Emil Seckel (10 January 1864, Neuenheim near

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

– 26 April 1924, Todtmoos) was a German

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Un ...

and law historian. Emil Seckel studied law at the

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (german: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; la, Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-W� ...

. Seckel professor in 1898. In 1901 Seckel took over the professorship for

Roman law Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (c. 449 BC), to the '' Corpus Juris Civilis'' (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Jus ...

at the

University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (german: link=no, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick Will ...

. On December 7, 1911, he became a member of the

Prussian Academy of Sciences The Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences (german: Königlich-Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften) was an academy established in Berlin, Germany on 11 July 1700, four years after the Prussian Academy of Arts, or "Arts Academy," to which "Berlin ...

. In 1920, Seckel was appointed rector of the

Humboldt University The Humboldt University of Berlin (german: link=no, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick Willi ...

in Berlin as the successor to the historian

Eduard Meyer Eduard Meyer (25 January 1855 – 31 August 1930) was a German historian. He was the brother of Celticist Kuno Meyer (1858–1919). Biography Meyer was born in Hamburg and educated at the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums and later at the univer ...

. The chemist Walther Nernst succeeded him in 1921. Seckel's main areas of research were jurisprudence and especially Roman law. The edition of the collection of the

capitularies A capitulary (Medieval Latin ) was a series of legislative or administrative acts emanating from the Frankish court of the Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties, especially that of Charlemagne, the first emperor of the Romans in the west since t ...

of Benedictus Levita was one of his central fields of work. The central management of the ''

Monumenta Germaniae Historica The ''Monumenta Germaniae Historica'' (''MGH'') is a comprehensive series of carefully edited and published primary sources, both chronicle and archival, for the study of Northwestern and Central European history from the end of the Roman Empir ...

'' assigned him the task of preparing the publication of a new edition in 1896 after the editor responsible Victor Krause suddenly died at the age of 31. Before his death Seckel had published more than a thousand pages of research on the sources, but was unable to present a new edition of ''Benedictus Levita''. His sons included the pediatrician

Helmut Paul George Seckel Helmut is a German name. Variants include Hellmut, Helmuth, and Hellmuth. From old German, the first element deriving from either ''heil'' ("healthy") or ''hiltja'' ("battle"), and the second from ''muot'' ("spirit, mind, mood"). Helmut may refer ...

(1900-1960), for whom the

Seckel syndrome Seckel syndrome, or microcephalic primordial dwarfism (also known as bird-headed dwarfism, Harper's syndrome, Virchow–Seckel dwarfism and bird-headed dwarf of Seckel) is an extremely rare congenital nanosomic disorder. Inheritance is autosomal ...

is named, and the art historian

Dietrich Seckel Dietrich () is an ancient German name meaning "Ruler of the People.” Also "keeper of the keys" or a "lockpick" either the tool or the profession. Given name * Dietrich, Count of Oldenburg (c. 1398 – 1440) * Thierry of Alsace (german: Dietric ...

Literary works

* ''Beiträge zur Geschichte beider Rechte Mittelalter'', 1898 * ''Gestaltungsrechte des bürgerlichen Rechts'', 1903

External links

* http://bibliothek.bbaw.de/kataloge/literaturnachweise/seckel/literatur.pdf
東北大学附属図書館／特殊文庫
at www.library.tohoku.ac.jp 1864 births 1924 deaths Jurists from Heidelberg 20th-century German historians Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences People from the Grand Duchy of Baden University of Tübingen alumni Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin German male non-fiction writers 19th-century German historians {{Germany-law-bio-stub