Kempf, Friedrich

Catholic clergyman, university professor

Born: 25.06.1908 in Wiesbaden

Died: 29.05.2002 in Cologne

Like his older brother Wilhelm Kempf, who later became Bishop of Limburg, Friedrich Kempf attended the humanistic grammar school in Wiesbaden and studied history, German studies and philosophy in Marburg and Berlin from 1927. Medieval history and historical auxiliary sciences were his main areas of interest even then. His dissertation under Edmund E. Stengel (Marburg 1933) on "Das Rommersdorfer Briefbuch des 13. Jahrhunderts" "...may be regarded as a prime example of a codicological-diplomatic analysis of medieval collections of letters and documents" (Jürgen Petersohn).

Encouraged by his brother, he joined the Jesuit order immediately after his viva voce. After studying theology and philosophy within the order, he was ordained a priest in 1938 and was seconded to Rome in 1940. There he attended the Pontifical School of Archives and was appointed Extraordinarius for Paleography and Diplomatics at the Pontifical Gregorian University in 1942. He carried out a fundamental analysis of Innocent III's registers and later participated in their edition, concentrating primarily on the so-called "Thronstreitregister" (Throne Dispute Register) contained therein. In 1946, he took over the Chair of Church History at the Gregoriana. His research always focused on the High Middle Ages.

He wrote large parts of the 3rd volume of Hubert Jedin's "Handbuch der Kirchengeschichte" and was its editor. He was also co-editor of the journal for papal history "Archivum Historiae Pontificiae", published since 1963, in which he also published himself.

In 1981, for health reasons, he moved to the Jesuit College in Frankfurt-St. Georgen, in 1997, almost blind, to the Jesuit retirement home in Münster and finally, in 2002, already seriously ill, to Cologne, where he died in the same year and was buried in the Melaten cemetery.