Presidential Address: Great Historical Enterprises III. The Monumenta Germaniae Historica Author(s): M. D.

Knowles Source: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Fifth Series, Vol. 10 (1960), pp. 129-150 Published by: Royal Historical Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3678777 Accessed: 03/09/2010 19:07
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PRESIDENTIAL

ADDRESS

By Professor the Rev. M. D. Knowles, Litt.D., D.Litt., F.B.A., F.S.A., F.R.Hist.S.

READ I2 DECEMBER 1959

GREAT HISTORICAL ENTERPRISES III. THE MONUMENTA GERMANIAE HISTORICA*

AST December we considered the work of the Maurists, who were at once a product and an ornament of a very brilliant phase of French learning and scholarship. This afternoon we turn to another great nation in what was, perhaps, the golden age of its influence upon the thought and academic disciplines of Europe. German scholarship of the nineteenth century, and in particular German historical scholarship, was for long unduly neglected in this country. Then, for a short space between the wars of I870 and 1914, it was widely admired and imitated. Finally, as a result of the two wars and the Nazi regime, it has in large part fallen once more out of the picture for Englishmen, and its achievements and the names of its most eminent practitioners have all but passed into oblivion.' It may therefore be of interest to rescue from this undeserved neglect a great enterprise which, initiated by a single man, grew to be a focus of technical scholarship unequalled even in Germany, and ended by becoming a national, not to say a nationalized or Nazialized, institution.2

* Professor Walther Holtzmann, Director of the German Historical Institute at Rome, and a member of the Zentraldirektionof the Monumenta, was kind enough to read a draft of this lecture and to make a number of corrections and suggestions. While warmly thanking Dr Holtzmann, I must also make it clear that the opinions and judgments (and possible errors) are mine, not his. 1 The only adequate account in English of German historical studies in the nineteenth century is the old, but still valuable, History and Historians in the nineteenthcentury, by G. P. Gooch (London, I913; 3rd edn. revised, there is a section on the Monumenta,and a short account of Waitz. I952); 2 For the story of the M[onumenta] G[ermaniae]H[istorica] to 1921 the narrative by Harry Bresslau, the official centenary historian, in N[eues]
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The 'only begetter' of the Monumenta was the eminent Prusthe Baron Karlvom Stein.Steinwasa sianstatesman andpatriot, of energy,foresight, statesman whose honestyanddetermination He reckoned on a must be greatness, longview, indisputable.' was and culture,with a particular also a man of wide intelligence interestin history,and a convictionthat nothingwould better servethe causeof German nationhood thana full knowledge of the medieval into life after the Retiring private Congress Empire. of Vienna, in furtherhe hadleisure to usehisinfluence andmeans his hopeswith friends suchas the ing his ideas.He haddiscussed and brothers Eichhorn and Grimm,Goethe, Savigny, a number of proposals oneofWessenberg for hadbeenmade, others among a networkof central and regional associations with government funds and princelypatronage. This and other schemeslike it brokedownuponthe hardreefof finance, andthe actual beginthehelpof two scholars ningwasdueto Steinalonewho enlisted Biichler andDiimge,the latterof whomdrewup a prospectus of a search for subscribers. Finally,a meetingtook placeat Frankfurton 20 January andfourleading I819, atwhichStein politicians agreed on a plan establishing Diimge as generaleditor and Biichler as secretary of the enterprise, and on June 12 the constitutionsof a society, Die Gesellschaft iltere fur Deutschlands and remained in force that is were Geschichtskunde, approved, (if the word)for morethanfiftyyears. The association thuscalled intobeinghadanunusual organizaA[rchiv], xlii (1921), is authoritative, and has been followed throughout. References are given as Bresslau. It may be supplemented by WattenbachLevison-Holtzmann, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellenin Mittelalter (edn. 1952), i, I7-28; G. Waitz, '0ber die Zukunft der M.G.H.', in Historische Zeitschrift, xxx (I873), I-I3; and E. Diimmler, 'Uber die Entstehung der M.G.H.', in Im neuen Reich (Leipsic, I876). A volume by H. Heimpel, deutscher Geschichtswissenschaft, Organisationsformen commemorating the centenary of the birth of P. F. Kehr, is scheduled for publication early in I960 (Gottingen-Zurich). 1Stein's biography has been written by G. H. Pertz (6 vols. in 7, I849-55), Sir J. M. Seeley, The Life and Times of Stein (3 vols., 1878), and G. Ritter, Stein, eine politische Biographie, 2 vols. (Stuttgart-Berlin, I931; repr. I958). For a short account see the article by J. Holland Rose in EncyclopaediaBritannica, ioth edn. (I911). Stein was assisted by others, especially by J. A. v. Aretin, but the latter is not entitled to the share attributed to him in N[eue] D[eutsche] B[iographie],s.v. Aretin, J. A.

a publishingand editing society (24 June I818), while Steinbegan

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a societyis normally directed elected tion. Whereas by officers herefromthe firstthe members were fromamongits members, from the directorate or governing body contradistinguished or Zentraldirektion) undera President. No machinery (Direktion of Editor andSecretary, who were wassetup fortheappointment members of the Directorate. Stein was, as if by not ex officio andit was assumed thathe wouldappointthe nature, president, so of who became at firstby invitation two officers. Members, of the hadno rightor voicein theaffairs Steinor the Directorate, in neverincreased, andin factdiminished society;theirnumbers In otherwords,the societywas timealmostto vanishing-point. andthe one of straw; all dutiesandpowerlay with the president two officers. NeitherDiimge, a sour and difficult who man,nor Biichler, the underlackedtechnical was of competence, capable getting out of harbour andoverthebar,andby theendof 1821 the taking hadbeendropped former who hadtried by Steinwhilethe latter, hadresigned. to defend his friend, Meanwhile Steinhaddisplayed the greatest and funds,andamonghis energyin findingfriends minorachievements of Goethe, may be countedhis enlistment whom he set collatinga manuscriptof Otto of Freising. the going was not good; Steinhimselfhadto find Nevertheless, mostof the moneyto support the firstresearches, anda considerable sum was lost on useless or senselesstravelin searchof on the partof inefficient The situation collaborators. manuscripts was savedby the fortunate of Pertz Heinrich appearance Georg Pertz'camefromHanover, thesonandgrandson of prosperous a he as had seen and the bookbinders; schoolboy experienced of the French in Educated classics and rigours history occupation. at Gottingen, he wasengaged as tutorin Hanover to a family with official anddiplomatic connexions whichmadehimfamiliar with the tastesand manners of high society and ultimately brought him into personaland friendlycontactwith Stein. Pertz as a vivacious, young manwas highlyintelligent, good lookingand
1 There is no adequate life of Pertz. An interesting autobiographicalfragment, dictated to his second wife in 1869, together with a selection of his letters (in English), was published by Leonora Pertz in ?i894. His letters to Droysen were published in I896. Bresslauwas able to use many others in the archives of M.G.H. For Pertz see also A[llgemeine]D[eutsche] B[iographie].

