JANSSEN, JOHANNES. – Historian, b. 11 or Apr. 1829 at Xanten, d. 24 Dec. 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 K. Ritter, working in his spare hours with passion in the libraries.
Ordained priest in 1860, the following year he published a pamphlet, Frankreichs Rheingelüste und deutschfeindliche Politik in früheren Jahrhunderts (Freiburg in Br. 1861), which at first glance seems dictated by mere nationalist spirit, but in reality expresses rather the regret of a Catholic regarding the pro-Protestant policy of the kings of France, who, aiming to strengthen the individual states of Germany in order to weaken imperial authority, ensured the triumph of Lutheranism over Catholicism. A rigorous guardian of historical truth, J. then subjected the so-called historical works of Schiller (The Revolt of the Netherlands and The Thirty Years’ War) to careful criticism, and in his Schiller als Historiker (ibid. 1863) relegated them to fiction, destroying the myth of a historical Schiller. After various other publications, among which are worthy of note the edition of the imperial correspondence of Frankfurt from 1373 to 1519 (Frankfurts Reichskorrespondenz, 2 vols., ibid. 1863-72) and the biography of his teacher and friend Boehmer (J. Fr. Boehmer Leben, Briefe und kleinere Schriften, ibid. 1868), he set to work on his monumental Geschichte des deutschen Volkes seit dem Ausgang des Mittelalters. In this work J. destroys the historiographical legend of the decline of Catholic Germany toward the end of the Middle Ages, from which it was supposedly raised to new splendor by Luther and the Protestant Reformation. Published in 8 vols. (ibid. 1876-94), the last two of which were published posthumously under the care of L. Pastor, the History of the German People marked an epoch and gained very wide credit, as evidenced by the subsequent editions that were made of II. Pastor himself updated its content, reworking it lovingly (ibid. 1913-24). To the criticisms of his adversaries J. replied twice (An meine Kritiker, ibid. 1882; Ein zweites Wort an meine Kritiker, ibid. 1883). Born in the era of the Kulturkampf, the magnum opus of J., conducted according to the most rigorous historiographical standards then prevailing, marks a vigorous revival in German Catholic historiography.