Joseph König (7 September 1819, at ,

Grand Duchy of Baden The Grand Duchy of Baden () was a German polity on the east bank of the Rhine. It originally existed as a sovereign state from 1806 to 1871 and later as part of the German Empire until 1918. The duchy's 12th-century origins were as a Margravia ...

– 22 June 1900, at

Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

) was a German

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

theologian and Biblical exegete.

Life

He was ordained to the priesthood in 1845. In 1847 König was ''

privatdozent ''Privatdozent'' (for men) or ''Privatdozentin'' (for women), abbreviated PD, P.D. or Priv.-Doz., is an academic title conferred at some European universities, especially in German-speaking countries, to someone who holds certain formal qualifi ...

'', in 1854 extraordinary, and from 1857 to 1894 ordinary, professor of Old Testament literature and exegesis at the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially ), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The university was founded in 1 ...

. On the expiration of this term he resigned his professorship.

Works

König's exegetical writings include: * (1855) * (1857) * (programme, 1863) * (pro-rectoral discourse, 1884) The editorship of the was entrusted to König, and his period as editor saw many contributions to the history of the major abbeys at Reichenau, St. Gall, and

Fulda Fulda () (historically in English called Fuld) is a city in Hesse, Germany; it is located on the river Fulda and is the administrative seat of the Fulda district (''Kreis''). In 1990, the city hosted the 30th Hessentag state festival. Histor ...

, several of which were from his own pen. He was known for research work in diocesan history, but it is chiefly in connection with the University of Freiburg, to the history of which institution König contributed many notable studies (see e g. , XXI and XXII), that he is remembered. During the years 1885 to 1889 König's activity centred on the "Necrologium Frib.", a record of the period 1827-87.

References

;Attribution * The entry cites: ** in Michael Buchberger, , s.v.; **

Herder A herder is a pastoralism, pastoral worker responsible for the care and management of a herd or flock of domestic animals, usually on extensive management, open pasture. It is particularly associated with nomadic pastoralism, nomadic or transhuma ...

, , s.v. König (10); **, XXVIII (Freiburg im Br., 1900), v-xvi. {{DEFAULTSORT:Konig, Joseph 1819 births 1900 deaths 19th-century German Catholic theologians German biblical scholars People from Singen People from the Grand Duchy of Baden Academic staff of the University of Freiburg 19th-century German male writers 19th-century German writers German male non-fiction writers Roman Catholic biblical scholars