Peter Moraw (31 August 1935 – 8 April 2013) was a German historian. He served as a professor of Medieval History, German Regional History, and Economic and Social History at the University of Giessen until his retirement in 2003. Moraw's work in the latter half of the 20th century had a significant impact on research related to the Late Middle Ages in Germany. He is recognized for integrating social sciences and prosopography into medieval studies, as well as for his focus on structural history and social history in the context of university history. His volume on the late medieval period, From an Open Constitution to a Designed Consolidation of the Propylaea, History of Germany, became a key reference in the field.
Life Peter Moraw was born on 31 August 1935 in Moravská Ostrava, Czechoslovakia. After World War II, he fled to Heidelberg with his parents and graduated from high school there in 1955. He studied history, German, and Latin at Heidelberg University from 1955 to 1960, intending to become a teacher. He passed the state examination for teaching at grammar schools in 1960. From 1961 to 1971, he worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Franconian-Palatinate History and Regional Studies at Heidelberg University. His experiences in Moravia and Heidelberg significantly shaped his research interests in the Late Middle Ages. Influenced by historians such as Reinhart Koselleck, Moraw adopted interdisciplinary methods.Johannes Kunisch: Nachruf auf Peter Moraw. In: Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung. Volume 40, 2013, pp. 181–182, here: p. 182; Bernd Schneidmüller: Peter Moraw – Von Heidelberg zur Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung. In: Christine Reinle (Ed.): Stand und Perspektiven der Sozial- und Verfassungsgeschichte zum römisch-deutschen Reich. Der Forschungseinfluss Peter Moraws auf die deutsche Mediävistik. Affalterbach 2016, pp. 65–77, here: p. 66. Moraw named Werner Conze, Erich Maschke, Ahasver von Brandt, and Hermann Heimpel as the historians who influenced him.Christian Heinemeyer: Zwischen Reich und Region im Spätmittelalter. Governance und politische Netzwerke um Kaiser Friedrich III. und Kurfürst Albrecht Achilles von Brandenburg. Berlin 2016, p. 32. He completed his doctorate under Fritz Ernst in 1961 with a thesis on the St. Philipp Abbey in Zell, chosen for its accessible documents in the university archives.Peter Moraw: Das Stift St. Philipp zu Zell in der Pfalz. Ein Beitrag zur mittelalterlichen Kirchengeschichte. Heidelberg 1964.Karl-Heinz Spieß: Alois Gerlich (1925–2010). In: Heinz Duchhardt (Ed.): Mainzer Historiker. Mainz 2020, pp. 107–123, here: p. 109; Enno Bünz: „Begegnung von Kirche und Welt“ – Peter Moraw und die Erforschung des weltlichen Kollegiatstifts. In: Christine Reinle (Ed.): Stand und Perspektiven der Sozial- und Verfassungsgeschichte zum römisch-deutschen Reich. Der Forschungseinfluss Peter Moraws auf die deutsche Mediävistik. Affalterbach 2016, pp. 251–267, here: p. 254. By the standards of the time, the dissertation had a "classical-land-historical approach".Christine Reinle: Landesgeschichte und Reichsgeschichte als komplementäre Perspektiven auf die deutsche Geschichte. In: Dies. (Ed.): Stand und Perspektiven der Sozial- und Verfassungsgeschichte zum römisch-deutschen Reich. Der Forschungseinfluss Peter Moraws auf die deutsche Mediävistik. Affalterbach 2016, pp. 221–249, here: p. 221. Initially taking a classical historical approach, Moraw later expanded his methodology to include individual history and prosopography, informed by his study of works by Helmut Berve and the Tellenbach school.Helmut Berve: Das Alexanderreich auf prosopographischer Grundlage. 2 Volumes, Munich 1926. These works served as a catalyst for his development of a more nuanced understanding of pre-modern conditions, based on a prosopographical approach.Frank Rexroth: Nekrolog Peter Moraw (1935–2013). In: Historische Zeitschrift. Volume 297, 2013, pp. 877–880, here: p. 878.
