Germania Sacra
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Germania Sacra (
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
for "Sacred/Holy Germania/Germany") is a long-term research project into German
church history Church history or ecclesiastical history as an academic discipline studies the history of Christianity and the way the Christian Church has developed since its inception. Henry Melvill Gwatkin defined church history as "the spiritual side of t ...
from its beginnings through
the Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the papacy and ...
in the 16th century to
German mediatisation German mediatisation (; ) was the major redistribution and reshaping of territorial holdings that took place between 1802 and 1814 in Germany by means of the subsumption and Secularization (church property), secularisation of a large number of ...
in the early 19th century.


History and Structure

The first attempt to collect and publish the history of the German dioceses in reference books was made by
Martin Gerbert Martin Gerbert (11 August 1720 – 3 May 1793), was a German theologian, historian and writer on music, belonged to the noble family of Gerbert von Hornau, and was born at Horb am Neckar, Württemberg, on 12 (or 11 or 13) August 1720. Life He ...
, the prince-abbot of the monastery
St. Blasien St. Blasien (; sometimes spelled in full as Sankt Blasien) is a small town located in the Waldshut district in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated in the Southern Black Forest, 17 km northeast of Waldshut-Tiengen. St. Blaise's Ab ...
in the late 18th century, but his works were never completed. Following into Gerberts footsteps,
Paul Fridolin Kehr Paul Fridolin Kehr (28 December 1860, Waltershausen – 9 November 1944, Wässerndorf) was a German historian and archivist. In 1893, he was appointed professor of history and auxiliary sciences at the University of Marburg, and two years later, ...
established a new ''Germania Sacra'' under the patronage of the '' Kaiser-Wilhelm-Society'' at the ''Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institute of German History'' in
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
in 1917. He tried to connect the nationwide research projects and combine them under ''Germania Sacra'' to create an archival collection of
monasteries A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which m ...
,
convent A convent is an enclosed community of monks, nuns, friars or religious sisters. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The term is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...
s,
cathedral chapter According to both Catholic and Anglican canon law, a cathedral chapter is a college of clerics ( chapter) formed to advise a bishop and, in the case of a vacancy of the episcopal see in some countries, to govern the diocese during the vacancy. In ...
s and religious dignitaries. After multiple financial problems, the first book was published on 11 June in 1929. It is part of the ''“Alte Folge”'', which comprises seven volumes published between 1929 and 1972. After the 2nd World War and the death of Kehr, the ''Kaiser-Wilhelm-Society'' wasn’t interested in supporting the institute any longer and the newly founded '' Max-Planck-Society'' took over the patronage of the institute and its project. Hermann Heimpel, the first head of the ''Max-Planck-Institute of History'' in
Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...
, continued work on the ''Germania Sacra'' in 1956, cooperating with an academic director, who coordinated the work of external researchers. While the last books of the ''Alte Folge'' were published between 1966 and 1972, the researchers under Heimpel began writing and publishing the ''Neue Folge'', which were released between 1962 and 2007 in 50 volumes. In 2007, the ''Max-Planck-Institute of History'' in Göttingen was rededicated and the work on the ''Germania Sacra'' was continued by the''Academy of Sciences and Humanities'' under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Hedwig Röckelein in Göttingen in 2008. The volumes of the ''Germania Sacra'' published after 2008 belong to the ''Dritte Folge'' and currently comprise 14 volumes (as of: June 2018). In 2015 the first supplementary volume was published, which contains edited preparation work to the main works of ''Germania Sacra''.


Objectives and methods

The main objective of ''Germania Sacra'' is a statistical description of the ecclesiastical institutions which existed between the ''
Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...
'' and German mediatisation in the early 19th century. In achieving that objective, the entirety of sources and secondary literature concerning Medieval and Early Modern ecclesiastical institutions is to be portrayed. These institutions include the
diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...
s (with focus on the bishops), the
cathedral chapter According to both Catholic and Anglican canon law, a cathedral chapter is a college of clerics ( chapter) formed to advise a bishop and, in the case of a vacancy of the episcopal see in some countries, to govern the diocese during the vacancy. In ...
s and the monasteries and convents up to and including their end during the reformation or the German mediatisation. At the beginning, the collection and the editing of the historical sources was mainly conducted by archivists at the request of Paul Kehr. In the present, the work on ''Germania Sacra'' is divided between historical research and the editorial department. The research is conducted by archivists, historians, members of ecclesiastical orders, theologians etc.


Publications and digital editions

''Germania Sacras'' publications are divided into the ''Alte Folge'', the ''Neue Folge,'' the ''Dritte Folge,'' the ''Studien zur Germania Sacra'' and the ''Supplementbände zur Germania Sacra''. In addition to the volumes of ''Germania Sacra,'' the project provides two databases. A comprehensive inventory of medieval and early modern clerics and the "Database of monasteries, convents and collegiate churches of the Old Empire "


''Alte Folge''


''Neue Folge''


''Dritte Folge''


Supplementbände


Literature

* Georg Pfeilschifter: ''Die St. Blasianische Germania Sacra''. ''Ein Beitrag zur Historiographie des 18. Jahrhunderts''. Kempten, 1921. * Irene Crusius: ''Beiträge zu Geschichte und Struktur der mittelalterlichen Germania sacra.'' Göttingen, 1989. * Irene Crusius: ''Die Germania Sacra. Stand und Perspektiven eines langfristigen Forschungsprojekts''. In: ''Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters.'' Vol. 52, 1996, pp. 629–642. * Wolfgang Müller (Bearb.): ''Briefe und Akten des Fürstabtes Martin Gerbert.'' 2 volumes, 1962. *Sven Kriese: Die Germania Sacra in der Weimarer Republik und im Nationalsozialismus. In: Hedwig Röckelein (ed.), 100 Jahre Germania Sacra. Kirchengeschichte Schreiben vom 16. bis zum 21. Jahrhundert (Studien zur Germania Sacra. Neue Folge 8). Berlin/Boston 2018 (In Press), pp. 87–118.


References


External links

{{authority control Research projects Research institutes in Germany Historiography of Christianity Encyclopedias of history Christianity in the Holy Roman Empire Education in Göttingen