GRAUERT, HERMANN von. — German historian, born at Pritzwalk (Brandenburg), into a family originating from Westphalia, on 7 September 1850; died at Munich on 12 March 1924. Having completed his historical and legal studies at the Universities of Göttingen (where he received his doctorate in 1876), Berlin, and Munich, he was attached to the Bavarian State Archives from 1877 to 1883, during which period he twice went to Rome to conduct research in the Vatican Archives (1882–83). From 1883 to 1923 he was professor of history at the University of Munich, first as a Privatdozent, then, from 28 December 1884, as a full professor; in 1915–16 he was also rector magnificus. He was a member of the Bavarian Academy, and in 1914 he was granted a personal noble title. Three subjects characterize his scholarly activity: the papacy, the empire, and international peace, in which he saw Dante as a promoter.
Most of his studies revolve around these three ideas, and were published chiefly 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 concerned 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 was the 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 studies on Dante 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 (Fribourg in Br. 1904). In the Proceedings of the Bavarian Academy (historical-philological class, 27 [Munich 1912]), he published Magister Heinrich der Poet und die römische Kurie (introduction and text), claiming the poetic work, already attributed to Vinsalvo (Vinsauf), for the canon Heinrich of Würzburg. He also produced several other writings in which he defended the ideals of Catholic culture.