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

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

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 late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

political thought Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships between them. Its topics include politics, l ...

, 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 Ratcliffe College is a coeducational Catholic independent boarding and day school near the village of Ratcliffe on the Wreake, Leicestershire, approximately from Leicester, England. The college, situated in of parkland on the Fosse Way about ...

, a Roman Catholic boarding school in

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

. In 1940 he enlisted. He served for three years, first in the

Royal Pioneer Corps The Royal Pioneer Corps was a British Army combatant corps used for light engineering tasks. It was formed in 1939, and amalgamated into the Royal Logistic Corps in 1993. Pioneer units performed a wide variety of tasks in all theatres of war, in ...

and then in the

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

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

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

, and then from 1949 at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, becoming a Fellow of

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

. He became Professor of Medieval History at Cambridge in 1972, retiring in 1978. He was President of the

Ecclesiastical History Society The Ecclesiastical History Society (EHS) is a British learned historical society founded in 1961 to foster interest in, and to advance the study of, all areas of the history of the Christian Church through twice yearly conferences and publication ...

(1969–70). Notable people who studied under Ullmann include

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 th ...

Janet Nelson Dame Janet Laughland Nelson (born 1942), also known as Jinty Nelson, is a British historian. She is Emerita Professor of Medieval History at King's College London. Early life Born on 28 March 1942 in Blackpool, Nelson was educated at Keswick S ...

, and

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

. 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. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

and

social sciences Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soci ...

. In an entry for

Oxford Bibliographies Online Oxford Bibliographies Online (OBO), also known as Oxford Bibliographies, is a web-based compendium of peer-reviewed annotated bibliographies and short encyclopedia entries maintained by Oxford University Press. History Oxford Bibliographies On ...

, 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 Lucas de Penna (Luca da Penne, Luca da Penna, Luca De Penna) (c. 1325 – c. 1390) was a fourteenth-century Neapolitan jurist and a judge of the Magna Curia at Naples. He is known for his ''Commentaria in tres libros Codicis Justiniani imper ...

: A Study in Fourteenth-Century Legal Scholarship.'' (1946) introduction by

Harold Dexter Hazeltine Harold Dexter Hazeltine, FBA (1871–1960) was an American legal scholar. Early life and education Born on 18 November 1871 at Warren, Pennsylvania, he was the son of a banker and attended Brown University (graduating with an AB degree in 189 ...

* ''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 Brian P. Tierney (born 1957) is an American advertising and public relations executive and former publisher of ''The Philadelphia Inquirer''. Born in Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania, Tierney is chief executive officer of Brian Communications ...

and

Peter Linehan Peter Anthony Linehan (11 July 1943 – 9 July 2020) was a British historian of medieval Spain. He was a fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, where he was Dean of Discipline, and a fellow of the British Academy. Life Linehan was born in Mor ...

(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 to the United Kingdom after the Anschluss People from Hollabrunn District Austrian military personnel 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 British Army personnel of World War II Royal Pioneer Corps soldiers Royal Engineers soldiers