Janssen, Johannes

JANSSEN, JOHANNES. - Historian, b. 10 April 1829 at Xanten, d. 24 December 1891 at Frankfurt am Main. He completed his studies at the Universities of Louvain and Bonn; then in Berlin he attended the lectures of Wattenbach and of K. Ritter, working passionately in the libraries during his free hours.

Ordained a priest in 1860, the following year he published a pamphlet Frankreichs Rheingelüste und deutschfeindliche Politik in früheren Jahrhunderten (Freiburg im Breisgau 1861), which at first glance seems dictated by mere nationalist spirit, but in reality expresses rather the regret of a Catholic with regard to the pro-Protestant policy of the kings of France, who, having in view the strengthening of the individual states of Germany in order to weaken the imperial authority, ensured the triumph of Lutheranism over Catholicism. A rigorous guardian of historical truth, J. therefore subjected to careful criticism the so-called historical works of Schiller (The Defection of the Netherlands and The Thirty Years' War) and with his Schiller als Historiker (ibid. 1863) relegated them to the novel, destroying the myth of a historian Schiller. After various other publications, among which worthy of note are the edition of the imperial correspondence of Frankfurt from 1373 to 1519 (Frankfurts Reichskorrespondenz, 2 vols., ibid. 1863-72), the biography of his teacher and friend Boehmer (J. Fr. Boehmers Leben, Briefe und kleinere Schriften, ibid. 1868), he set his hand to the monumental Geschichte des deutschen Volkes seit dem Ausgang des Mittelalters. In this work J. destroys the historiographical legend of the decadence of Catholic Germany toward the end of the Middle Ages, whence it would have been raised to new splendor by Luther and the Protestant Reformation. Published in 8 vols. (ibid. 1876-94), of which the last two were published posthumously under the editorship of L. Pastor, the History of the German People was epoch-making and acquired very wide credit, as proved by the editions that were subsequently made of it. Pastor himself updated its content, lovingly reworking it (ibid. 1913-24). To the criticisms of his adversaries J. replied twice (An meine Kritiker, ibid. 1884; Ein zweites Wort an meine Kritiker, ibid. 1883). Born in the era of the Kulturkampf, J.'s opus magnum, conducted according to the most rigorous historiographical dictates then prevailing, marks a vigorous revival in German Catholic historiography.

Silvio Furlani