Hohenbaum van der Meer, Moritz
HOHENBAUM VAN DER MEER, MORITZ
Benedictine historian; b. Spörl, near Belgrade, June 25, 1718; d. Abbey of Rheinau, near Schaffhausen, Switzerland, Dec. 18, 1795. He had been a student at Rheinau since 1730 when he was professed there in 1734; he was ordained in 1741, became professor in 1744, and served as prior of the abbey from 1758 to 1794. From 1759 until his death he was monastic archivist, and during the last 19 years of his life he functioned as secretary of the Swiss Benedictine Congregation. Besides several theological works he wrote a great number of historical treatises, mostly about his abbey, the Benedictine Order, and Switzerland. Without personal contact with the maurists, he nevertheless followed their historical method, stressing, however, the actual writing of history rather than historical research. One Swiss scholar considered him the "Swiss mabillon."
Bibliography: g. mayer, "Leben und Schriften des Pater Moriz Hohenbaum van der Meer," Freiburger Diöcesan Archiv 11 (1877) 1–34. g. pfeilschifter, Die St. Blasianische Germania Sacra (Munich 1921). g. heer, Johannes Mabillon und die Schweizer Benediktiner (St. Gallen 1938); Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 5:428.
[o. l. kapsner]