MEISTER, ALOIS. - German Catholic historian, b. 7 Dec. 1866 in Frankfurt am Main, d. 28 Jan. 1925 in Münster. He studied at the University of Strasbourg and was a pupil of Scheffer-Boichorst.
In 1892 he was employed at the Roman Historical Institute of the Görres-Gesellschaft, dealing particularly with the nunciature of Cologne in the years from 1584 to 1590, a subject on which in 1895 he published a volume in collaboration with S. Ehsses. Having obtained his libera docenza at Bonn in 1894, from 1899 onward he was professor of history at the University of Münster. In 1906 he founded and edited a series of manuals introductory to the study of medieval and modern German history, which met with great success: he himself published two volumes in it, one on the foundations of historical method (Grundzüge der historischen Methode, 1906), the other on the history of the German constitution in the Middle Ages (Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte des Mittelalters, 1907). He took a particular interest in cipher in the history of diplomacy. Among
his writings may be mentioned: Die Hohenstaufen im Elsass (1890); Der Strassburger Kapitelstreit (1899); Die Fragmente der Libri VIII miraculorum des Cäsarius von Heisterbach (1901); Die Anfänge der modernen diplomatischen Geheimschrift (1902); Die Geheimschrift im Dienste der päpstlichen Kurie (1906); Friedrich der Grosse und das preussische Westfalen (1912); Frankreich und das Saargebiet (1922).