(I795-I876).

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of the upperbourgeoisie,whose fatherhad He was a Frankfurter held high civic office with conservativetraditionsfrom the preNapoleonic age; he was earnest, thrifty, retiring and far from expansivein society, but he was loyal, sensitive and romanticof mind. Throughout his life he felt a deep attractiontowards the of the CatholicChurch,and traditionsand externalmanifestations he had many friendsand disciplesof that faith, such as Brentano and Janssen,but he never took the step of joining the Church. His influenceover a school of historianswas considerable, but lies outside our scope. Stein, who had known his family in other years, met him and offeredhim the post of Secretary.In August I823 Bohmermet Pertz, and wrote of him as a futureMabillonof
1 For und Versuche,Neue SammJ. Janssen (I868). Cf. also Ranke, Abhandlungen lung, 535-44. B6hmer, see the biography, J. F. Bohmer's Leben, Briefe, etc., by

(I795-I863) but of a very different character and temperament.

autumn of I821 to Rome. Here his tact and charm made still of Consalviand Mai furtherconquests;he made the acquaintance and, contraryto all expectation,receivedthe entreeto the Vatican archives. He also won the confidenceand affection of the great Niebuhr, then acting as Prussian representativeto the Vatican, and was treatedby him as a family friend,almostas a son. When, therefore, Stein was faced with the crisis of I82I and had tried more than one shift, he finally turned to his brilliant young protege and on 26 August 1823 it was settled that Pertz should become the society's Editor. It was a piece of extraordinary good fortunefor the undertaking.Pertz, forty years later,was to suffer an eclipse, and to arousecriticism,opposition, and even hostility, but by then muchwaterhad flowed underthe bridges,and in 823 Stein could scarcely have found a better man in Germany to combine the enterpriseof youth with solid scholarshipand an admirable capacity both for organization and for hard work, together with the determinationthat could carry him through weatherboth fair and foul. MeanwhileSteinhadalso found his Secretary. JohannFriedrich Bohmer1 was a young man of exactly the same age as Pertz

and in his earlylife, at least,lacked in every way presentable, nor sympathy. He was sentby neither charm nor understanding andhis work,andstill at Vienna, Steinto search out manuscripts led Steinto sendhimin the morehis success in personal relations,

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andthelongassociaPertzforhisparttookto Bohmer Germany; into which a tion, ripened friendship, beganthatwas to survive untilit wasbroken all trialsanddifferences by death. officers it was possible Now thatSteinhadtwo suchexcellent to devisea programme. Fromthe beginning the conception was all the sources would rather have all said, the (Stein grandiose; of from the German of effective memorials) history disappearance Romanrule to the inventionof printing-in otherwords,the A.D. The onlytopics millennium from500to 1500 excluded, large left on one side, were the indeedin themselves, but necessarily and the crusades. The purelyecclesiastical historyof Germany, materials were from the firstdividedinto five sections,namely chronicles laws(Leges), charters letters (Scriptores), (Diplomata), andfinallywritingsof antiquarian interest(Antiqui(Epistolae), as publisher. wasselected tates).Hahnof Hanover The firsttaskof theneweditorwasto produce a volumewhich wouldattract attention and provethe viabilityof Stein'senterprise.Logically,a beginningshouldhave been madewith the but this was a peculiarly difficult documents, earlyMerovingian fieldin whichPertzhadas yet no materials. It wasdecided therefore to begin with Charlemagne, and the first volume duly on 14AugustI826withthesub-title Annales et Chronica appeared aeviCarolini. Aftersomediscussion the format of royalfolio had beenselected, andfromthe variousformulae by Pertz proposed for thegeneral nameof the seriesSteinselected the familiar three words:MONUMENTA GERMANIAE HISTORICA.On the was the mottooriginally which suggested title-page by Biichler, has becomefamiliar to so manythousands of readers: 'Sanctus amorpatriae datanimum'. No soonerhadthe firstvolumeappeared thanPertzset out in searchof manuscripts to ParisandEngland. His reputation, his charm andhis abilityto combine hardworkwithsocialactivities wereremarkable; in Parishe was received not only by Remusat, Guerard andtheThierrys, butin diplomatic circles andin fashionablesalons. He foundmanuscripts in plenty; healso founda wife in JuliaGarnett, the American-born of a well-known daughter in Paris,with Lafayette Englishastronomer. They weremarried and the Hanoverian minister to amongthe guests,and returned Hanover afterPertzhadtakenhis wife to staywithNiebuhr and unaffected andwinning.In the Stein,who foundherintelligent,

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autumn of this year (1827) Pertz entered upon his duties at Hanover as archivistand librarianof the Royal Library. In December 1829 the second volume appeared,largely the work of Pertz. Taken together, the firsttwo volumes, with a total of 5o00 folio pages, were a good beginning. Several important works, such as the AnnalesXantenses,discoveredby Pertz, were published for the first time, others, such as Einhard's Life of Charlemagne,appearedin a vastly improved text, and though here and therelater criticscould find faults,the favourable reception was justified.Difficulties,however, were by no means over. Energeticas he was, Pertz could not alone do all the editorialand sub-editorialwork, and in I829 he securedhis first standing collaborator,a man of his own age, J. M. Lappenberg,state archivist of Hamburg. Lappenberg did excellent work and remained a till his deathforty years later,but he was pillarof the Monumenta a contributor,not an assistant.The samemay be said of the somewhat unexpectedemergenceof Bohmer. Bohmer had long been as well as with the administraanxiousto help with the scholarship had and collected materials for small undertakings. tion, already he volunteered to Now, inspiredby Pertz, compile a register of
imperial charters from 911 to I313 to serve as the first volume of the Diplomata section. The first part was out in 1831 and the

