Godefroid Kurth
| Godefroid Kurth | |
|---|---|
Monument in Arlon
|
|
| Born |
11 May 1847 Arlon, Belgium |
| Died | 4 January 1916 (aged 68) Asse, Belgium |
| Occupation | Academic historian |
| Nationality | Belgian |
| Alma mater | University of Liège |
| Genre | Medieval History, European history, Belgian history |
Godefroid Kurth (11 May 1847, Arlon – 4 January 1916) was a celebrated Belgian historian. He is known for his histories of the city of Liège in the Middle Ages and of Belgium, of his Catholic account in Les Origines de la civilisation moderne of the formation of modern Europe, and for his defence of the medieval guild system.
Godefroid Kurth was born 11 May 1847 in Arlon, the capital of the Belgian province of Luxembourg. His father, a former soldier from Cologne became a police commissioner in Arlon, but died 1850. The family spoke Luxembourgish at home and he learned French in primary school. He entered the Royal Athenaeum of Arlon (high school) and in 1865, the Normal School of Liège, where he completed his studies in 1869. That same year he was ppointed professor of French at the Athénée de Liège.
He became chair of Medieval History and Belgian History at the University of Liège in 1873, where he encountered difficulties because of his strongly held Catholic views. Kurth was considered ultramontane by his contemporaries. His study of the medieval guild system brought an increased appreciation of the principles of charity. brotherhood, and justice and led to his becoming one of the founders of the Christian Democratic movement. Léon-E.Halkin said of him, "Godefroid Kurth [was] the last of the romantic historians and the first of the 'technical' historians in Belgium".
In 1873 Kurth was awarded a PhD in Historical Sciences. One of his students, Henri Pirenne, became a noted historian. Halkin considered them the founders of the scientific method of history in Belgium. Kurth modelled his pedagogy on that of instituted by the German historian Leopold von Ranke at the University of Berlin. In 1906 he was promoted to emeritus status and left the university to director of the Belgian Historical Institute of Rome.
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