In the ten years following his dissertation, Peter Moraw was a habilitation fellow of the German Research Foundation (DFG). During this time, he explored university history, translated key sources on the life and canonization of Hedwig of Silesia,Peter Moraw: Vollständige textkritische Wiedergabe der lateinischen Texte mit deutscher Übersetzung. In: Wolfgang Braunfels (Ed.): Der Hedwigs-Codex von 1353. Volume 2: Texte und Kommentare. Berlin 1972, pp. 53–223. and created a detailed map of monasteries and convents for the Palatinate Atlas.Peter Moraw: Klöster und Stifte im Mittelalter. Speyer 1964, pp. 19–31. He completed his habilitation in medieval and modern history at Heidelberg University in 1971, with a thesis titled König, Reich und Territorium im späten Mittelalter (King, Empire and Territory in the Late Middle Ages), which, while unpublished, contributed to several studies on topics such as King Rupert of the Palatinate and Charles IV.Peter Moraw: König, Reich und Territorium im späten Mittelalter, Prosopographische Untersuchungen zur Kontinuität und Struktur königsnaher Führungsgruppen. Habilitation thesis (masch.) Heidelberg 1971.Peter Moraw: Beamtentum und Rat König Ruprechts. In: Zeitschrift für die Geschichte des Oberrheins. Volume 116, 1968, pp. 59–126; Peter Moraw: Kanzlei und Kanzleipersonal König Ruprechts. In: Archiv für Diplomatik. Volume 15, 1969, pp. 428–531; Peter Moraw: Räte und Kanzlei. In: Ferdinand Seibt (Ed.): Staatsmann und Mäzen. Katalog der Ausstellung in München und Köln. Munich, p. 285–292; Peter Moraw: Grundzüge einer Kanzleigeschichte Kaiser Karls IV. In: Zeitschrift für historische Forschung. Volume 12, 1985, pp. 11–42. He delivered his habilitation lecture on 17 July 1971, at the University of Heidelberg on the subject of Hessian collegiate churches in the Middle Ages.Peter Moraw: Hessische Stiftskirchen im Mittelalter. In: Archiv für Diplomatik. Volume 23, 1977, pp. 425–458. In 1971, Moraw became a deputy professor of medieval history at the Technical University of Darmstadt.
In 1972, he was appointed Professor of General History with a focus on auxiliary historical sciences at Bielefeld University. From the summer semester of 1973, he took on the role of Professor of Medieval History and German Regional History at the University of Giessen, where he worked closely with early modern scholar Volker Press. At the beginning of the 1980s, Moraw, Press, and the sociologist Helge Pross offered courses at the University of Giessen.Paul-Joachim Heinig: „Mittelfristig sollten alle RI-Dateien verknüpft sein, so dass man neue Fragen stellen kann.“ Die konzeptionelle Bedeutung der «Regesta Imperii» für Peter Moraw. In: Christine Reinle (Ed.): Stand und Perspektiven der Sozial- und Verfassungsgeschichte zum römisch-deutschen Reich. Der Forschungseinfluss Peter Moraws auf die deutsche Mediävistik. Affalterbach 2016, pp. 19–31, here: p. 21.
Moraw declined offers from universities in Düsseldorf, Trier, and Tübingen. He served as Dean of the Department of History and Vice Dean at various times and co-founded the DFG Research Training Group on Medieval and Modern Statehood in Giessen in 1992. He also helped establish the DFG's Collaborative Research Center on Cultures of Memory in 1997. He became emeritus in the summer semester of 2003 and delivered his farewell address on the empire in medieval Europe on 23 July 2003.Peter Moraw: Das Reich im mittelalterlichen Europa. In: Bernd Schneidmüller, Stefan Weinfurter (Ed.): Heilig – Römisch – Deutsch. Das Reich im mittelalterlichen Europa. Dresden 2006, pp. 440–450.
Moraw was married in 1964 and had two daughters, including classical archaeologist Susanne Moraw. His wife died in 1997,Wer ist wer? Das deutsche Who’s Who. XLVII. Issue 2008/2009, p. 875. and due to a long illness, he was unable to participate in academic activities in the years leading up to his death on 8 April 2013.Christine Reinle: Vorwort. In: Dies. (Ed.): Stand und Perspektiven der Sozial- und Verfassungsgeschichte zum römisch-deutschen Reich. Der Forschungseinfluss Peter Moraws auf die deutsche Mediävistik Affalterbach 2016, pp. 9–10, here: p. 9.
Main research areas
Peter Moraw's research focused on the constitutional history of the German Late Middle Ages, social history, German regional history from the Middle Ages to modern times, and the history of universities and education in those periods. He published nine standalone works and over 200 essays, articles, and contributions to handbooks and encyclopedias. His work significantly enhanced the understanding of the Late Middle Ages, a period that had been relatively understudied. From 1987, he served as a co-editor and advisor for the Lexikon des Mittelalters, writing numerous articles on topics such as Germany in the Late Middle Ages,Peter Moraw: Deutschland. Spätmittelalter. In: Lexikon des Mittelalters (LexMA). Volume 3. Artemis & Winkler, Munich/Zürich 1986, , Sp. 835–862. Charles IV,Peter Moraw: Karl IV. In: Lexikon des Mittelalters (LexMA). Volume 5. Artemis & Winkler, Munich/Zürich 1991, , Sp. 971–974. and the Imperial Diet.Peter Moraw: Reichstag. In: Lexikon des Mittelalters (LexMA). Volume 7. LexMA-Publisher, Munich 1995, , Sp. 640–643.
Works on the Late Middle Ages
Development of new approaches since the 1970s