Johann Martin Lappenberg (July 30, 1794 - November 28, 1865), was a
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
historianAn historian is an individual who studies and writes about history, and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all events in time...
.
Biography
He was born at
HamburgHamburg is the second-largest city in Germany and the sixth-largest city in the European Union...
, where his father, Valentin Anton Lappenberg (1759-1819), held an official position. He studied
medicineMedicine is the art and science of healing. It encompasses a range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
, and afterwards
historyHistory is the study of the human past, with special attention to the written record. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it often attempts to investigate objectively the patterns...
, at the
University of EdinburghThe University of Edinburgh founded in 1582, is an internationally renowned centre for teaching and research in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. It is the sixth university to be established in the British Isles, making it one of the ancient universities of the United Kingdom.The university is amongst the...
. He continued to study history in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, at Humboldt University,
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
and at Göttingen, where he graduated as doctor of laws in 1816. In 1820 he was sent by the Hamburg senate as resident minister to the
PrussiaPrussia was a historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries this state had substantial influence on German and European history...
n court. In 1823 he became keeper of the Hamburg archives; an office in which he had the fullest opportunities for the laborious and critical research work upon which his reputation as an historian. rests. He retained this post until 1863, when a serious eye problem compelled him to resign. In 1850 he represented Hamburg in the German parliament at
FrankfurtFrankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2008 population of 670,000. The urban area had an estimated population of 2.26 million in 2001...
, and he died at Hamburg.
Lappenberg's most important work is his
Geschichte von England, which deals with the history of
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
from the earliest times to 1154, and was published in two volumes at Hamburg in 1834-1837. It has been translated into English by
Benjamin ThorpeBenjamin Thorpe was an English Anglo-Saxon scholar.After studying for four years at Copenhagen University, under the Danish philologist Rasmus Christian Rask, he returned to England in 1830, and in 1832 published an English version of Caedmon's metrical paraphrase of portions of the Holy...
as
History of England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings (1845), and
History of England under the Norman Kings (Oxford, 1857), and was continued in three additional volumes from 1154 to 1509 by R Pauli.
His other works deal mainly with the history of Hamburg, and include:
- Hamburgische Chroniken in niedersächsischer Sprache (Hamburg, 1852-1861)
- Geschichtsquellen des Erzstiftes und der Stadt Bremen (Bremen, 1841)
- Hamburgisches Urkundenbuch (Hamburg, 1842)
- Urkundliche Geschichte des Hansischen Stahlhofes zu London (Hamburg, 1851)
- Hamburgische Rechtsalterthümer (Hamburg, 1845)
- Urkundliche Geschichte des Ursprunges der deutschen falanse (Hamburg, 1830), a continuation of the work of GF Sartorius.
For the
Monumenta Germaniae historicaThe Monumenta Germaniae Historica is a comprehensive series of carefully edited and published sources for the study of German history from the end of the Roman Empire to 1500.The society sponsoring the series was established by the Prussian reformer Heinrich Friedrich Karl Freiherr vom...
he edited the
Chronicon of
Thietmar of MerseburgThietmar of Merseburg , was bishop of Merseburg and a German chronicler.-Life:Thietmar was a son of Siegfried, count of Walbeck, and was related to the family of the emperor Otto the Great...
, the
Gesta Hammenburgensis ecclesiae pontificum of
Adam of BremenAdam of Bremen was a German medieval chronicler. He lived and worked in the second half of the eleventh century. He is most famous for his chronicle Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum .-Background:Little is known of his life other than hints from his own chronicles...
and the
Chronica Slavorum of
HelmoldHelmold of Bosau was a Saxon historian of the 12th century and a priest at Bosau near Plön. He was a friend of the two bishops of Oldenburg in Holstein, Vicelinus and Gerold , who did much to Christianize the Polabian Slavs.Helmold was born near Goslar...
, with its continuation by
Arnold of LübeckArnold of Lübeck was a Benedictine abbott, a chronicler, the author of the Chronica Slavorum....
. Lappenberg, who was a member of numerous learned societies in Europe, wrote many other historical works.