POTTHAST, AUGUST. – German historian and bibliographer, born in Höxter (Westphalia) on 13 August 1824, died in Leobschütz (Upper Silesia) on 13 February 1898.
Having completed his studies at the University of Halle (1855), he devoted himself entirely to historical research, immediately establishing his reputation with the work Leben der Abte Gallus und Otmar von St. Gallen (Berlin 1857), which was soon followed by Geschichte der ehemaligen Cistercienserabtei Rauden in Oberschlesien (Leobschütz 1858) and the Chronicon Henrici de Herodia (Gottings 1859), which earned him the prize of the Wedekind Foundation. But the most important works to which his name remains attached are the Bibliotheca historica medii aevi. Wegweiser durch die Geschichtswerke des europäischen Mittelalters 375 bis 1500 (Berlin 1862; 2nd ed. 1896), an extensive reasoned collection of all medieval historical sources, arranged alphabetically: general and particular chronicles, historical works of the Middle Ages, with indications of manuscripts, editions, translations, and commentaries; and the Regesta pontificum Romanorum inde ab a. post Christum natum MCXCVIII ad annum MCCCIV (ibid. 1874–75); V. REGESTO. For more than twenty years P. was also a librarian at the Reichstag Library (1874–94), for which he prepared a catalogue, published in 1882.