Jürgen Petersohn (8 April 1935 – 20 July 2017) was a German historian best known for his researches on medieval history and the of Northeast Germany. He served as a professor of medieval history at Marburg University from 1981 to 2000.
Born in Merseburg, Petersohn was renowned for his contributions to the study of political intellectual history, history of Rome and the papacy including papal diplomacy in the Quattrocento, and the provincial histories of Franconia and Pomerania. He made significant contributions to the Monumenta Germaniae Historica as an editor and commentator, notably through his work on the earliest biography of Otto of Bamberg, known as the "Prüfening Vita".
Life Born in 1935 in Merseburg, Petersohn was the son of a senior official in the Prussian educational administration. In 1936, his family relocated to Koszalin in Pomerania, where he spent his early childhood and began his schooling. The town, a former residence of the Bishops of Cammin, profoundly influenced his worldview. Following the Second World War, his family fled to the West. During the escape, Petersohn, then in his fourth year of school, the only book he carried with him was Fritz Treichel's Geschichte der Stadt Köslin (History of the City of Köslin). In 1946, the family settled in Coburg in Upper Franconia, where they found refuge with relatives. Petersohn completed his secondary education at the in Coburg, passing his Abitur in 1954.
Between 1954 and 1960, Petersohn studied history, German studies, and philosophy at the universities of Würzburg, Marburg (under ), and Bonn (under Helmut Beumann). In Würzburg, he joined the , a student fraternity. From the summer semester of 1955, he received a scholarship from the German Academic Scholarship Foundation. In 1959, he earned his doctorate in Bonn under Walther Hubatsch with a dissertation on early modern history titled Markgraf Georg Friedrich von Brandenburg-Ansbach und Bayreuth als Herzog in Preußen 1578–1603 (Margrave Georg Friedrich of Brandenburg-Ansbach and Bayreuth as Duke in Prussia 1578–1603).See a review in: He passed his first state examination for advanced teaching in German and history in January 1960.
From 1961 to 1964, Petersohn was a research fellow of the German Research Foundation. Between 1964 and 1970, he served as a research assistant at the Historical Seminar of the University of Würzburg, where became a formative academic mentor, steering his research towards the Middle Ages. In 1970, he completed his habilitation in medieval history and auxiliary sciences of history in Würzburg with a study titled Sakralstruktur und Kultgeschichte des südlichen Ostseeraums (Sacred Structure and Religious History of the Southern Baltic Region). From 1970 to 1972, he was a senior assistant at Würzburg's Institute of History. His academic career progressed slowly; he held a temporary position at the University of Tübingen from 1971 to 1973, filling the chair vacated by . In Würzburg, he taught as an adjunct professor from 1975 and as an associate professor from 1978. A permanent appointment at Tübingen in 1976 fell through due to budget cuts.
At the age of 46, Petersohn succeeded Helmut Beumann as Professor of Medieval History at the University of Marburg in 1981. During the early 1980s, his lectures faced boycotts from Marxist student groups protesting societal issues like the NATO Double-Track Decision, nuclear power plants, and the Startbahn West runway expansion. At Marburg, he served as dean of the Faculty of History in 1985–86 and 1993–94, and mentored 16 doctoral students, including Holger Berwinkel, Otfried Krafft, , and Peter Wiegand, as well as the habilitations of and . He built a significant academic following only in the 1990s.
From 1983, Petersohn was a member of the , serving as its chairman from 1998 to 2001. He organised the group's 50th anniversary in 2001, publishing a bio-bibliographical documentation of its members and their works, along with the conference volume Mediaevalia Augiensia. Forschungen zur Geschichte des Mittelalters (Studies in Medieval History). He initiated conferences on "Politics and Saint Veneration in the High Middle Ages" held on Reichenau Island in 1990 and 1991, editing the resulting volume as the 42nd issue of Vorträge und Forschungen. Petersohn also wrote an extensive obituary for Helmut Beumann, a founding member and long-serving chairman of the group, published in the 43rd special issue of Vorträge und Forschungen. He coordinated the Hessian section of the working group in Marburg, Giessen, and Frankfurt for nearly two decades.
Petersohn was a member of the (1959), the Society for Franconian History (1968), the (1973), and the (1985). He became a corresponding member in 1991 and a full member in 1998 of the Academic Society at the Goethe University Frankfurt. In 1976, he received an honorary award associated with the Georg Dehio Cultural Prize, and in 1988, he was awarded the Pomeranian Cultural Prize. A festschrift in his honour, published on his 65th birthday, addressed themes such as imperial and papal history, the history of Rome, Quattrocento literature, and constitutional and legal history.
