Walter Ullmann (29 November 1910 – 18 January 1983) was an Austrian-

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

scholar who left Austria in the 1930s and settled in the United Kingdom, where he became a naturalised citizen. He was a recognised authority on

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

political thought Political philosophy studies the theoretical and conceptual foundations of politics. It examines the nature, scope, and legitimacy of political institutions, such as states. This field investigates different forms of government, ranging from ...

, and in particular legal theory, an area in which he published prolifically.

Life

Ullmann was the son of a doctor. He attended the classical languages school in Horn and studied law at Vienna and Innsbruck. Having a non-Aryan grandfather made it dangerous for him to remain in Austria, so he left for England in 1939 and took up a position at Ratcliffe College, a Roman Catholic boarding school in

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. In 1940 he enlisted. He served for three years, first in the Royal Pioneer Corps and then in the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is the engineering arm of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces ...

, before being discharged due to ill health. After the war he had positions at the

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

, and then from 1949 at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, becoming a Fellow of

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

. He became Professor of Medieval History at Cambridge in 1972, retiring in 1978. He was President of the Ecclesiastical History Society (1969–70). Notable people who studied under Ullmann include Brian Tierney (medievalist),

Quentin Skinner Quentin Robert Duthie Skinner (born 26 November 1940) is a British intellectual historian. He is regarded as one of the founders of the Cambridge School of the history of political thought. He has won numerous prizes for his work, including ...

, Janet Nelson, and

Rosamond McKitterick Rosamond Deborah McKitterick (born 31 May 1949) is an English medieval historian. She is an expert on the Frankish kingdoms in the eighth and ninth centuries AD, who uses palaeographical and manuscript studies to illuminate aspects of the pol ...

. Ullmann principally concerned himself with the history of thought in the mediaeval period and the history of the papacy in the Middle Ages. His most successful book was ''The Growth of Papal Government in the Middle Ages'', which deals with the relationship between secular and ecclesiastical power in medieval times. Innsbruck University awarded him an honorary doctorate in political science. Ullmann has been credited with "historicizing the concept of the political" in a manner that is relevant for several subfields of the

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...

and

social sciences Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of society, societies and the Social relation, relationships among members within those societies. The term was former ...

. In an entry for

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, Thomas F. X. Noble and Atria Larson called his study ''A Short History of the Papacy in the Middle Ages'' "perhaps the best single-volume history" on the Papacy in the Middle Ages.

Works

* ''The Medieval Idea of Law as Represented by Lucas de Penna: A Study in Fourteenth-Century Legal Scholarship.'' (1946) introduction by Harold Dexter Hazeltine * ''Medieval Papalism. The Political Theories of the Medieval Canonists'' (1949) 1948 Maitland Lectures * ''The Growth of Papal Government in the Middle Ages: A study in the ideological relation of clerical to lay power'' (1955) * ''The Medieval Papacy, St Thomas and Beyond'' (1960) The Aquinas Society of London, Aquinas Paper No. 35: * ''Liber Regie Capelle: A Manuscript in the Bibliotheca Publica'', Evora (1961) * ''A History of Political Thought: The Middle Ages'' (1965). Republished as ''Medieval Political Thought'' (1972) * ''The Relevance of Medieval Ecclesiastical History: An Inaugural Lecture'' ( (1966) * ''The Individual and Society in the Middle Ages'' (1966) * ''Principles of Government and Politics in the Middle Ages'' (1966). Traducción española: ''Principios de Gobierno y Política en la Edad Media''. Madrid, Revista de Occidente, 1971. Traducción de Graciela Soriano. Depósito Legal: M. 5.727–1971
Conclusiones fundamentales del estudio de Walter Ullmann
* ''The Carolingian Renaissance and the Idea of Kingship'' (1969) The Birkbeck Lectures 1968-9 * ''A Short History of the Papacy in the Middle Ages'' (1972) * ''Origins of the Great Schism: A Study in fourteenth-century Ecclesiastical History'' (1972) * ''The Future of Medieval History: An Inaugural Lecture''.(1973) * ''Law and Politics in the Middle Ages. An Introduction to the Sources of Medieval Political Ideas'' (1975) * ''The Church and the Law in the Earlier Middle Ages: Selected Essays'' (1975) * ''Medieval Foundations of Renaissance Humanism'' (1977) * ''Law and Jurisdiction in the Middle Ages'' (1988)

Literature

* Brian Tierney and Peter Linehan (eds.), ''Authority and Power: Studies on Medieval Law and Government Presented to Walter Ullmann on his seventieth birthday'' (Cambridge University Press, 1980). * Raoul C. Van Caenegem, "Legal historians I have known: A personal memoir", ''Rechtsgeschichte, Zeitschrift des Max-Planck Instituts für europäische Rechtsgeschichte'', 2010, pp. 252–299.

References

External links

British Academy notice (page 1, PDF)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ullmann, Walter 1910 births 1983 deaths British medievalists Jewish emigrants from Austria after the Anschluss to the United Kingdom People from Hollabrunn District Austrian military personnel of World War II British Army personnel of World War II Royal Pioneer Corps soldiers Royal Engineers soldiers Academics of the University of Leeds Professors of Medieval History (Cambridge) Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge 20th-century British historians Fellows of the British Academy Presidents of the Ecclesiastical History Society