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Max Lenz was born in Greifswald on 13 June 1850 as the son of Dr. Gustav Lenz, a judicial councillor. After his school education in Greifswald, he began studying classical philology and history (with Heinrich von Sybel and others) in Bonn. Interrupted by his participation in the Franco-German war, Lenz continued his studies at the universities of Greifswald and Berlin and in 1874 presented a dissertation on the topic "The Alliance of Canterbury and its significance for the Franco-English War and the Concil of Constance". In the same year he passed the senior teacher examination. In 1875 he began as a "unskilled worker" in the Marburg State Archives, where he worked on Landgrave Philip the Magnanimous of Hesse's political correspondence with the Strasbourg reformer Martin Bucer (3 volumes, Leipzig 1880-1891). In 1876 Lenz habilitated in Marburg on the subject of "Three Tractates from the Scripture Cycle of the Constance Concil" and was appointed extraordinary professor of medieval and modern history at the Philipps University in Marburg in 1881 and full professor in 1885. Further stations in his academic career were the universities of Breslau (from 1888), Berlin (from 1890) and Hamburg (from 1914), whose transformation from a colonial institute to a university he played a major role in shaping. After his retirement he returned to Berlin. Max Lenz died on April 6, 1932 and his scientific subjects were the Reformation, the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte and Otto von Bismarck. He presented very extensive works on all these topics. Max Lenz saw himself as an objectivist historian and always emphasized the importance of source-critical research. He is considered one of the main representatives of the so-called Ranke Renaissance in Germany. He was a member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences and the Historical Society of Berlin, founded in 1872, to whose chairman he was elected in 1912 and again in 1925. Max Lenz was married to the pianist Emma Rohde from Greifswald; of his children one daughter and two sons reached adulthood: Hildegard, Georg and Friedrich (1885-1968, national economist) The estate here consists almost exclusively of letters, partly of an extensive correspondence within the (grand) family Lenz / Rohde, partly of Lenz' letters to friends, colleagues and students. The collection is supplemented by manuscript parts of a lecture on the French Revolution, a transcript of a lecture on the Reformation and newspaper clippings. The family correspondence was mainly written by Bertha Rohde (the mother of Emma Lenz), her children Emma (Emmchen), Elisa (Lieschen), Bertha, Marie Jena, née Rohde, Minna, William and Max, their son-in-law Max Lenz and their grandchildren Hildegard, Georg and Friedrich (Fritz). After the death of grandmother Bertha Rohde in 1917, the correspondence becomes thinner, but does not break off. The most frequent addressee is Elisa Rohde, who lived unmarried in Greifswald's parents' house. She may be the author of the letter collection. Most of Max Lenz's professional correspondence consists of letters to his pupil Hermann Oncken (1869-1945) and to colleagues not mentioned by name, but possibly also Oncken. The title "Dear Friend / Colleague" can also be found in several of Lenz's letters in other bequests handed down in the GStA PK, for example to Albert Brackmann, Adolf Grimme, Paul Fridolin Kehr, Friedrich Meinecke, Theodor Schiemann. After Max Lenz's death, his son Friedrich tried to collect letters from his parents. Several letters from relatives of friendly families from the period November 1942 to January 1943 with "negative notices" are handed down in this estate (No. 35). From Karl Seeliger's answer available in this context it emerges that Friedrich Lenz planned to deposit his father's estate in the Prussian Secret State Archives, which also happened on 11 March 1943 (exc. 16 / 43; I. HA Rep. 92 Nl Max Lenz). On the other hand, Max Lenz himself does not seem to have cancelled any letters received; only a very small number of letters to Max Lenz have been passed down here (No. 34). Together with other holdings, bequests and collections that had been relocated from 1943 due to the war, the Max Lenz estate was transferred to the Central State Archives in Merseburg and returned to Berlin in 1993. With the exception of the separation of the letters from the other estate material, no order of the estate was discernible. In addition, the estate had been used several times in Merseburg and thus also got into disorder. In addition, the estate was enriched at a later point in time that can no longer be determined: At least one letter from 1963 (No. 62) has been added. The letters were divided into two correspondence series (private and professional correspondence) and arranged chronologically. Last no. given: The estate is to be quoted: GStA PK, VI. HA Family archives and estates, Nl Max Lenz (Dep.), No. The estate is to be ordered: VI HA, Nl Lenz, M., Nr. The following holdings, estates and collections should also be consulted when working with the Max Lenz estate: - I. HA Rep. 178 Generaldirektion der Staatsarchive Abt. XIII L Nr. 5: Personalangelegenheit Dr. Lenz (1875-76) - I. HA Rep. 235 Historische Gesellschaft zu Berlin - VI. HA Familienarchive und Nachlässe, Nl Friedrich Theodor Althoff - VI. HA Familienarchive und Nachlässe, Nl Carl Heinrich Becker - VI. HA Familienarchive und Nachlässe, Nl Albert Brackmann - VI. HA Familienarchive und Nachlässe, Nl Adolf Grimme - VI. HA Family Archives and Bequests, Nl Paul Fridolin Kehr - VI HA Family Archives and Bequests, Nl Friedrich Meinecke - VI HA Family Archives and Bequests, Nl Constantin Rößler - VI HA Family Archives and Bequests, Nl Theodor Schiemann Literature by Max Lenz (selection): - Martin Luther: Festschrift der Stadt Berlin zum 10. November 1883. Pub. 1897 (Service library GStA PK: Weltgesch. VIc 47) - Napoleon. Bielefeld, second edition 1908 (Dienstbibliothek GStA PK:32 N 4'2) - Rankes biographische Kunst und die Aufgabe des Biographen: Commemoration speech of the founder of the Berlin University King Friedrich Wilhelm III Berlin 1912 (Dienstbibliothek GStA PK:5 R 237) - History of Bismarck. Munich, 2nd ed. 1902 (Dienstbibliothek GStA PK: 5 B 86) - History of the Königliche Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin. 4 Vol., Halle 1910-1918 (Dienstbibliothek GStA PK: 19a 332:1-4) Literature about Max Lenz (selection): - Hermann Oncken, Gedächtnisrede auf Max Lenz, in: Sitzungsberichte der Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. Berlin 1933 pp. 107-125 - Rüdiger vom Bruch, Max Lenz, in: NDB Vol. 14 - Hans-Heinz Krill, The Rankerenaissance: Max Lenz and Erich Marcks; a contribution to historical-political thinking in Germany 1880-1935. Publications of the Berlin Historical Commission at the Friedrich Meinecke Institute of Freie Universität Berlin Vol. 3 Berlin 1962 Berlin, May 2008 Dr. Schnelling-Reinicke (Director of the Archive) Description of holdings: Biographical data: 1850 - 1932 Reference: Database; Reference book, 1 vol.