Michael Kardinal von Faulhaber

Critical online edition of the diaries of Michael Cardinal von Faulhaber 1911–1952

Logo Faulhaber Edition

As bishop of Speyer (1911–1917), archbishop of Munich and Freising (1917–1952), cardinal (since 1922) and chairman of the Freising Bishops' Conference, Michael Cardinal von Faulhaber forged the history of the Catholic Church in years of great upheavals, from the time of the Empire, the Weimar Republic and the Second World War until the period of occupation and the first years of the German Federal Republic.
Faulhaber regularly kept a diary, in which he registered the topics discussed during all the visits he received. In doing so he used the shorthand Gabelsberger, which was quite common in his days, but has almost fallen into oblivion today. These "visitors' diaries" as well as selected supplementary sheets containing comprehensive notes on individual conversations are made accessible online to the broad public and evaluated.
The visitors' diaries comprise 32 volumes in octavo format containing more than 4,000 pages. In transcribed form the diaries would comprise roughly 16,000 pages in A4 format. So far, considerably more than 3,000 supplementary sheets have been discovered, which would comprise about 13,000 pages in A4 format if transcribed.
The edition is being prepared at the Department for Medieval and Modern Church History of the Faculty of Catholic Theology at the University of Münster in cooperation with the Institute of Contemporary History in Munich and the archiepiscopal archive of the diocese of Munich and Freising. The individual diary entries and supplementary sheets are saved in XML format und displayed in the web browser with the help of an eXist database. There are three different viewing options. The reading version is suited to today’s use of language and grants a broad public direct access to the documents. In addition, the user has the possibility to view the literal transcription of the shorthand Gabelsberger. Apart from that, it is possible to have a look at the digital copies of the diary entries and the supplementary sheets. In parallel view two of these versions can be collated respectively.
Biographical information is offered on all of the individuals named in the diary entries and the supplementary sheets; if possible, they are indexed by norm data or automatically linked with other online resources such as biographical encyclopedia or library catalogs.

Database access