Sponheimer, Meinhard

Archivist

Born: 05.08.1902 in Bülach near Zurich

Died: 19.08.1943 in Miklau (south-east Prussia)

Sponheimer studied law and history in Freiburg im Breisgau, Berlin and Marburg, where he passed his exams in 1922. He received his doctorate in Berlin in 1924 with a thesis on "Konrad von Megenberg's political ideas in connection with the medieval doctrine of the state".

In 1925-28, he completed his assistantship at the Institute for Historical Regional Studies in Marburg (today: Hessian State Office for Historical Regional Studies), joined the Prussian civil service as an archival assistant at the Secret State Archives in Berlin and passed his examinations in 1929. From 1930 Sponheimer worked in the Koblenz State Archives, from 1934 as a State Archive Councillor. In 1936, he moved to the State Archives in Wiesbaden, where he worked until he was drafted into the Wehrmacht in 1942. As a soldier, he fought on the Eastern Front and was fatally wounded in 1943 in battles around Miklau.

His best-known works include the "Landesgeschichte der Niedergrafschaft Katzenelnbogen" (1932) and the second volume of the Urkundenbuch der Stadt Wetzlar (1943).