Wilhelm Levison (27 May 1876, in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in ...

– 17 January 1947, in

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

) was a German

medievalist The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often v ...

. He was well known as a contributor to ''

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 ...

'', especially for the

vitae ''Vitae'' is a Latin word, meaning or pertaining to life. * Aqua vitae, archaic name for a concentrated aqueous solution of ethanol, distilled spirits * Arbor vitae (disambiguation), "tree of life" * ''De Brevitate Vitae'', work of Roman philo ...

from the

Merovingian The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from the middle of the 5th century until 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the Franks and northern Gaul ...

era. He also edited Wilhelm Wattenbach's ''Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter''. In 1935 he was forced to retire from his professorship at

Bonn University The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine ...

because of the

Nuremberg Laws The Nuremberg Laws (german: link=no, Nürnberger Gesetze, ) were antisemitic and racist laws that were enacted in Nazi Germany on 15 September 1935, at a special meeting of the Reichstag convened during the annual Nuremberg Rally of ...

. He fled

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

in the spring of 1939, taking a position at

Durham University , mottoeng = Her foundations are upon the holy hills ( Psalm 87:1) , established = (university status) , type = Public , academic_staff = 1,830 (2020) , administrative_staff = 2,640 (2018/19) , chancellor = Sir Thomas Allen , vice_cha ...

. He delivered the

Ford Lectures The Ford Lectures, technically the James Ford Lectures in British History, are an annual series of public lectures held at the University of Oxford on the subject of English or British history. They are usually devoted to a particular historical ...

at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

in 1943, and they were published as ''England and the Continent in the Eighth Century''. He died during the preparation of ''Aus Rheinischer und Fränkischer Frühzeit'' (1948).

Reputation and influence

Conrad Leyser described Levison as "one of the giants of twentieth-century historical scholarship, his ''England and the Continent in the Eighth century'' one of its canonical texts"; Nicholas Howe, in 2004, called that book of "enduring" importance. Five conferences have been held in commemoration of his work, and the lectures given at the 2007 meeting at Durham University were published in 2010.

Theodor Schieffer Theodor Schieffer (11 June 1910 in Bad Godesberg – 9 April 1992 in Bad Godesberg) was a German historian. He was professor of medieval history at the University of Mainz, then at the University of Cologne, and since 1952 he was president of t ...

dedicated his ''Winfried - Bonifatius und die christliche Grundlegung Europas'' to Levison, who had been his doctoral advisor.

References

External links

The Levison papers
at Durham University {{DEFAULTSORT:Levison, Wilhelm 1876 births 1947 deaths Writers from Düsseldorf German medievalists University of Bonn faculty Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom Academics of Durham University German male non-fiction writers