Lamprecht, Karl
Lamprecht, Karl
Karl Gotthard Lamprecht, German historian, was born in Jessen an der Schwarzen Elster in 1856, the son of the theologian and rector C. N. Lamprecht, and died in Leipzig in 1915. Lamprecht attended the classical Gymnasium in Wittenberg and then the celebrated Schulpforta school. He studied history, German, Latin, and Greek in the universities of Gottingen and Leipzig; after obtaining his doctorate in 1878, he went to Munich for postgraduate study. In 1879 he took the examination that qualified him for secondary-school teaching in the above-mentioned subjects. Then he spent a year as a private tutor in Cologne. There, certain benefactors provided him with the means of continuing his scholarly work; in 1880 he was able to qualify as an academic lecturer in history at the University of Bonn. There he remained until 1890, when he accepted a professorship at the University of Marburg (Lahn). In 1891 he accepted a similar appointment at Leipzig, where he taught until his death.
Lamprecht’s work in the history of civilization was probably inspired by Wilhelm Scherer, a literary historian, and his work in economic history by Wilhelm Roschr, the earliest representative of the so-called historical school in political economy, under both of whom he studied. Lamprecht’s early works deal with problems in the history of civilization and art. His studies led him to collect “libri picturati,” illustrated medieval manuscripts. He continued such studies until 1882, when he concluded them with a monograph on the illumination of initials from the eighth to the thirteenth century. At this time he was also engaged in studies in economic history, research which was to produce his most enduring work, Deutsches Wirtschaftsleben im Mittelalter (1885–1886).
As early as 1882 Lamprecht, together with Felix Hettner, founded the Westdeutsche Zeitschrift fur Geschichte und Kunst (note the inclusion of art in the title). He established in Leipzig in 1909 the Institute of Universal History and the History of Civilization, which likewise reflected his particular views. In 1910–1911, as the rector of the University of Leipzig, he advocated significant innovations in the field of cultural policy. Lamprecht gained wide recognition, receiving honorary doctorates from Columbia, Christiania, and St. Andrews. He was also a member of numerous academies and learned societies.
Conception of universal history .All Lamprecht’s efforts early became concentrated on his Deutsche Geschichte (1891–1909), which established his importance for historiography. It was based on his conception of universal history, formulated when he was only 22, although he published it in explicit form only in the twelfth volume of his Deutsche Geschichte. Lamprecht, like others, did not share Ranke’s optimism about the state of historical scholarship; he felt that it was generally declining and attributed this decline to excessive specialization, especially one-sided concentration upon political history. His vision was of a universal history that would deal with the interrelationships of events of every kind. But this task required an appropriate method.
Lamprecht developed a new method, drawing on positivist ideas and ordering behavior patterns in accordance with the theoretical principles of natural science. Under the influence of Wilhelm Wundt, he related this method to psychological concepts. He believed that historical epochs are characterized by collective psychological dispositions: the symbolic, the typical, the conventional, the individualistic, the subjectvistic, and the impressionistic.
Both Lamprecht’s theory and his method gave rise to lively controversy and were bluntly rejected by almost all historians (K. Breysig being an exception), who found fault especially with the way he had applied Y-u new ideas. For a time, Lamprecht did receiw trie approval of those French historians who had been influenced by Hippolyte Taine. Moreover, he was supported by anthropologists, historians of civilization, sociologists, and historically oriented economists, as well as by the adherents of a materialist conception of history, although he was far from sympathetic to their point of view. Lamprecht’s scholarly work was not carried forward by others, one reason being that he was much too fair-minded to expect his students to accept his theses. The methodological dispute, often inappropriately treated as the antinomy between “individualistic” and “collectivistic” concepts, was prolonged and partly pointless, since under the impact of criticism Lamprecht himself modified his method in the course of writing the 12 volumes of his Deutsche Geschichte. The work thus turned out to be a respectable but premature and, in the end, unsuccessful venture that had no lasting influence. This does not mean that the endeavor may not some day be repeated with the use of more appropriate methods and with an extensive array of detailed studies in all areas. The perspective of universal history is still an objective of historiography.
Friedrich LÜtge
[For the historical context of Lamprecht’s work, see the biographies ofRanke; Roscher; Wundt. For discussion of a parallel development of historio-graphical ideas, see the biography ofRobinson.]
WORKS BY LAMPRECHT
1882Initial-omamentik des VIII. bis XIII. Jahrhunderts. Leipzig: Dürr.
1885–1886 Deutsches Wirtschaftsleben im Mittelalter: Untersuchungen über die Entwicklung der materiellen Kultur des platten Landes auf Grund der Quellen, zundchst des Mosellandes. 3 vols. in 4. Leipzig: Diirr.
1891–1909 Deutsche Geschichte. 14 vols. in 19. Berlin: Gartner.
1905 Moderne Geschichtswissenschaft: Fünf Vorträge. Freiburg im Breisgau: Heyfelder.
1908 Europäische Expansion. Volume 6, pages 597–625 in Julius A. G. Pflugk-Harttung (editor), Weltgeschichte. Berlin: Ullstein.
1909 Zur universalgeschichtlichen Methodenbildung. Süchsische Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, Leipzig, Philologisch-historische Klasse, Abhandlungen, Vol. 27, No. 2. Leipzig: Teubner.
1912 Einführung in das historische Denken. Leipzig: Voigtländer.
1912–1913 Deutsche Geschichte der jüngsten Vergangenheit und Gegenwart. 2 vols. Berlin: Weidmann.
SUPPLEMENTARY BIBLIOGRAPHY
Arens, Franz 1926 Karl Lamprecht. Preussische Jahrbücher 203:306–328.
Below, Georg A. H. von (1916) 1924 Die deutsche Geschichtschreibung von den Befreiungskriegen bis zu unseren Tagen. 2d ed. Munich and Berlin: Olden-bourg. ? See especially pages 95 ff.
Hübschmann, S. 1929 Karl Lamprecht. Mitteldeutsche Lebensbilder 4:405–415.
KÜtzschke, Rudolf 1915 Verzeichnis der Schriften Karl Lamprechts. Sächsische Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, Leipzig, Philologisch-historische Klasse, Berichte über die Verhandlungen 67:105–119.
KÜtzschke, Rudolf; and Tille, Armin 1915 Karl Lamprecht. Gotha: Perthes. [MEINECKE, FRIEDRICH] 1915 Karl Lamprecht [Obituary Notice], by M. Historische Zeitschrift 114:696–698.
SchÜnebaum, Herbert 1951 Vom Werden der Deutschen Geschichte Karl Lamprechts. Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte 25:94–111.
SchÜnebaum, Herbert 1956 Karl Lamprechts hochschulpädagogische Bestrebungen. Zeitschrift fur Pddagogik 2:1–16.
Seifert, Friedrich 1925 Der Streit um Karl Lamprechts Geschichtsphilosophie. Augsburg: Filser.
Spiess, Emil J. 1921 Die Geschichtsphilosophie von Karl Lamprecht. Erlangen: Junge.
Wagner, Fritz 1951 Geschichtswissenschaft. Freiburg im Breisgau: Alber.