series, with offshoots and revisions, continued till his death, but it was financedby Bohmerhimself and did not figure among the Monumenta, though it usually finds a place on the shelves alongside. With all its inevitable faults and errors it was not only a priceless tool but an inspirationand a pioneer in an important field. Meanwhile the financialposition was still stringent. Neither governmentsnor nobles helped as Stein had hoped. Some feared, as in Francein the days of the Maurists,that researchmight upset the titles of the reigninghouses and powerfulfamilies;others,that a study of medieval Germanywould make men anti-liberaland pro-Catholic.' Metternichin particularfearedrevolutionarydiscoveries and would not allow Austria to help. Before any firm position had been reachedthe undertakinglost its only powerful guide and support with the unexpecteddeath of Stein (29 June I83I). This event revealedthe faulty organizationof the society. Neither Pertz nor Bohmerwas a memberof the Directorate;the
1 For this see Waitz,N.A., ii, 460.

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memberto handwas the Prussian and politician only efficient the financial BaronK. F. F. von Nagler.Fortunately, minister, caresof the Monumenta were shortlyto be eased.Bbhmer was in circularizing ministers andpoliticians, andNaglerused tireless his influence in high quarters. Now thatSteinwas dead Metterhe recommended the appeal to the Federal this body Assembly; in turnrecommended a blockgrantto be raised contributions by from the memberstates. The total sum was paltry,and the inevitableshufflingand haggling took place while everyone to move,but eventually an incomewas waitedfor his neighbour for a and no strings few with but assured,' renewable, yearsonly attached savea very reasonable demand for yearlyaccounts and of A was made report progress. more favourable arrangement in I844. Havingachieved intotheshadows, withdrew this,Nagler leaving Pertz and B6hmerin power. In Stein's project the Directorate was to be composedof statesmen and dignitaries, anEditorandSecretary. The constitution remained in employing forcebutthepresident hadvanished, Editor and Secretary leaving as sole directors. For thirtyyearsthe Monumenta was to be conductedby two men living farapart, annual fundsfrom drawing theFederal and in fact no to one. Pertzwas Assembly, responsible far the more of the two but B6hmer wasa by powerful partners, faithful andactivemanager, who did not fail to makehis views known,thoughin the finalresortPertzusuallyhadhis way. settlement Pertz securedhis first Shortlyafter the financial assistants. The of regular greatresurgence historical activityhad now to dividends. Above Ranke at Berlinhad all, by begun pay foundeda school thatwas to influence all Europe.2 Besideshis fameas a writeranda personality, whichonly Macaulay among historians could Ranke was one of the greatestof rival, living academic teachers. He did not indeedinitiate,but he certainly canonized the Seminar, a groupof promising pupilsto whomthe mastertaughtthe skills of his craftin co-operative work with mutual in thefieldof his own studies. Ranke also helpandrivalry methods-recourse to records gave his pupilstwo revolutionary and archives, ratherthanto literary sources,and the thorough
1 Bresslau, 209, gives it as nearly 5,000 Taler per annum. The monetary reckonings of early days are always in Gulden and Taler. 2 For a short English account of Ranke, see Gooch, op. cit., chap. vi.

nich was no longer hostile, and at the Vienna conferenceof 1834

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of all the contemcriticism of the reliabilityand characteristics fame from the whole of His attracted students witnesses. porary central Europe and beyond and for half-a-centurythe cream of Germanscholarshipflowed through his hands. Ranke initiatedhis seminarin I833, and in the group of the first two years were Giesebrecht,Kopke, Hirschand Waitz. The last-named,l who had come to Ranke by way of Savigny and Lachmann, was hailed by the master as the future Muratoriof Germany;in I835 he won a prize for a brilliant study of King Henry I, and at the advice of Lappenberg,warmlyrecommended by Ranke, he offered his services to Pertz, who thus in i836 acquiredwithout effort and for a subsistencewage the greatest medieval scholar of the century, who as a critic was to revolutionize the study of sources and as a constitutionalhistoriandid for Germanywhat Stubbs, his admirer,was later to do for England. In I837 Waitz was joined by another able young man, Ludwig Bethmann. Both lived with Pertz and his alert, sympatheticand kindly wife as membersof the family; the Pertz of those days was still the lovable masterand friend;Waitz describes him in his diaryas a frank,homely man,with blond hair,blue eyes and an open forehead,a leader,but approachable. It was the April of the Monumenta. The Scriptores continued to appearat regularintervals,and as as there with early 1829 begana seriesof individualtexts reprinted shortereditorialmatterin cheaperoctavo form in usumscholarum. At a later date, the 'school editions' became new, scholarly editions replacingmany of the originalfolios. From these arosea controversy between Pertz and B6hmer which lasted for more than thirty years. Pertz throughout loved the folio-format, and viewed with displeasure both the proposalto reducethe Scriptores to quartoor to publisha simultaneousoctavo version. He feared loss of salesand diversionof editorialenergy. Bohmer,with more prophetic vision, wished to popularize scholarly and historical work as much as possible. Unable to move Pertz, he himself
1 There is no good biography of Waitz; for an intimate sketch by his son Eberhard, see Georg Wait; (Berlin, 1913; the centenary of his birth). For d. BerlinerAkademie,x886; appreciations,see W. Wattenbach, Abhandlungen A. Kluckhohn, 'Zur Erinnerung an Georg Waitz', in Sammlung GemeinverstdndlicherwissenschaftlicherVortrdge (ed. Virchov u. Holtzendorff), N.F., ii Ser., Heft. 25-48 (Berlin, 1887), 347-82, and the attractive pages of G. Monod in Portraits et Souvenirs, I897.

