Erich Gritzner (7 April 1874, in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

– 10 November 1963, in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

) was a German

heraldist Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branch ...

genealogist Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinsh ...

and

sigillographer Sigillography, also known by its Greek-derived name, sphragistics, is the scholarly discipline that studies the wax, lead, clay, and other seals used to authenticate archival documents. It investigates not only aspects of the artistic design an ...

, known for his research of

German nobility The German nobility (german: deutscher Adel) and royalty were status groups of the medieval society in Central Europe, which enjoyed certain privileges relative to other people under the laws and customs in the German-speaking area, until the begi ...

. He was the son of heraldist

Maximilian Gritzner Adolf Maximilian Ferdinand Gritzner (29 July 1843 – 10 July 1902) was a German expert on heraldry and a herald in the Ministry of the Interior in Berlin. His reference book on orders of knighthood was still in print in 2000. Gritzner was bor ...

(1843–1902). He studied at the universities of

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

and

, receiving his doctorate at Leipzig in 1901. From 1903 he worked as a research assistant at the Hauptstaatsarchiv and the Ernestinischen Gesamtarchiv in

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

, then in 1907/08 served as an archival assistant for the district archives of

Lorraine Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of Gr ...

. From 1911 to 1920 he worked in the Saxon commission for nobility, and eventually was named "heraldmeister" in the Ministry of the Interior at Dresden.

Selected writings

* ''Symbole und Wappen des alten deutschen Reiches'', 1901 – Symbols and crests of the old German Empire. * ''Sphragistik, Heraldik deutsche Münzgeschichte'' (with Theodor Ilgen, 1906) –

Sphragistics Sigillography, also known by its Greek-derived name, sphragistics, is the scholarly discipline that studies the wax, lead, clay, and other seals used to authenticate archival documents. It investigates not only aspects of the artistic design and ...

, heraldry and German coinage. * ''Heraldik'', 1906 – Heraldry. * ''Die Siegel der deutschen Universitäten in Deutschland, Oesterreich und der Schweiz'', (with Hans Gritzner, 1906) – The seals of the German universities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland; part of the series: ''J. Siebmacher's grosses und allgemeines Wappenbuch'' ("

Johann Siebmacher ''Siebmachers Wappenbuch'' () is a roll of arms first published in 1605 as two heraldic multivolume book series of armorial bearings or coats of arms of the nobility of the Holy Roman Empire, as well as coats of arms of city-states and some bur ...

's great and general

armorial A roll of arms (or armorial) is a collection of coats of arms, usually consisting of rows of painted pictures of shields, each shield accompanied by the name of the person bearing the arms. The oldest extant armorials date to the mid-13th centur ...

").Most widely held works by Erich Gritzner
WorldCat Identities

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gritzner, Erich 1874 births 1963 deaths Writers from Berlin Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Leipzig University alumni German heraldists German genealogists German archivists