.jpg) Front cover of the Georg Bondi editions | |
| Author | Ernst Kantorowicz |
|---|---|
| Original title | Kaiser Friedrich der Zweite |
| Translator | Emily Lorimer |
| Language | German |
| Subject | Medieval history |
| Genre | Biography |
| Publisher | Georg Bondi |
Publication date | 1927 |
| Publication place | Germany |
Published in English | 1931 |
| Pages | 650 |
Frederick the Second is a biography of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, by the German-Jewish historian Ernst Kantorowicz. Originally published in German as Kaiser Friedrich der Zweite in 1927, it was "one of the most discussed history books in Weimar Germany",[1] and has remained highly influential in the reception of Frederick II.[2] The book depicts Frederick as a heroic personality, a messianic ruler who was "beseeltes Gesetz", the law given soul,[3][4] but also a charismatic and calculating autocrat—"probably the most intolerant emperor that ever the West begot".[5][6]
The book has courted controversy since its appearance for various reasons. Critics at the time of its publication objected to its lack of scholarly citations—though Kantorowicz subsequently published an additional volume detailing his sources—and to the book's apparent abandonment of the principles of documentary objectivity that characterised historical positivism. Since World War II, historians have debated the work's connection to Nazism and the broader nationalist milieu in Weimar Germany. Kantorowicz himself refused to approve the re-publication of Frederick the Second after the war on the grounds that it risked encouraging "outmoded nationalism".
- ^ Lerner 2017, p. 2.
- ^ Birkholz 2004: "Certainly the most controversial and influential among modern readings of Frederick II is Kantorowicz's ..."
- ^ Lerner 1997, p. 105.
- ^ Ševčenko 1997, p. 277.
- ^ Ruehl 2015, p. 215.
- ^ Abulafia 1997, p. 125.