Peter Herde (born 5 February 1933) is a German historian. His research activities range from fundamental work on papal diplomatics of the Middle Ages to the history of the country up to the Second World War.
Life Herd was born in 1933 in Racibórz, Upper Silesia. He was the son of deputy headmaster Reinhard Herde and Hildegard Herde. He spent his childhood and the first years of his youth in Ratibor. Since autumn 1943 he attended the Realgymnasium Ratibor. The family fled from the Red Army at the end of January 1945 and found their new home in Arnsberg.Karl Borchardt, Enno Bünz: Peter Herde on his eightieth birthday. In Archive for Diplomatic Affairs 60 (2014), , here (retrieved via De Gruyter Online) In Neheim-Hüsten he passed his Abitur in 1953. In the summer semester of 1953 he began studying physics and mathematics at the University of Heidelberg. Fritz Ernst aroused Herde's interest in history through his lectures. In 1954 Herde went to LMU Munich to study history, German and English literature. Through Friedrich Baethgen, Herde turned to the history of the pope and the empire of the late Middle Ages.Karl Borchardt, Enno Bünz: Peter Herde on his eightieth birthday. In Archive for Diplomatics 60 (2014), , here (accessed via De Gruyter Online) Bernhard Bischoff gave him an understanding of palaeography, the history of Medieval Latin literature and Manuscript Studies. Through Peter Acht he began to deal with the papal documents of the 13th century. In 1958, under the supervision of Peter Acht, he was awarded a doctorate in philosophy in Munich with the thesis Contributions to papal chancery and documents in the 13th century. The dissertation became a standard in the history of the papal chancellery and diplomacy. The work appeared in 1967 in a second, considerably extended edition.Peter Herde: Contributions to Papal Chancellery and Documentation in the 13th Century. 2nd, improved and extended edition. Kallmünz 1967. One year after his doctorate, Herde's first scientific essay Gestaltung und Krisis christlich-jüdischen Verhältnisses in Regensburg am Ende des Mittelalters was published.Peter Herde: Gestaltung und Krise des christlich-jüdischen Verhältnisses in Regensburg am Ende des Mittelalters. In Zeitschrift für bayerische Landesgeschichte 22 (1959) (Numerised). The essay was a result of his work on the edition of the documents and records on the history of the Jews in Regensburg.
From 1960 to 1962 he worked at the German Historical Institute in Rome. The director Walther Holtzmann exerted a great influence on him. In Rome he established friendly relations with Hermann Goldbrunner, Dieter Girgensohn, Norbert Kamp, Arnold Esch, Rudolf Hiestand and Rupert Hacker. His habilitation dealt with the Formularium audientie litterarum contradictarum. After his habilitation in 1965 – also with Peter Acht – he worked as a lecturer in Munich. Already in 1968, at the age of 35, he was appointed full professor for middle and modern history at the University of Frankfurt. He took up the position the following year. From 4 June 1976, he taught as a full professor of history, in particular medieval history, regional history and historical ancillary sciences, at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg. In 2001 he was retired. His farewell lecture, in which he took a critical look at recent developments in German higher education, was held on 16 June 2001 at a symposium in the .Peter Herde: Die Geschichtswissenschaft an deutschen und amerikanischen Universitäten. Ein Vergleich. In Würzburger medizinhistorische Mitteilungen 21 (2002), .
Main areas of research Herde works in the field of medieval and modern history, especially on the history of the empire and the papacy of the later Middle Ages, on the social and intellectual history of Italian humanism and on the intellectual history of the Risorgimento. His further research interests include the auxiliary sciences of history, the Bavarian and the history of the Second World War. His Munich dissertation, first published in 1961, also received great international acclaim.Cf. the reviews of C. R. Cheney in English Historical Review 79 (1964), ; Georges Tessier in Bibliothèque de l'École des chartes 120 (1962), ; Hans Martin Schaller in Archivalische Zeitschrift 59 (1963), . The work was published in 1967 in a second improved and extended edition and became a standard work of papal diplomacy of the 13th century. Cf. the reviews of Matthias Thiel in Archivalische Zeitschrift 67 (1971), ; Peter Herde in Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters. 24 (1968), (online). With the edition and investigation of the formula books of the Audientia litterarum contradictarum he published a two-volume and almost 1400-page Munich habilitation thesis.Cf. the review by Knut Wolfgang Nörr in Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte: Kanonistische Abteilung 58 (1972), . The work was methodologically innovative, since Herde linked questions of document science and canonism.Karl Borchardt, Enno Bünz: Peter Herde on his eightieth birthday. In Archive for Diplomatic Affairs 60 (2014), , here (retrieved via De Gruyter Online)
Herde conducted research on late medieval papal documents, on the history of Italy, especially Florence in the Renaissance and the history of Sicily. About Charles I of Anjou Herde published an extensive article in the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani. This study on the first Angevinen on the Sicilian throne resulted in a biography in 1979.Peter Herde: Karl I. von Anjou. Stuttgart among others 1979. In Würzburg, Herde dealt intensively with Franconian history and the history of the empire and pope in the 13th century. But Herde also devoted himself to problems of the 19th century. Among other things he examined the relations of Bavaria and the Holy See in the time of the beginning Kulturkampf.Peter Herde: Der Heilige Stuhl und Bayern zwischen Zollparlament und Reichsgründung (1867/68–1871). In Zeitschrift für bayerische Landesgeschichte 45 (1982), (Digitalisat). Herde published a standard work in 1981 with his biography of Pope Celestine V.See Max Seckler: "Eine wohlüberlegte Entscheidung". Benedikt XVI. auf dem Weg zum Amtsverzicht. In Jan-Heiner Tück (ed.): Der Theologenpapst. Eine kritische Würdigung Benedikts XVI. Freiburg im Breisgau among others 2013, , here ; Walter Koller in Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters 40 (1984), (Digitalisat) The work was published in Italian translation in 2004Celestino V (Pietro del Morrone) 1294. Il papa angelico, a cura di Quirino Salomone, translation by Anna Maria Voci, L'Aquila 2004. and was supplemented in 2008 by his Monumenta Germaniae Historica edition of the oldest vitae of "papa angelicus".Peter Herde: Die ältesten Viten Papst Cölestins V. (Peters vom Morrone). Hannover 2008. With his work, published in 1986, Herde presented for the first time the history of medieval Ghibellines and Guelphs.Peter Herde: Guelfen und Neoguelfen. Zur Geschichte einer nationalen Ideologie vom Mittelalter zum Risorgimento. Stuttgart 1986. Together with his student Thomas Frenz, he published in 2000 the letter and memorial book of the Passau Cathedral dean Albert von Behaim of 1246. Already in the 1980s, Herde has been working on a biography of Antipope Boniface VII. He published numerous individual studies on him. After decades of research, the first volume of the biography with the three chapters "Youth and ecclesiastical consecration", "On the way to the papal throne" and "Election to the pope, consecration and coronation" could be published in 2015 in the series "Popes and Papacy". The challenge was above all to prepare the time appropriately historiographically. Numerous details about his early life are not contemporary testimonies, but were only reproached to him in the later Boniface trial.Peter Herde: Bonifaz VIII. (1294–1303). Erster Halbband: Benedikt Caetani. Stuttgart 2015. Cf. the discussions with Werner Maleczek in Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters 74 (2018), ; Claudia Alraum in Archiv für Kulturgeschichte 101 (2019), ; Klaus Herbers in Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft. 64 (2016), ; Andreas Fischer in 16 (2016), Nr. 4 [15 April 2016], (online); Lucia Dell'Asta in The Catholic Historical Review 103 (2017), .