Heinrich Fichtenau

Who was Heinrich Fichtenau?

Heinrich von Fichtenau was an Austrian medievalist best known for his studies of medieval diplomatics, social, and intellectual history. He spent his academic career at the University of Vienna and from 1962 to 1983 served as director of the Institut für österreichische Geschichtsforschung. He remains one of the few Austrian medieval scholars whose work has been translated into English and enjoyed a broad reception in Anglophone academia.

As a young scholar after World War II, Fichtenau published a short treatment of the Carolingian Empire which drew sharp criticism from German academics, but found more favorable reception in the U.S. and Great Britain. Fichtenau attempted to demythologize Charlemagne's achievements and draw out many of the contradictions of his reign and the fundamental instabilities within the empire he created. Written in post-war Vienna, the book was a frank, if understandably cynical, take on historical narratives of the early Middle Ages which celebrated power, conquest, and the idealized image of a pan-European political entity.