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a seriesof smallvolumesof outsidethe Monumenta, produced, texts with introductory matter,each groupedrounda leading The first topic, under the title FontesRerumGermanicarum. the a in and wide series had sale. appeared I843, Whilethe financial a greatchange positionwas still stringent, hadtakenplacein Pertz's life.In 1841 Ranke, by Jacob supported Grimm forhimtheofferof theDirectorate andSavigny, obtained of the RoyalLibrary in Berlin. Pertz,aftersomehardbargaining, the and in accepted post April1842 movedinto the commodious houseadjoining the greatlibrary; he was soon joinedby Waitz. A new chapter for the Monumenta; Pertz,withthe entree opened to official andacademic the of Lachmann, friend circles, ofBekker, of the Grimms, of Schelling and of Meineke, was now a state official,and in two years'time the new grantenabledhim to establish forthefirsttimea rudimentary It is truethatin 842 staff.
he lost the direct services of Waitz, who went to a chairat Kiel and later (I849) at G6ttingen, where he founded a seminar in medieval history that was to become celebrated,but Waitz ever remainedfaithfulto the Monumenta and his old chief. Meanwhile, Pertz had found two excellentsuccessors,Rudolf K6pke, Waitz's companion of old under Ranke, and Wilhelm Wattenbach,1a pupil of Otfried Miiller who, initiated by Ranke, Hirsch and in I843. These with Waitz Giesebrecht,came to the Monumenta and Bethmannwere the firstprofessional'Monumentists', 'Pertz's as Edmund to and chief could used call the them, boys' Bishop now work to a programme with a regularconferenceon Saturday evenings, though then as alwayshe left greatfreedomof choice in subject and method to his assistants. It was now, probably innovationof throughthe initiativeof Waitz, that a typographical It occurred. been for had some importance years to customary note in the marginthe source, if known, of the medievalwriter's text; now the practice was begun of printing all that could be traced to an earliersource in small type, thus making clear at a glance not only the generalbut even the verbal dependenceof a chroniclerupon his predecessors. The years that followed saw the arrival and departure of several talented men. The volumes of Scriptorescontinued to appear,and the name occurredfor the first time of Philipp Jaffe,
Berliner Akademie, I892.

1 For Wattenbach see Diimmler's Gedichtnisrede in Abhandlungend.

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in some ways the most brilliantof all 'Pertz'sboys'. Jaffe,a the commercial careerplannedfor young Jew, had abandoned withRanke. unfavourhim,andspentsomemonths Pertz,despite able criticism,becamehis patron,and Jaff6,in five years of thefirst(I85i) editionof hiswellphenomenal activity, produced known Registerof papalletters.Pertzcontinued his help, and to obtainfor himaccessto the papalarchives endeavoured for a of hiswork.Pio Nono,however, continuation courteous, though andJaff6 was not forthcoming, in I854accepted an invitation to the staff of the Monumenta for the next dozen where, join years, he wasresponsible for muchof the bestwork.Pertzshowedless in the encouragement he gave to his eldestson Karl, judgment whomin the sameyearhe madea permanent Karlwas assistant. a good workerbut withouta touchof brilliance; he lackedperception and technicalskill, while remainingextremelyselfsatisfied. Differingin everyway as they did, thesetwo recruits to be the principal weredestined causesof Pertz's undoing. Meanwhile Pertz'sprivate life hadundergone another change. His first wife had died in I852. In I854 he married another Leonora a of Horner, daughter the well-known Englishwoman, LeonardHorner,'for long a chief geologist and educationist underthe Factories Act. MissHorner's sisters hadmarinspector Sir Charles a baronet of ancient Bunbury,3 familywith property at Mildenhall and Barton,near Cambridge. These connexions in broughtPertzinto touch with peopleof rankand influence and undoubtedly him in his he was researches; England, helped to the libraries admitted of EarlSpencer andLordAshburnham as a gentleman as well as a scholar; we findhimstayingat Battle and at BartonHall,and still moreunexpectedly joiningholiday whilein Berlinhe was seen at groupsat Tenby and Barmouth, ambassadorial anddinners of the government soirees, receptions, the of influence his second wife was English colony.Nevertheless, not whollybenign; she waslessadaptable andless motherly; she to Englandfor her confinements returned to give her children and insistedon Englishways in her house; Englishnationality, the was English languageof generaluse there. The young Monumentists wereno longera partof the family,and this cir1 See
2 Ibid.

ried respectively Sir CharlesLyell,2 the eminent geologist, and

Dictionary of National Biography, s.v. 3 Ibid., for article on his father.

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For a cumstance,added to others, made Pertz less approachable. and Bluhme all went well. Merkel time, however, produced a valuable volume of Laws (the third) in 1863, and two more recruitsof worth appearedin Winkelmann,' the first of Waitz's pupils, and Arndt,2pupil of Rankeand Waitz. Against the excellent work of these and others had to be set some less successful editing of Pertz himself. Pertz was hardeningin every way, and his aloofness towards his juniors may have hastened, though it certainly did not cause, the tragic denouement of his relations with Jaffe.It would appearthat Pertz in I86o was responsiblefor blocking an offer made to Jaffe of an important post in the Florence archives. The matter rankled,and in I862 Jaffe unexpectedly served on Pertz (who happenedto be in Glasgow) the requisitesix months' notice of withdrawalfrom the Monumenta. Pertz, stung by what he consideredthe ingratitudeof his ablest lieutenant,accepted the notice but held Jaffe to his six months. Jaffewas still more embittered;he had friends in Berlin such as Ranke, Haupt, Mommsen, Diimmler and Wattenbach, all of whom took his part against Pertz. It was the beginning of a sad ten yearsin the life of the Monumenta and its chief. In the autumn of I863, Pertz lost his loyal partnerB6hmer,with whom he had often disagreedbut never quarrelled,and who had often given good counsel. He was now monarch of the Monumentaand at sixty-eight showed no sign of choosing a partneror successor. Both the scholarswho bought his goods and the politicianswho suppliedthe funds felt that some control or at leasta wider spread of responsibilitywas needed. Relations were embitteredby the secretivehabitsof Pertz, who refusedto allow scholars,even such a one as Sickel, to use materialsaccumulatedtwenty or thirty years earlierfor future use. The head and front of Pertz's offending, however, was his treatmentof the Monumenta as privateproperty, to be inherited son his he while based his position on the constitutionof Karl, by a virtually extinct society. For months the intrigues continued. Bismarck was approached and endeavoured to withdrawthe affair from the FederalAssembly to his own jurisdiction.Pertz fought
1838-96. For him and the other scholars of the M.G.H. the Nachruf or shorter obituary in the N.A. may be consulted; here the reference is N.A., xxi, 770 if.; see also A.D.B. 2 I838-9 N.A., xx, 664 ff.; A.D.B. (supplement).
1

