Franz Mone

A historian and archeologist, born at Mingolsheim near Bruchsal, Baden, 12 May, 1796; died at Karlsruhe, 12 March, 1871. He attended the gymnasium at Bruchsal and in 1814 entered Heidelberg, where in 1817 he was appointed tutor ( Privatdozent ) in history, in 1818 secretary of the university library, in 1819 extraordinary, and in 1822 ordinary, professor, and in 1825 head of the university library. From 1827 to 1831 he was professor at Louvain. On his return to Baden he edited for a period the "Karlsruher Zeitung"; he became in 1835 archivist and director of the General National Archives at Karlsruhe, and retired in 1868. By his great diligence and tireless energy he acquired extensive knowledge. His works on early history ("Urgeschichte des badischen Landes", 2 vols., 1845; "Untersuchungen über die gallisch Sprache", 1851; "Celtische Forschungen", 1857) suffer from his tendency to trace everything possible to a Celtic origin. More important are his works on literary history, which include: "Einleitung in das Nibelungenlied" (1818); "Geschichte des Heidentums im nördlichen Europa" (2 vols., 1822-3); "Otnit" (1821); "Quellen und Forschungen zur Geschichte der deutschen Literatur und Sprache" (1830) "Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der deutschen Heldensage" (1836);" Uebersicht der niederländischen Volksliteratur älterer Zeit" (1838). In the "Anzeiger für Kunde des deutschen Mittelalters" (1835-9), he calls attention to a great mass of unknown materials. Of great value for the history of the drama are his editions of "Altdeutsche Schauspiele" (1841) and "Schauspiele des Mittelalters" (2 vols., 1846). His works, "Lateinische und griechische Messen" (1850) and "Lateinische Hymnen" (3 vols., 1853-5), advanced the knowledge of liturgy and ecclesiastical poetry, and offer important liturgical documents not published elsewhere. For the history of his native country the following are useful: "Badisches Archiv" (2 vols., 1826-7); "Quellensammlung der badischen Landesgeschichte" (4 vols., 1848-67); the second volume of the "Episcopatus Constantiensis" of Neugart (1862), and, most particularly, the extraordinarily rich and varied "Zeitschrift für die Geschichte des Oberrheins" (21 vols., 1850-68), which was founded by Mone, and in which most of the articles during these early years were from his pen. It has been continued since then by the General Archives and by the Historical Commission of Baden. His industry and zeal in collecting were very praiseworthy, although he was sometimes deficient in accuracy and critical judgment; in his works the economico-historical interest is always in the foreground. He was an earnest and pious Catholic, and took part in the Baden ecclesiastical-political strife during the forties, publishing the two aggressive anonymous pamphlets, "Die katholischen Zustände in Baden" (1841-3).