Petersohn became emeritus at the Marburg University in 2000 and continued to publish seven independent works. He maintained a strong connection to Würzburg, both biographically and through his research. After retirement, he returned to Würzburg, where, in 2007, he delivered a lecture on Franz Xaver von Wegele as Organiser of Historical Studies in Würzburg in the 19th Century to mark the 150th anniversary of the Würzburg Historical Seminar. In 2008, he published a seminal work, Franken im Mittelalter. Identität und Profil im Spiegel von Bewußtsein und Vorstellung (Franconia in the Middle Ages: Identity and Profile in the Mirror of Consciousness and Imagination). His final article, published in 2016 in the Mitteilungen des Instituts für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung, explored Franz Xaver Wegele and the appointment of the Carinthian Matthias Lexer to the University of Würzburg (1868/69).
Petersohn married in December 1964 and had three sons. He died on 20 July 2017 at the age of 82 in his home in Würzburg.
Researches Petersohn's research encompassed political intellectual history, educational and church history, Rome and the empire in the High Middle Ages, the provincial histories of Franconia and Northeast Germany, Humanism, the Christianization of Pomerania, the history of canonization and its instrumentalisation by emperors, and the conciliar movement in the 15th century. His work spanned a broad range, from the Northumbrian uncial script of the 8th century to the history of the Prussian estates in the 16th and early 17th centuries, and the history of science of the 19th and 20th centuries. His findings were published in 18 monographs and over 100 articles. Initially focused on early modern history, Petersohn produced around a dozen articles between 1957 and 1963, primarily on Prussian history, with his first two published during his student years.; A six-month research stay in Rome in 1960–61 shifted his focus towards medieval themes.
Provincial History Northeast German, Particularly Pomeranian, History
From the early 1960s, Petersohn concentrated on the church history of Pomerania in the Middle Ages, reflecting his childhood connection to the region. His habilitation thesis explored the southern Baltic region within the ecclesiastical and political dynamics of the Empire, Poland, and Denmark from the 10th to the 13th centuries. It examined the emergence of the Obotritian and Pomeranian sacred spaces, focusing on mission activities, diocesan foundations, and the development of ecclesiastical structures. Published in 1979, this work became a standard reference for Pomeranian history during the missionary period. See also the reviews by: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; Petersohn defined the "sacred space" as ecclesiastical jurisdictions created in alignment with the political and tribal structures of the late Slavic period. He explored the gradual ecclesiastical penetration of the region, discussing the establishment of church organisation, the agents of mission, and the legal and cultural foundations of early ecclesiastical life. His analysis highlighted Henry the Lion as a key figure in shaping the Obotritian sacred space and traced the influence of Bolesław III Wrymouth and Otto of Bamberg in initiating Pomerania's Christianization, with Magdeburg later shaping it as a "religious daughter province". He also examined whether church patronages were introduced through German eastward settlement, concluding that religious influences played a secondary role to political and ecclesiastical developments. According to Rudolf Schieffer, the significance of the work lies in the fact that the author no longer views the topic one-sidedly from the perspective of German immigration, but rather focuses on the political entanglements, especially the genesis of regional identities through the shared veneration of saints in sacred spaces. The study was received more quickly and widely in Poland than in the Federal Republic of Germany.
In 1979, at a conference of the , Petersohn provided an overview of "Pomerania's constitutional relationship with neighbouring powers" up to the end of the Middle Ages, published in 1980 and translated into Polish in 1987. He also produced numerous studies on Pomeranian provincial and religious history, particularly in the 12th century, highlighting the significance of the castle hill and urban settlement of Usedom for the Duchy of Pomerania and its church.
His research extended to Mecklenburg and Holstein. In a 2003 article, he re-analysed Otto III's policies towards the Slavic tribes of the Baltic, Oder, and Elbe, focusing on events in 995, such as the Mecklenburg campaign, the privilege for the Diocese of Meissen, and the massacre of the Slavnikids.
Ethnogenesis and Identity of Franconia's Inhabitants in the Middle Ages Petersohn also studied the ethnogenesis and identity of the Main region Franconia'''s inhabitants, referred to in medieval sources as East Franks (Franci orientales). His work began with an invitation from to update 's contribution on education, Latin literature, and intellectual currents for the revised edition of 's Handbuch der bayerischen Geschichte (Handbook of Bavarian History) (1997). In 2008, after years of work, he published a comprehensive study on the evolving concept of Franconia from the Carolingians to the 16th century, See also the reviews by: ; ; ; dedicated to his mentor . Drawing on onomastics, hagiography, legal history, and other fields, Petersohn also linked his findings to contemporary ethnogenetic questions, exploring the "cultural memory" as defined by Jan Assmann to delineate Franconia's identity. He structured his analysis into three periods: the formation of Franconian identity in the early and high Middle Ages, including the historical context of this development, and the emergence of a regional consciousness in the late Middle Ages, followed by identity challenges at the onset of the early modern period. He argued that Franconia emerged as a distinct spatial-ethnic entity by the late 8th century, solidified by the turn of the 10th century, and developed independently thereafter. His study, heavily focused on Würzburg, highlighted the central role of the veneration of Saint Kilian in shaping Franconian identity, with Würzburg remaining a focal point of a broader Franconian saint cult. The work, considered a foundational study on Franconian identity, sold out quickly.
Biographies and Legacy of Bishop Otto I of Bamberg