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andadroitness. Twicewhenall backwith the utmostpertinacity distraction seemedlost he was savedfirstby Bismarck's in the of the Concrisisandlaterby the dissolution Schleswig-Holstein as a result of which on theoutbreak of warwithAustria, federacy of the Monumenta. But Prussia assumed for the finances liability won the firstround,the skiesconthoughhe hadundoubtedly andwithhis old genius tinuedto darken. Waitzremained faithful a pupilof Waitz,in I865 for selectionPertzacquired Weiland,1 in 1871; these andScheffer-Boichorst,2 pupilof WaitzandK6pke, two becamefirmfriendsand did yeomanservicein afteryears. Onleaving Ontheother thefinal hadcomewithJaffe. breach hand, he hadplanned a series of historical the Monumenta texts,mainly and places,critically edited letters,centringroundpersonalities andannotated; theproject of Mommsen, andthe hadtheblessing firstvolumeshada greatsuccess. The serieswas takenby Pertz, of the cheap andprobably intended to by Jaff6, be a competitor of petty he retorted kind editionsin the Monumenta; by every on the fire footnoteinsult,whileJaff6 fuel by publishing heaped an edition of the letters of St Boniface,long projectedand of Pertz'sscholarship. criticism by Pertz,andby sharp promised had the misfortune to lose a fromthe Finally,Jaffd manuscript Berlin the use of the Pertz forbade him library, whereupon place, andwhenthe Minister in on Jaffe's behalfproceeded to stepped accusehis old assistant of espionage. The matter now passedto the lawyers; Pertzrefused to withdraw the chargeandJaffecirculated andacademic a burning circles rebuttal. widelyin official His mind had long had a streakof morbidity,and he now in 1870, at the developeda maniaof hatredand persecution; of his a he as took his life. For this own scholar, height powers Pertzcannot be heldaccountable,3 buthe himself wasnow showmind.4Hopeless ing signs of age and even of an unbalanced in the of the editions Monumenta; anarchy reigned management and sent were not to the editors. Even Waitz languished proofs determined to contribute no more; was removed K6pke by death,
1843-1902; N.A., xxvii, 768 ff.; A.D.B. The article on Jaffe in A.D.B., by Alfred Dove, is unjustifiablyharsh in its tone towards Pertz. 4 Bresslau, citing Wattenbach, 469. Cf. Diimmler to Sickel, 28 August I872: 'Pertz ist geistig stumpf, halt abergleichwohl mit unbeugsamerEnergie den Besitz der Monumenta als Familieneigentum fest' (Bresslau, 469, n. i).
3

1 1841-95.

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andthe firstvolumeof the Diplomata, editedby KarlPertz,was a thoroughly of Theseandsimilar work. misunsatisfactory piece fortunes led the government, on spurred by Ranke,to act,anda commissionwas set up to report. For six months the affair on. Pertz, of masterly inaction andhistorical dragged by a mixture and legal specialpleading,defeatedall effortsand resistedall it was his duty as Stein'slegateeto hold on to the appeals; Monumenta. de I873,when his opponents, Finally,in February thattheymustwaitforhimto die, Pertz lasse,haddecided guerre andunconditionally threwin his hand.He was treated suddenly withgreatrespect andallowed to share in therearrangement, but in facttook no further sharein the business. He hadpreviously beenforcedto leavethe library, andhis lastfew yearswerespent in darkening shadows his though wife andfamilywereloyal. The interested scholars now becameactive.Waitz,who had refused to moveagainst his old master, wasnow persuaded to act, andthe Monumenta wasentrusted to a new directorate. This was to includetwo members nominated of by the threeacademies Munich and the rest to were be chosen coBerlin, Vienna; by andwereto electa president, who was himselfto have optation, The new directorate was a strongone; chargeof the Scriptores.1 Diimmlerwere Mommsen,Sickel, Giesebrecht, Wattenbach, its with Pertz and Euler carried over fromthe among members, Von was the The directorate past. Sybel among earlyadditions. was to meetyearlyto settlematters of highpolicy;a committee, of those resident in Berlin,dealtwith business in the consisting interim. To eachof thefivesections leaders wereto be appointed withanex-officio seaton thedirectorate. funds Amplegovernment weregranted for the workin general andspecifically for a salary for Waitz, togetherwith officialquarters and a room for the Monumenta. In the autumn of 1875Waitzleft Gottingen to take in hispowers, waspresent at up his duties.Pertz,greatlydecayed the annualgeneralmeetingin i876; he died of a strokein the autumn. A finaljudgment on his scholarship andon his character hadyet to be made,andit maywellbe morefavourable thanthat of the historian whose accountwe have been following;here aloneperhaps does he seemto lose his fine impartiality. In any serviceto European scholarcase,Pertzhaddonean inestimable but in as reala way as to Stein, the ship. To him in another,
1 For the new statutes,see N.A., i, 7-9.
IO-K TRANS. 5TH S.-VOL.

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Monumenta owed its existence.Ranke,who was not always thelastword.'Intheend', maybe allowed amonghis supporters, Thatcannot he wrote,'wearetold,he became dullandapathetic. of his life.He me fromrecognizing the greatsignificance prevent was not a genius,but he was of sterlingworth.' The new directorate got speedilydown to work, and the Waitz Monumenta entered upon the goldenage of its existence. of the as core himselftook the Scriptores, the alwaysrecognized off as a shorn the half-Roman but was early, period enterprise, for For Mommsen. the the Schmerjenskind Laws, always province of the family,2 of Halle,an old Monumentist who had Boretius fallenfoulof Pertz,wasproposed, butbothWaitzandMommsen vetoed him, and Waitz kept the section in hand. Sickel,the eminent tooktheDiplomata, Vienna whichhencepalaeographer,3 forth were domesticated in Austria;Wattenbach, unwillingly, took the Letters; Diimmler at his own wish the Antiquities. The fundsavailable in and in Other I880. werestepped again up I876 significant changeswere made;the folio formatwas abandoned for all sectionssavethe Scriptores in favourof the quarto. There wasa discussion on theuseof Latinforeditorial end in the matter; it was retained for all savethe vernacular not but Latin was texts, Sickel'sstrongsuit, and afterhe had,with assistance, produced one introduction the learnedtongue was abandoned in the The octavoseriesof SS. rerum Germanicarum was Diplomata.4 the greatestsurprise of was the emergence developed.Perhaps
Mommsen,alreadyin his mid-sixties,as the energeticand prolific

editorwho speedilymadehis sectionthe most brilliant of all. Doubtswereexpressed thenandlateras to the relevance of some
of the late classicalauthors,such as Symmachusand Ausonius, to Germanhistory, but therecan be no doubt of the gain to scholarship in general.
2

in Historische Vierteljahrschrift, xi, 333 ff., L. Santifaller(editor), Theodorv. Sickel, Rimische Erinnerungen (Vienna, 1947), and W. Holtzmann in Archivio della societdRomana di storiapatria, lxxix (I956), 89 ff. 4 As Sickel himself recounted (Bresslau, 53I), the members of the directorate, though complimentary, clearly failed to make sense of his Latin.

