Walter Pohl

Walter Pohl
Walter Pohl
Born	27 September 1953; Vienna, Austria
Nationality	Austria
Academic background
Alma mater	University of Vienna;
Doctoral advisor	Herwig Wolfram
Influences	Reinhard Wenskus;
Academic work
Discipline	History;
Sub-discipline	Medieval History
School or tradition	Vienna School
Institutions	University of Vienna; Austrian Academy of Sciences; European Science Foundation;
Main interests	Late Antiquity

Walter Pohl (born 27 December 1953, in Vienna) is an Austrian historian who is Professor of Auxiliary Sciences of History and Medieval History at the University of Vienna. He is a leading member of the Vienna School of History

Biography

Walter Pohl was born in Vienna, Austria on 27 December 1953. He received his PhD at the University of Vienna in 1984 under the supervision of Herwig Wolfram with a thesis on the Pannonian Avars. He received his habilitation in medieval history at the University of Vienna in 1989.[1]

Pohl is a leading member of the European Science Foundation and the recipient of a large number of grants from the European Research Council. He was a key member of the Transformation of the Roman World project. In 2004, Pohl was elected Director of the Institute for Medieval Studies and Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. In 2013, Pohl was elected a Member of Academia Europaea.[1]

Theories

Together with Wolfram, Pohl is a leading member of the Vienna School of History. However, he has a "much more fluid" approach on the issues than Wolfram or the latters mentor Reinhard Wenskus. Pohl's theories are "profoundly influenced" by sociology, the philosophy of language and critical theory.[2]

Pohl is well known for his theories about the Germanic peoples. Along with many of his fellow medieval historians in the Transformation of the Roman World project, Pohl believes that the Germanic peoples were not biologically related, had no institutions or values of their own, and made no contribution to the emergence of Medieval Europe.[3][4] He regards the Germanic peoples as a merely a linguistic abstraction, and doubts whether ethnicity was important in antiquity.[5][4] Pohl treats the Germani strictly as a Roman construct existing from the 1st century BC to the 6th century AD.[4] He does not consider language and culture as defining the Germani, and instead stresses fluidity, flexibility and ambiguity.[6] He does not count the Goths, Vandals and Merovingian Franks among the Germani.[6][7] Pohl's views on the Germanic peoples have been criticized by Wolf Liebeschuetz as "extraordinarily one-sided" and a form of ideological "dogmatism" evincing "a closed mind".[8] John F. Drinkwater has suggested that Pohl's theories on Germanic peoples are motivated by a desire to accelerate European integration.[6] On the other hand, members of the Toronto School of History, led by Walter Goffart, have accused Pohl of not going far enough in his denials of Germanic ethnicity. They charge Pohl and his colleagues at Vienna with seeking to perpetuate German nationalist scholarship behind a phony veil of political correctness. According to them, Pohl's theories on Germanic peoples are ultimately derived from Heinrich Himmler. These charges have been denied by Pohl.[9]

Bibliography

Works in English translation. For a complete list see publications.

Die Awaren. Ein Steppenvolk in Mitteleuropa 567 - 822 n. Chr. (2002). English translation in conjunction with Cornell:
- Pohl, Walter (2018). The Avars: A Steppe Empire in Central Europe, 567-822. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press. ISBN 9781501729409.
Pohl, Walter (1995). Die Welt der Babenberger: Schleier, Kreuz und Schwert. Graz: Verlag Styria. ISBN 9783222123344.
Kingdoms of the Empire: The Integration of Barbarians in Late Antiquity (1997).
Strategies of Distinction: The Construction of Ethnic Communities, 300-800 (1998).
The Transformation of Frontiers: From Late Antiquity to the Carolingians (2000).
Regna and Gentes: The Relationship Between Late Antique and Early Medieval Peoples and Kingdoms in the Transformation of the Roman World (2003).

