JÖRG, JOSEPH EDMUND. - Historian, publicist and politician, b. at Immenstadt on 23 Dec. 1819 and d. at Landshut on 18 Nov. 1901. He studied theology, philosophy and history at Munich, a disciple and collaborator of Döllinger in his Geschichte der Reformation.
In 1852 he entered the Bavarian administration (archives department) and in the same year assumed the editorship of the Historisch-politische Blätter, which he maintained (from 1857 with Franz Binder) until shortly before his death. Because of his opposition to the government he was transferred to Neuburg on the Danube, but in 1863 he was elected a substitute member of the Bavarian Parliament; from 1868 to 1869 he was a member of the Zollparlament and from 1874 to 1879 of the Reichstag.
He wrote: Deutschland in der Revolutionsperiode 1522-1526, that is, the history of the Peasants' War (1851); Geschichte des Protestantismus in seiner neuesten Entwicklung (1858); Die neue Ära in Preussen (1860). He was one of the first to understand the significance of the development of socialism in Europe, and his Geschichte der sozialpolitischen Parteien in Deutschland (1867) is evidence of this. J. was a convinced Catholic, conservative, monarchist, a tenacious opponent of the Bavarian Liberal Party and of the subordination of Bavaria to Prussia. Through his efforts the Bavarian Volkspartei, in a few years, grew from a small group of deputies to acquire the majority in the Chamber. In his last years he withdrew from politics, but not from his activity as a publicist.
Bibliography2 works
Francesco Ercolani