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Wilhelm Wattenbach

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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WILHELM WATTENBACH (1819-1897), German historian, was born at Ranzau in Holstein on the 22nd of September 1819. He studied philology at the universities of Bonn, Göttingen and Berlin, and in 1843 he began to work upon the Monumenta Germaniae historica. In 1855 he was appointed archivist at Breslau; in 1862 he became professor of history at Heidelberg, and ten years later professor at Berlin, where he was a member of the directing body of the Monumenta and a member of the Academy. He died at Frankfort on the 21st of September 1897. Wattenbach was distinguished by his thorough knowledge of the chronicles and other original documents of the middle ages, and his most valuable work was done in this field.

His principal book, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter bis zur Mitte des 13. Jahrhunderts, is unrivalled as a guide to the sources of the history of Germany in the middle ages; this was first published in 1858, and has passed through several editions. Cognate works are his Anleitung zur lateinischen Palaographie (Leipzig, 1869, and again 1886); and Das Schriftwesen im Mittelalter (Leipzig, 1871, and again 1896). Wattenbach also wrote Beitrage zur Geschichte der christlichen Kirche in Beihmen and Meihren (Vienna, 1849); Geschichte des rOmischen Papsttums (Berlin, 1876); and Anleitung zur griechischen Palaographie (Leipzig, 1867, and again 1895).