1 Ranke, Ges.Werke, vol. 54,pp.6io ff. 'Erwarnichtgenial, abergediegen'. The phraseis used of a laterperiodby Paul Kehrin his memoirof E. Seckel,N.A., xlvi, i6o: 'Die Leges sindvon Anfangan das grosse Schmerzenskindder Monumenta gewesen'. 3 Theodorv. Sickel,1826-1908. For him see Bresslau, 400 (note), Erben

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therewerelossesandgains,but the latter As to the personnel, last Pertz's Arndtand group,Scheffer-Boichorst, preponderated. Into theirplacescamerecruits Weilandall left to takechairs. of who died young in i880; note: Heller,an attractive character a pupilof Waitzwho was to equalandperhaps Holder-Egger,l in critical his master a loyal genius,and who remained surpass fromhis student till his Bruno Monumentist death; Krusch,2 days eminent alikeas palaeoanother faithful worker; Bresslau,3 Harry familiarto grapher,editor and historian;Felix Liebermann, on Old for his and Norman historians work law English English the textual The scholar. andconstitution; LudwigTraube,4 great as for outputof the yearsafterI875was as notablefor quantity three the alone six In Scriptores folios, quality. quartosand the Meanwhile octavovolumes Laws,divided eighteen appeared. into five sub-sections, madegood progress underKarlZeumer andFriedrich in theDiplomata Thaner; Sickel, havingeliminated PaulKehr;in KarlPertz,recruited amongothersthe illustrious for thebrilliant theLetters secured Ewald Wattenbach youngPaul theletters of Gregory anditwasEwald whointroduced theGreat, of papallettersfromthe to the learned worldthe richcollection Edmund BritishMuseum Bishop.In the Antiquities by supplied andaboveall of Traube, of Manitius the Max with aid Diimmler, of Latinmedieval of editions an excellent series poetry. produced Yet anotherinnovationwas the change of the old, dull and of the SocietyintotheNeuesArchiv, reticent or Archiv periodical of Wattenbach one became whichunderthe energetic editorship articles of and studies with of theleading learned journals Europe, of its activia chronicle andforecast on the Monumenta, bearing it. of literature notices and ties, bearing upon on 25 MayI886.Ranke Waitzdied,at theheightof hispowers, and had hadpreceded himby twenty-four hours, on hisdeath-bed
I851-1911. See A.D.B., Wattenbach in N.A., memoir by K. Zeumer in N.A., xxxvi, 821 ff.
2
3

vi, 456 ff., and the

Bresslau was Professor-extraordinary at Berlin, I877-90, Professor at Strassburg I890-I918 and at Heidelberg for the remainderof his life. Memoir by Kehr in N.A., xlvii, 251 if. See also his autobiographical der Gegenwartin Selbstdarcontribution (n. 2) to Die Geschichtswissenschaft stellungen,ii (1926). 4 N.A., xxxiii, 539 ff.; P. Lehmann, introductory memoir to I86I-1907. Traube's Vorlesungen(Munich, I909), vol. i.

I857-I940. i848-I926.

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andfaithful how his mostbrilliant pupildid.' Waitzwas inquired not onlythegreatest of German medievalists anda firmleader; he andintegrity whomallrespected wasalsoa manof singular loyalty as deeplyas they admired him.Alikeby his energy,his wisdom, his foresight and his personalrelationshe had rebuilt the Monumenta. of Waitzleft the succesThe relatively suddendisappearance he had sion in the air.Wattenbach was electedacting-president; himself and and it assumed been Waitz's was choice, by probably in he a but fact others that succeed without would many dispute, vexatiouscontroversy arose.The directorate was autonomous, with no subordination to the ministry, but the Monumenta was Waitz's had the and been financed government salary paidto by it wasnatural the personnot to his office.In thesecircumstances to get controlof the thatthe ministry shouldseizeeverychance the of Berlinacademics and committee executive appointment, so it domestic has been and rent, foreignrivalries, suggested, by and dominated a master-schemer, by Mommsen, agreedsomewhathastilythatthe directorate shoulddo no morethanpresent for nomination This mighthavebeen a harmless by the Kaiser. but to elect,opinionwasfatally concession, whentheyproceeded andfirmlydivided,and Wattenbach an and Diimmlerreceived an unfortunate dead(7) of votes. This produced equalnumber lock.We neednot examine the complicated of andpainful details the controversy, whichin its progressive ever stagesweakened morethe positionof the directorate vis-a-visthe government; in the courseof monthsboth Wattenbach andDiimmler to refused standand thencancelled theirrefusal. In I887 it was decided to choosetwo names forpresentation to thegovernment; the though of the directorate hadchanged the voting somewhat composition resultedas before in a tie; and the governmentappointed Diimmler. Thisunfortunate affair hadtwo results; the it deprived directorate of its freedomof electionof the president; and it a changeof statute occasioned no longer by whichthe president, a of the member or directorate in of necessarily charge Scriptores, was madea full-timedirector; it was the firststep towardsan Institute.
1 See Abhandlungen d. preussischen Akademied. Wissenschaften,I886, p. 3: 'Was macht denn der treue Waitz?' The words quoted by Wattenbach are also in Eberhard Waitz's memoir, 79.

