.Ernst Troeltsch, The Social Teachings of the Christian Church (2 vol. translation, Harper Row, 1960).Wilhelm Pauck, Harnack and Troeltsch: Two historical theologians (Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2015)
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