Francia. Forschungen zur westeuropäischen Geschichte 
Herausgegeben vom Deutschen Historischen Institut Paris 
(Institut historique allemand)
Band 34/1 (2007)

DOI: 10.11588/fr.2007.1.49700

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décret de Gratien, les sources suggérant l’hostilité envers les vagabonds qui seraient aptes au
travail ou envers les pauvres infâmes sont nombreuses. Le second excursus constitue
presque un article à part entière, et se concentre sur les principes et les modalités de la domi-
nation des potentes sur les pauperes. Ce volume est passionnant. On est tenté de le comparer
aux travaux effectués dans les années soixante-dix sous la direction de Michel Mollat, mais
son propos est plus limité – il faut accepter l’absence presque totale du monde rural et la très
forte surreprésentation du Moyen Âge tardif – et les problématiques différentes, même si ça
et là le lecteur peut avoir des impressions de déjà-vu. Surtout, l’accent mis dans les contribu-
tions sur les représentations de la pauvreté lui donne une vraie cohérence.

Olivier Richard, Strasbourg

Martin Kaufhold, Wendepunkte des Mittelalters. Von der Kaiserkrönung Karls des
Großen bis zur Entdeckung Amerikas, Ostfildern (Jan Thorbecke) 2004, 221 p., ISBN 3-
7995-0144-4, EUR 24,90.

This is an attractive book in several respects. It looks good, it feels good, and it is
enlivened by 29 plates in colour, a number of which were new to the reviewer. It is also an
old-fashioned book, for each of its 31 short chapters tells a story about persons and events,
and about the changes which they brought about or caused to be brought about in Europe
of the Middle Ages. These are the »turning points« of the title. M. Kaufhold raises his hat to
the Annales School of historical research and writing, but he makes no excuse for his
approach in this book. In the spirit of Lawrence Stone’s essay on narrative he believes (p. 9)
that drama can have an enlivening effect on historical writing, and that historians of each
generation should spend a little time reconsidering the classics of their chosen subject.
Hopefully, many students of history, including those whose undergraduate days lie far
behind them, will agree with him.

The 31 turning points are the author’s personal choice, so there is no arguing about that.
The principal figures are well known. Charlemagne, Urban II and the First Crusade,
Abelard and Heloise, Francis of Assisi, Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, Marco Polo, Joan of
Arc, Gutenberg and Christopher Columbus are represented, and many more besides.
Events include Becket’s murder, the battle of Crecy, introduction of the Florin, the Black
Death. Areas of human activity are politics, religion, law, arts and crafts, economy, technol-
ogy and travel. But there are chapters on less well known persons and events. Every history
has its pre-history, and so 1066 and all that, so well known to Anglo-Saxon readers, was
preceded, according to the story, by the Treaty of St Clair-sur-Epte in 911 when, following
a military defeat, the heathen Vikings and Norsemen started to change into christian Nor-
mans. We can read here what followed from that. The chapter on the cathedral of Lund
(anno 1103) in Sweden addresses the related question of how the Scandinavian countries
were christianized. Not by missionaries sent to them from elsewhere, but by the Nordic
peoples’ own inclinations and efforts. Christianisation was a home grown process of assim-
ilation. The chapters, averaging uniformly about 7 pages in length, open with a title and a
summary containing the essential point(s) which the author intends to make. The summary
is followed by a shorter or longer table of dates which place the main event, the turning
point of the book’s title, within a chronology of related events. A presentation of the main
event together with its pre-history is followed by analysis and the author’s interpretation of
its significance. Nice touches to the narrative lie in details. Why, we may ask, were there
medieval kingdoms of France and of England but no medieval kingdom of Germany?
Because the »national uncertainty« (»nationale Unbestimmtheit«, p. 28) of the rulers of
Germany in the Middle Ages was occasioned by the crowning of Otto the Great in 962 as
King of the Romans (Rex Romanorum), and from then on by harking back to Italy and

Kaufhold: Wendepunkte des Mittelalters 261

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imperial glory. Occasional remarks and reminders link a topic to an earlier one without
there being an explicit system of cross reference. The effect is not only to inform but to pro-
voke the reader to reflection and thought. The book ends with a section which lists primary
sources for each chapter, and some selected secondary literature up to 2003.

This is a book for those who enjoy a good story, especially when much of it is true. With
a little imagination on the reader’s part, how near some of it appears to our own time.
Kaufholds’ language is temperate enough when he retells the story of a 40 years old teacher
who seduces his 16 years old pupil. This is not from yesterday’s tabloid headline, but the
tragic life of Peter Abelard a thousand years ago. Conversely, a cardinal declares himself
unworthy to be elected pope. Not some medieval prelate prostrating himself before the
altar, but pope Benedict XVI on the eve of his election in 2005. And may readers not com-
pare the travels of pope John Paul II in the 20th century to those of Leo IX (p. 32) in the
11th?

The book’s origins lie in lectures which the author gave at Heidelberg and Augsburg, and
one of its strengths is reflected in this. There is a feeling which hearing a good lecture radi-
ates when the speaker sensibly follows the recipe: »tell them what you are going to tell
them, tell it, and then tell them what you have told them«. Apropos: writing on the Black
Death, Kaufhold points out that, besides the huge loss of human life that it caused, there
was also a parallel loss of orally transmitted knowledge (p. 165), in an age where writing was
limited to only small sections of society and their interests. The style is descriptive, factual,
sober, and almost detached, but not wholly. An engaging feature is the way in which the
author presents the principal actors, their motives and their emotions. An example, touched
on above, is the story of Heloise and Abelard who in their own writings provide us with lit-
erary evidence for the psychological dimension in social life. Again using a little imagina-
tion, one is tempted to compare the characters of Heloise and Joan of Arc, their strengths of
opinion, despite or because of their different stations in life. Who could fail to be moved
with sympathy for Joan on seeing Fauquembergue’s crude but contemporary pen drawing
on p. 191?

A point which invites criticism, however, is the author’s use and then gradual weakening
of his own chosen term »turning point«. Becket’s murder is not a turning point but rather a
»milestone« (»Wegmarke«, p. 86). However, the introduction of the Florin in the year 1252
had all the criteria of a »real« turning point (»wirkliche Wende«, p. 124). But, increasingly,
the concept of a turning point becomes dissolved (»zunehmend aufgelöst«, p. 197), when
faced with the immensity of the Renaissance. Historians, clearly, have a problem with the
idea of a turning point. In view of the many subjects which have a place in the book, includ-
ing church art and architecture, it is regrettable that there was no place for Western music.
Guido and Pérotin are absent, although the influence of their discoveries and creations,
especially Guido’s notation, is increasing throughout the modern world. But there is hope.
The author indicated that the list of topics was not closed. A subsequent edition will be an
opportunity to include them and their music, and to correct some misprints on p. 9, 86 and
91 (Constitutions), 198 and 202. It is also to be hoped that a register of names and places will
be included. This book is recommended not only to interested lay persons, but to History
undergraduates who may be encouraged to explore the primary sources as a first essential
step towards their own original researches.

James P. Ward, Vlaardingen

Rezensionen262

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