Grauert, Hermann von

GRAUERT, HERMANN von. - German historian, b. at Pritzwalk (Brandenburg), to a family originally from Westphalia, on 7 Sept. 1850, d. at Munich on 12 March 1924. After completing historical and legal studies at the Universities of Göttingen (where he took his degree in 1876), Berlin and Munich, he was attached to the State Archive in Bavaria from 1877 to 1883, during which period he was twice in Rome to conduct research in the Vatican Archive (1882-83). From 1883 to 1923 he was professor of history at the University of Munich, first as a lecturer, then from 28 Dec. 1884 as full professor; in 1915-16 he was also rector magnificus there. He was a member of the Bavarian Academy, and in 1914 he was granted the title of nobility ad personam. Three subjects characterize his scholarly activity: the papacy, the empire and (international) peace, of which he saw a promoter in Dante.

Around these three ideas revolves the majority of his studies, published for the most part in the Historisches Jahrbuch of the Görres-gesellschaft (of which he became president in 1920). He directed this important journal from 1885 almost until the end of his life. One of his earliest and best works was on the famous decree of Nicholas II on the election of the Roman pontiff (1059), in Historisches Jahrbuch, 1 (1880), pp. 501-602; cf. also ibid., 13 (1892), pp. 172-91; 19 (1898), pp. 827-41; 20 (1899), pp. 236-325. Also important is his study on the Donation of Constantine (ibid., 3 [1882], pp. 3-30; 4 [1883], pp. 45-95, 525-617, 674-80; 5 [1884], pp. 117-20). Against W. Martens he demonstrated that Hildebrand (Gregory VII) had been a Benedictine monk (ibid., 16 [1895], pp. 283-311; 17 [1896], pp. 952-55). His Dante studies appeared in the aforementioned Hist. Jahrb. (16 [1895], pp. 510-44; 18 [1897], pp. 58-87; 20 [1899], pp. 718-62); in Historisch-politische Blätter (120 [1897], pp. 81-100, 173-80, 321-56, 512-36, 633-52, 789-822), and in the pamphlet Dante und Houston Stewart Chamberlain (Freiburg im Breisgau 1904). In the Proceedings of the Bavarian Academy (philological-philosophical-historical class, 27 [Munich 1912]), he published Magister Heinrich der Poet und die römische Kurie (introduction and text), claiming the poetic work, previously attributed to Vinsalvo (Vinsauf), for Canon Henry of Würzburg. He also has to his credit several other writings in which he defended the ideals of Catholic culture.

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