Albert Krantz
German historian
Albert Krantz (c. 1450 – December 7, 1517), German historian, was a native of Hamburg. He studied law, theology and history at Rostock and Cologne, and after travelling through western and southern Europe was appointed professor, first of philosophy and subsequently of theology, in the University of Rostock, of which he was rector in 1482.
In 1493 he returned to Hamburg as theological lecturer, canon and prebendary in St. Mary's Cathedral. By the Senate of Hamburg he was employed on more than one diplomatic mission abroad, and in 1500 he was chosen by the king of Denmark and the duke of Holstein as arbiter in their dispute regarding the province of Dithmarschen. As dean of the cathedral chapter, to which office he was appointed in 1508, Krantz applied himself with zeal to the reform of ecclesiastical abuses, but, though opposed to various corruptions connected with church discipline, he had little sympathy with the drastic measures of Wycliffe or Huss. With Martin Luther's protest against the abuse of Indulgences he was in general sympathy, but with the reformer's later attitude he could not agree. When, on his death-bed, he heard of the Ninety-five Theses, he is said, on good authority, to have exclaimed: "Brother, Brother, go into thy cell and say, God have mercy upon me!" Krantz died on December 7, 1517.
Krantz was the author of a number of historical works which for the period when they were written are characterized by exceptional impartiality and research. The principal of these are Chronica regnorum aquilonarium Daniae, Sueciae, et Noruagiae (Strassburg, 1546); Vandalia, sive Historia de Vandalorum vera origine, etc.
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The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as german historian. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q70026. VIAF identifies the subject as 73758808. The Library of Congress control number is nr97010517. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1450, 1517, 1482 and 1493.
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This entry incorporates text from “Albert Krantz” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.