Dolger, Franz

Dölger, Franz 

Born Oct. 4, 1891, in Kleinwallstadt; died Nov. 5, 1968, in Munich. German Byzantine historian (Federal Republic of Germany).

From 1931 to 1959, Dölger was a professor at the University of Munich and director of the Munich Society for Byzantine Studies. He was the editor of Byzantinische Zeitschrift (1928-63). Dölger devoted himself to publishing historical documents and to Byzantine diplomatics. He wrote a number of works on Byzantine philology. In his historical studies Dölger analyzed the Byzantine financial system, agrarian relations, and political relations between the Byzantine Empire and European countries. Dölger led the philological-juridical school in Byzantine studies. He acknowledged the existence of feudalism in the Byzantine Empire and the economic similarity between the Byzantine votchina (patrimonial estate system) and the manorial system of Western Europe. Indescribing the Byzantine votchina, however, Dölger did not take into account Byzantine social development.

WORKS

Regesten der Kaiserurkunder des Oströmischen Reiches von 565 bis 1453, vols. 1-5. Munich-Berlin, 1924-65.
Beitrāge zur Geschichte der byzantinischen Finanzverwaltung, besonders des 10 und 11 Jahrhunderts, 2nd ed. Darmstadt, 1960.
Aus den Schatzkammern des heiligen Berges. Munich >[1948].
Byzantinische Diplomatik: 20 Aufsätze zum Urkundenwesen der Byzantiner. Munich, 1956.
Parasporá. Munich, 1961.
For a bibliography of works by Dölger seePolychronion: Festschrift Franz Dölger zum 75 Geburtstag. Heidelberg, 1966. Pages 13-31.