Entstehung und Aufnahme eines Meilensteins der Mediävistik: Herbert Grundmanns Monographie „Religiöse Bewegungen im Mittelalter" von 1935.

Herbert Grundmann's seminal study „Religious Movements in the Middle Ages" appeared in Nazi Germany in 1935, but was drafted and written before 1933 when the text was submitted to Leipzig University as Grundmann's Habilitationsschrift. The paper traces his career alongside the fate of his famous book based on archival evidence, mainly from the Grundmann papers at the archives of Leipzig University and from files of NSDAP organisations at the Federal archives in Berlin. Grundmann developed the framework of his studies on the common grounds of heresy and orthodoxy step by step, inspired by travels to Italy and France. He had a hard time finding a press for his thick book and then faced a lacklustre reception in German reviews, whereas foreign reviewers were more enthusiastic. In dire economic straits and publicly bullied by a fanatic Nazi scholar, Grundmann applied for party membership in 1937. It was only several years after the war that he returned to his research on the religious movements and received due praise for his work at home and abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]