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Diimmlershowedhimselfa tactful,kindly Once appointed, healedthe woundsof battle. who andenergetic chief, gradually in the grantand increase considerable another He securedyet Of and roomsfortheMonumenta its meetings. morecommodious the in his achievement wisdomwas morequestionable securing with a good salaryas assistant of Holder-Egger appointment it was another director with a seaton the directorate; tap on the control.In the realmof editorial policy wedge of government of Waitz,and the tradition of set purposemaintained Diimmler the secondhalf of a his termof office,I887-I902, is therefore a was less forcefulpersonality Diimmler single epoch, though to become of the sections thanWaitz,andallowedthe autonomy hadresigned doctrine. SinceWattenbach almosta constitutional the Scriptores in his withdrawal andpersisted (whichhe hadheld new leaders; sinceWaitz'sdeath)andthe NeuesArchiv required the Neues Bresslau over the folio took Scriptores; Holder-Egger his astoundcontinued a now Archiv. Mommsen, septuagenarian, other his and work of career published productivity among ing of the and the edition Liber of Cassiodorus edition (1894) great that of but did not supplant, (I898) whichrivalled, Pontificalis Wilhelm recruits were Levinotable Duchesne. Tangl,1 Among of birds Hermann and Alfons son,2 Bloch; among passage Dopsch and HeinrichB6hmer,who the great Wilamowitz-M6llendorf left his markon so many diversesubjects.Other memorable of the Diimmler achievements regimewerethe seriesof critical saintsby Kruschand Levison,which lives of the Merovingian the editionsby Diimmler preserves, impingedupon Bollandist suchasAlcuin,Lupus letter-writers andothersof the Carolingian andthemasterly andPaschasius of Ferrieres Radbert, edition,not of for Salimbene In several decades, by Holder-Egger. completed volumesof quarto a placeapartstandthe threeadditional Scriptores,originally by Waitz,and entitledLibellide Lite, planned being treatisesand lettersconnectedwith the great contestto Germanhistorians-between always the 'lis' antonomastice no and Papacy.Finally, accountof this time would be Empire mentionof Bresslau's classicaltextbookon without complete
Memoir by P. Kehr in N.A., xliv, 139 ff. I876-1947. An exile from Nazi Germany, he was received as a guest professor at Durham University, and delivered the Ford Lectures at Oxford on the Anglo-Saxon Church in I943.
1 1861-I920. 2

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medievaldiplomatic' which, among other things, standardized collationby the method,devisedby Sickel,of counterchecking the the of dictation scriptagainst original. in I902; a few weeksbeforehis death diedin harness Diimmler work.Strangely fromhiseditorial now 85,hadretired Mommsen, deathgave rise to anotherconDiimmler's and unfortunately, thanthatof 1886. to andeven moredisastrous similar tretemps was smartlyoff the markand foreThis time the government as locum actionby appointing stalledindependent Holder-Egger
was tenenspending the election of a president;this fait accompli of names deferred till Once the and 1903. presentation accepted,

seemedto divided.To someBresslau againopinionwas sharply to theMonuof his greatservices havea strongclaim,by reason menta and his vivacious and likeable personality.He was,
however, a Jew, and had never been personagrata in Berlin.

on the otherhand,thoughunrivalled as an editor, Holder-Egger, was neithera scholarof width nor a leaderof men, and old activeas everthoughon the vergeof the grave,was Mommsen, in a badly him. After much complicated manceuvring, against for first alone vote cameout preference Holder-Egger arranged As the Minister hadaskedfor threenames with a clearmajority. to addthreeunlikely andevenrecalcitrant at least,it wasdecided in to force in order this deprived candidates Holder-Egger; of chances he have had a Bresslau any on straight vote, and might he felt the blow deeply.Nor in factdid the trickcomeoff. The who wouldhavenoneof Holder-Egger, heldup the government, to reorganize anddecided theMonumenta onceagain appointment as a state-controlled if needbe, by an adminiinstitute, directed, who wasnot a medievalist. strator of allkinds Delaysandhitches for four and the Monumenta years supervened, lay in the the weakness This delayaccentuated andthe fissipardoldrums. of the fabric;editorsdelayed,prevaricated ous tendencies and individual scholarsindulgedtheir tastefor luxuriant defaulted; a number of badchoicesweremade,both indicesandapparatus; to do thework;somefaultyeditions of textsto editandof editors especiallyin the Laws, and were mangledby the appeared, critical wolves, some of themin the sheep'sclothingof Monumentists. Withoutan effective headtherewas a realdanger that all the channelsof movementwould silt up; to use another
1 His Handbuch d. Urkundenlehre was firstpublished in I889.

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it neededfirmcentral direction to keepall the ballsin metaphor, the airat once. nominated Reinhold At last, in July I906, the government historian of Frederick the Great, now for Koser,thedistinguished StateArchives. It wasanother tenyearsheadof the Prussian step theInstitute, another towards stepawayfromthe old conception andBresslau andbothHolder-Egger werewounded. howKoser, andanalmost tootactful ever,wasa goodadministrator colleague. He did muchto improvethe statusof the young workers, and took the firststepstowardsintegrating theminto the academic ladders of seniority, two state-paid thoughby securing postshe another advanced towards bureaucracy. step haddiedin I907, andhis greatcollection of Meanwhile Traube to the Monumenta. books was boughtby friendsand presented diedin 191 andwassucceeded in theScriptores Holder-Egger by notable were Levison'sLife of Bresslau; among publications Boniface(I905) and theAnglo-Saxon saints (I919-20), Ehwald's VII. Nevertheless, theMonumenta Registerof Gregory Caspar's was not in the best of health.It was now operating in three centres-the directorate andseveral distinct sections at Berlin, the at the and and Diplomata Vienna, Carolingian Scriptores the Bresslau at Swabian with in allthesections Diplomata Strasbourg; the work was largelydone by the disciplesof the professor in there a the and was seenon section, chargeof tendency, already a high level in Holder-Egger, for the Monumentist to be a thana medieval rather historian. technician Koserdiedshortlyafterthe outbreak of warin I914, andfor heldthefort.Buthe wasoncemoredeprived, someyearsBresslau to leaveStraspartlynow by age butchieflyfromunwillingness of thepresidency, andin 1919,when bourg,of thefinaldistinction fortunes were at theirnadir,Paul Kehr,1 a pupil of Germany's Sickel who hadlongsincedoneworkfortheMonumenta andwho had in I9I5 succeeded Koseras Directorof the Prussian State
1 x86o0-944. Memoir by W. Holtzmann in D.A., viii, 26 ff. Kehr's great work as a scholar was to initiate and organize a complete collection, country by country, of papal documents. Among his collaborators Walther Holtzmann, himself a Monumentist since 1946, has published three volumes of in England. Papsturkunden

