Josef Joachim Menzel

Josef Joachim Menzel (born 19 June 1933 in Miłowice, Opole Voivodeship, died 29 August 2020 in Mainz) was a German historian.

He was born on June 19, 1933, in Mühlsdorf near Neustadt, Germany (nowadays Miłowice, Opole Voivodeship, Poland).[1] After 1945 he lived with his family in Münsterland.[2] He graduated from high school in Recklinghausen, then he studied history, classical philology and German at the University of Münster and Heidelberg University.[2] Later Menzel worked at the Institut für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung.[2] He obtained his PhD in 1962.[2]

In 1966 he moved to Mainz, where he worked as an assistant of Ludwig Petry.[2] He passed his habilitation in 1970. The topic of his habilitation thesis was Die schlesischen Lokationsurkunden des 13. Jahrhunderts.[2] He became an adjunct professor in 1972 and university professor in 1978.[2] Menzel taught medieval history and historical auxiliary sciences at the University of Mainz until 1998.[2]

The spectrum of his research included the history of the Merovingians, the Hanseatic League, the emergence of the Swiss Confederation and history of Silesia.[2] He was editor or co-editor of Schlesischen Urkundenbuches, the three-volume Geschichte Schlesiens, Schlesischen Lebensbilder and the Jahrbuchs der Schlesischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Breslau.[2]

He died on August 29, 2020, in Mainz.[1]