Max Albert Wilhelm Lenz (13 June 1850 – 6 April 1932) was a German historian.

Biography

Lenz was born to a

Prussian Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

and devoutly

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

notary in Greifswald, Province of Pomerania. After graduating from school, he studied history and

classical philology Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

under

Heinrich von Sybel Heinrich Karl Ludolf von Sybel (2 December 1817 – 1 August 1895), German historian, came from a Protestant family which had long been established at Soest, in Westphalia. Life He was born in Düsseldorf, where his father held important pos ...

for three semesters in

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

. He served in the 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian War and was wounded in the Battle of Villiers. He then continued his studies, at first in Greifswald for one semester, and then in Berlin. In 1874, he finished his dissertation about the Alliance of Canterbury and its significance for the

Hundred Years' War The Hundred Years' War (; 1337–1453) was a series of armed conflicts between the kingdoms of Kingdom of England, England and Kingdom of France, France during the Late Middle Ages. It originated from disputed claims to the French Crown, ...

and the

Council of Constance The Council of Constance was a 15th-century ecumenical council recognized by the Catholic Church, held from 1414 to 1418 in the Bishopric of Constance in present-day Germany. The council ended the Western Schism by deposing or accepting the res ...

. In the following year he started working for the secret state archives in

Marburg Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approximate ...

with the duty of editing the correspondence of

Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse (13 November 1504 – 31 March 1567), nicknamed (in English: "the Magnanimous"), was a German nobleman and champion of the Protestant Reformation, notable for being one of the most important of the early Protestan ...

. It would be published in three volumes from 1880 to 1891. Meanwhile, he also wrote his habilitation about the Council of Constance, which he finished in 1876. In the following decade, he studied the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

, publishing a biography of

Martin Luther Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Reformation, Protestant Refo ...

in 1883. In 1881, he became

adjunct professor An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, however the genera ...

at the

University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg (german: Philipps-Universität Marburg) was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Protestant university in the wor ...

and in 1885 he attained full professorship. In 1888, switched to the

University of Breslau A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

and in 1890 to

Frederick William University Friedrich Wilhelm University (German: ''Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität'') may refer to: * Humboldt University of Berlin, called ''Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität'' from 1828 to 1949, and sometimes known in English as Frederick William University * ...

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 ...

. Alongside Hans Delbrück,

Dietrich Schäfer 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: Dietri ...

, and

Gustav Schmoller Gustav Friedrich (after 1908: von) Schmoller (; 24 June 1838 – 27 June 1917) was the leader of the "younger" German historical school of economics. He was a leading '' Sozialpolitiker'' (more derisively, '' Kathedersozialist'', "Socialist of t ...

, he became one of the most important historians in Berlin. Unlike those other three, he avoided involvement in political matters and thus had more difficulties securing his influence. A supporter of the methodology of

Leopold von Ranke Leopold von Ranke (; 21 December 1795 – 23 May 1886) was a German historian and a founder of modern source-based history. He was able to implement the seminar teaching method in his classroom and focused on archival research and the analysis of ...

, Lenz advocated complete objectivity and neutrality in the study of

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

. During the ''

Methodenstreit ''Methodenstreit'' (German for "method dispute"), in intellectual history beyond German-language discourse, was an economics controversy commenced in the 1880s and persisting for more than a decade, between that field's Austrian School and the (Ge ...

'', an intellectual controversy over the way academic enquiry is framed, he was a bitter opponent of

Karl Gottfried Lamprecht Karl Gotthard Lamprecht (25 February 1856 – 10 May 1915) was a German historian who specialized in German art and economic history. Biography Lamprecht was born in Jessen in the Province of Saxony. As a student, he trained in history, politic ...

. In Berlin, Lenz continued to study the Reformation, publishing works about Gustav Adolf and Albrecht von Wallenstein, but he also started devoting his attention to other epochs, such as the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

, the

Napoleonic era The Napoleonic era is a period in the history of France and Europe. It is generally classified as including the fourth and final stage of the French Revolution, the first being the National Assembly, the second being the Legislative ...

, and the early

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

. He thus published a biography of

Otto von Bismarck Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (, ; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898), born Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, was a conservative German statesman and diplomat. From his origins in the upper class of J ...

in 1902. In 1911, Lenz became the director of the Frederick William University of Berlin history faculty, and from 1911 to 1912 he was the

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

of the university. In 1914, he moved to the

Hamburg Colonial Institute The Hamburg Colonial Institute (german: Hamburgisches Kolonialinstitut) was a higher education establishment founded in 1908 by the City of Hamburg with the support of Bernhard Dernburg, head of the Imperial Colonial Office. In 1919 he was merged ...

and was a key figure in its transformation into the

University of Hamburg The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vor ...

. In 1922, Lenz went into retirement and moved back to Berlin, where he died in 1932, aged 81.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lenz, Max 1850 births 1932 deaths People from Greifswald 20th-century German historians German military personnel of the Franco-Prussian War People from the Province of Pomerania University of Bonn alumni University of Greifswald alumni Academic staff of the University of Marburg Academic staff of the University of Breslau Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin Academic staff of the University of Hamburg Prussian Army personnel German male non-fiction writers 19th-century German historians