of a technicalmedievalist, of the chairmanship primusinterpares,

Aldhelm (19I3-I9), Tangl's Letters of Boniface (1916) and

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and confirmed-the only time, as he Archives,was nominated that the directorate had voted unanihimselfwryly remarked, an a realist, autocrat and Kehr was some by temperament mously. little the He had with a liberal sympathy mightsay pragmatist. and others,'but he did the Monumenta views of Bresslau an servicein the yearsafter 19I9 and in the crisisof inestimable shiftedit to new and coninflation.He restoredthe finances, a in of the of theState venient and building Library, quarters wing three sections with full-timedirectors; the work in reorganized Of thesehe took over the last Scriptores, Legesand Diplomata. and himselfeditedthreevolumesof Carolingian charters. Kehr of Hitler wasstillin command whentheregime gripped Germany. He wasnot a Nazi,but his realistic, authoritarian frame agnostic, of mindallowed himto go partof theway,at least,withthe tide. of the Interior In 1934 a decreeof the Minister announced the of the Monumenta, andon I April I935a remarkably take-over a newconstitution.2 laconic communique promulgated According a Reichsinstitut to this,theMonumenta became under the directly had the of the who director. The old Minister, appointment into a councilof twelvehonorary directorate was changed mema bersappointed the Minister with consultative funcmerely by tion.At thesametimetheNeuesArchiv, aftera break, the became Deutsches Kehr the Archiv but retired in (I937). accepted change, the following year. He was succeededas president E. E. by The Monumenta to functionduringthe firstfour continued of the the airoffensive but when allied showedsignsof War, years the and his assistants removed to a mansion developing president nearBamberg by the owner,whilethe more putat theirdisposal of thecollections werestoredin the galleries of a mine.3 precious
wrote of Bresslau's liberalism (N.A., xlvii, 266): 'Dass dies alles Doktorfragen seien und dass es vielmehr auf die Praxis, auf die Wirklichkeit und auf die Loyalitat der leitenden Pers6nlichkeiten ankomme, wollte er wenigstens theoretisch nicht zugeben'. But would the loyalty of leading persons have saved Bresslau, the Jew, from crossing the Rhine again in the opposite direction had he lived ten years longer? 2 For an account of this see P. Kehr, 'Die preussische Akademie und die der preussischenAkademie der Wissenschaften, M.G.H.', in Sitrungsberichte phil-hist. K1. 1935, 740-77. The 'Bericht iiber die Herausgabe der M.G.H.' in 1934 is ibid., 73 . The statutes of 1935 are ibid., and in D.A., i (I937), 276. 3 For this see D.A., viii (I950), I f.
1 Kehr

Strengel (1937-42) and Th. Mayer(I942-45).

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At the end of the war the Bavarian cameto the government rescueof the finances, but the losses were very serious.The in the mine had been burntby a gang of foreign documents had workers,and the stock of printedvolumesat Weidmann's been destroyedby enemy action. The president,Mayer,was non by W. Goetz, persona gratato theAllies,andhe wasreplaced the truesaviourof the Monumenta. Finally,underF. Baethgen once more. Headwas reorganized (I947-58) the Monumenta established at Munich of the 'Deutsches Institut were fur quarters in des Mittelalters'. The constitutions were Erforschung largepart identical with thosein forcebeforeI935, but the president was to be freely electedby the directorate for presentation to the of Education.1 Bavarian Minister The directorate itself was to containtwo members fromthe five German academies of Berlin, and Munich,G6ttingen, Leipzig Heidelberg, togetherwith two fromViennaand otherscholars of note. Thus once moreindein essentials, but recognized as a stateInstitute andwith pendent a wider field of reference,the Monumenta has opened yet another The president, electedin I959,is H. phaseof its career. Grundmann. The greatandunique achievement of theMonumenta hasbeen to realizeStein'sambitionof presenting or Germans, at least German an almost with of theliterary historians, complete library anddiplomatic of theircountry's sources historyfromtheearliest timesto the openingof the fourteenth The backof the century. task was brokenby Pertz;and it must be his lastingclaimto thatby the 'sixtiesof the lastcenturythe materials for gratitude medieval German in print; thisfact historywerein largemeasure not only moulded the courseof German for more historiography thanhalfa century, butgaveGerman medievalists theleadamong historians which even two disastrous wars have not European takenfromthem. In addition to this,andin a waythatSteincouldnot haveforethis has been donein sucha waythatbothtextandeditorial seen, matter haveattained on the wholethe very highestof standards, andin so doing,haveraised thestandard of thewholeof Western historical While is true it that theMonumenta as such scholarship. hasneverbeena teaching schoolsuchas the Ecoledes Chartes, it hasin factactedas a nursery of professors andarchivists, andas
1 Ibid., 22

f.

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technical workshopfor the perfectingof certainwell-defined thathasset up for skills.Takeit forall in all,it is theMonumenta text. the idealof the critical all Western historical scholarship have in the courseof theirlaboursMonumentists Moreover, of in the libraries of manuscripts discoveries madeinnumerable medieval German and thus enriched and have European Europe, by thosewhose historyto an extentthatcanonlybe fullyrealized in Pertz's true that in fields. It lies these is daythegreat expertise to of texts of interest the were solely thehistorian majority printed is for reason thatthe Monumenta of the medieval it this Empire; remained in this unknown countryin the nineteenth virtually so little and exercised influence century, uponthe editorsof our Rolls Series Butduringthe lasteightyyears andearlyCamdens. have historians thehorizons bothof Monumentists andof English of Tangl,and of Traube, broadened andthe workof Mommsen, of Levison-to namebut a few-has benefited the whole comof learning. monwealth The functionof the Monumenta in the futureis not easy to foresee.Thankslargelyto its pastachievement, now in scholars someare in medieval texts with everycountry engaged editing at the has thing, least,of the skillwhich Monumenta taught,and to whichFrench andBelgian in particular, havebrought scholars, and of literary newperfection. At thesametime,thenewinterests texts editionsof medieval philosophical historyare demanding with which,at leasthitherto, the Monumenta has not been concerned. Butsuchan institution, withsucha history,will neverbe out of placeso long as the critical studyof medieval historyis of concern to the of inhabitants any Europe.