RAUSCHEN, GERHARD. — German ecclesiastical historian, born at Heinsberg on 13 Oct. 1854, died at Bonn on 12 Apr. 1917. He studied theology and philology at Bonn and became professor of Church history in 1902.
In 1890 he published a critical edition of the *Vita Karoli Magni* and the *Descriptio qualiter Karolus Magnus elevatum et coronam Domini a Costantinopoli Aquisgrani* (sic) *detulerit qualiterque Karolus Calvus hec ad s. Dyosiusm retulerit*, accompanied by an excursus on the canonization of Charlemagne in the time of Frederick Barbarossa (*Die Legende Karls des Grossen im 11. und 12. Jahrhundert*, ed. G. Rauschen, Leipzig 1890). Subsequently he devoted himself particularly to the study of ancient Church history and patristics, founding in 1904 the collection *Florilegium patristicum*, of which he himself published the fascicle. He is well known for his *Grundriss der Patrologie*, first published in 1903, which went through several editions (the 11th, edited by B. Altaner, appeared in 1931) and was also translated into Italian (*Manuale di patrologia*, Florence 1905).