References

"Walter Pohl". University of Vienna. Retrieved 11 September 2020.
Halsall 2007, p. 16.
Liebeschuetz 2015, p. xxi.
Fruscione 2010.
Maas 2001, p. 76. "Walter Pohl, Wolfram’s successor in Vienna, is influenced by ethnogenesis theory, but he does not accept all of Wenskus’s and Wolfram’s ideas... [H]e rejects the idea of a German(ic)Volk or people, comprised of various tribes, as anything other than a linguistic abstraction... He raises a question that would have shocked Wenskus..."
Drinkwater 2002, pp. 348–350. "Pohl's Germani are not all Germani, but those encountered by the Romans on the Rhine and the upper Danube from about the first century B.C. to the sixth century A.D. He does not consider, for example, the Goths or the Franks of the Merovingian kingdoms... [Pohl] is dismissive of language and culture as determinants... of ethnic identity. He stresses fluidity, flexibility and ambiguity... As I read P.'s book, I was frequently struck by the thought that this is the conviction of those urging faster and closer European integration... Perhaps attempting to convince people that the societies they belong to are no more than ephemeral historical artefacts may in the end prove to be just as misguided as praising them for their racial, social and institutional purity."
Kulikowski 2002, p. 70. "Pohl... explicitly excludes the Goths and Vandals from the Germani he is meant to be treating, before proceeding to retail their history at length."
Liebeschuetz 2015, p. xxi. "Walter Pohl, had a completely closed mind to any view that admitted that these northern gentes had genuine histories and traditions of their own. Not content to demolish the view that these tribes were essentially racial organizations, they relied on sociological theory that ethnicity is nothing more than a negotiated system of social classification... to deny these peoples any institutions and values of their own, and so to reduce their contribution to medieval Europe to nothing at all. Such dogmatism is easily explained as a reaction to Nazi racism but it is nevertheless extraordinarily one-sided..."
Gillett 2002, p. 223.

Sources

Drinkwater, John F. (2002). "W. Pohl, Die Germanen, 2000". Francia. 29 (1). Retrieved 29 August 2020.
Fruscione, Daniela (November 2010). "On "Germanic"". The Heroic Age. Memorial University of Newfoundland (14). Retrieved 29 August 2020.
Gillett, Andrew, ed. (2002). On Barbarian Identity: Critical Approaches to Ethnicity in the Early Middle Ages. ISD. ISBN 9782503511689.
Halsall, Guy (2007). Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West, 376–568. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107393325.
Liebeschuetz, Wolf (2015). East and West in Late Antiquity: Invasion, Settlement, Ethnogenesis and Conflicts of Religion. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-28952-9.
Maas, Michael (2012). "Barbarians: Problems and Approaches". In Johnson, Scott Fitzgerald (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity. Oxford University Press. pp. 60–91. ISBN 9780195336931. Retrieved 23 February 2020.

External links

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[Vienna-1] "Walter Pohl". University of Vienna. Retrieved 11 September 2020.

[FOOTNOTEHalsall200716-2] Halsall 2007, p. 16.

[FOOTNOTELiebeschuetz2015xxi-3] Liebeschuetz 2015, p. xxi.

[FOOTNOTEFruscione2010-4] Fruscione 2010.

[5] Maas 2001, p. 76. "Walter Pohl, Wolfram’s successor in Vienna, is influenced by ethnogenesis theory, but he does not accept all of Wenskus’s and Wolfram’s ideas... [H]e rejects the idea of a German(ic)Volk or people, comprised of various tribes, as anything other than a linguistic abstraction... He raises a question that would have shocked Wenskus..."

[Drinkwater-6] Drinkwater 2002, pp. 348–350. "Pohl's Germani are not all Germani, but those encountered by the Romans on the Rhine and the upper Danube from about the first century B.C. to the sixth century A.D. He does not consider, for example, the Goths or the Franks of the Merovingian kingdoms... [Pohl] is dismissive of language and culture as determinants... of ethnic identity. He stresses fluidity, flexibility and ambiguity... As I read P.'s book, I was frequently struck by the thought that this is the conviction of those urging faster and closer European integration... Perhaps attempting to convince people that the societies they belong to are no more than ephemeral historical artefacts may in the end prove to be just as misguided as praising them for their racial, social and institutional purity."

[7] Kulikowski 2002, p. 70. "Pohl... explicitly excludes the Goths and Vandals from the Germani he is meant to be treating, before proceeding to retail their history at length."

[8] Liebeschuetz 2015, p. xxi. "Walter Pohl, had a completely closed mind to any view that admitted that these northern gentes had genuine histories and traditions of their own. Not content to demolish the view that these tribes were essentially racial organizations, they relied on sociological theory that ethnicity is nothing more than a negotiated system of social classification... to deny these peoples any institutions and values of their own, and so to reduce their contribution to medieval Europe to nothing at all. Such dogmatism is easily explained as a reaction to Nazi racism but it is nevertheless extraordinarily one-sided..."

[FOOTNOTEGillett2002223-9] Gillett 2002, p. 223.