German inspirations in Polish historiography at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: the case of Wacław Sobieski and Szymon Askenazy

Abstract

This article explores the impact that German models of historical writing had on the development of Polish historiography in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century to 1918. As means of defining this impact, the author analyses the work of two distinguished Polish historians, focusing both on their theoretical enunciations and research practice. These scholars were part of the generation of neoromantics to whom Polish historiography owed its modernisation at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Although representing different historiographical traditions, both scholars sought inspiration in German scholarship. While Sobieski’s thought is indebted to Karl Lamprecht’s historico-cultural method, Askenazy was drawn to Max Lehmann, trying to develop the neoRankean model of practising history. These leading Polish historians of the neoromantic era proved that, regardless of the conflicting interests of national historiographies, it was possible for their respective representatives to inspire each other and build a mutual understanding. This article is based on the historians’ theoretical writings and on the books they published before 1918. The author also analysed Sobieski’s text written in memory of Lehmann and published in the 1930s.