# Ernst Kossmann > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Ernst_Kossmann > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Ernst_Kossmann.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Kossmann > Source revision: 1328745678 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Dutch historian (1922–2003) **Ernst Heinrich Kossmann** (31 January 1922 – 8 November 2003), often named as **E. H. Kossmann** in his books, was a Dutch historian. He was professor of [Modern History](/source/Modern_History) at the [University of Groningen](/source/University_of_Groningen) in the Netherlands. His magnum opus is *The Low Countries. History of the Southern and Northern Netherlands.* ## Life and work Born in [Leiden](/source/Leiden), Kossmann was the son of the erudite librarian F. H. Kossmann. He had two brothers. His twin brother [Alfred](/source/Alfred_Kossmann) became a writer; his younger brother, Bernhard, played the violin professionally. The Kossmann family was of Jewish descent and they came from Germany before they settled in the Netherlands. Kossmann attended the [Gymnasium Erasmianum](/source/Gymnasium_Erasmianum) in Rotterdam. The [Second World War](/source/World_War_II) meant an interruption of his education. He was arrested during a raid, was sent to [Vught concentration camp](/source/Herzogenbusch_concentration_camp), and had to work for two-and-a-half years in Germany, together with his twin brother Alfred. The latter wrote a novel, *De Nederlaag* (The Defeat), that was based on their experiences during the war. After the war he studied history at [Leiden University](/source/Leiden_University) in the Netherlands. He graduated in 1950 and in the same year married his fellow student Johanna Putto. After their marriage the couple went to Paris. In 1954 Kossmann obtained his Ph.D. from Leiden University, with a doctoral thesis entitled [*La Fronde*](/source/Fronde). In 1957 he went to London as professor of Dutch history and Institutions. In 1962 he became professor at the [University College London](/source/University_College_London). In 1966 he became professor of modern history at the University of Groningen. In 1981 he delivered his [Huizinga Lecture](/source/Huizinga_Lecture) in the [Pieterskerk](/source/Pieterskerk%2C_Leiden) in Leiden. He retired as professor in 1987 and died in Groningen in 2003. Kossmann was considered a writer with a refined style, and an erudite scholar. His intellectual outlook was sceptical, ironical, detached. He published several books in collaboration with his wife Johanna Kossmann-Putto. In an interview in 2007, his former student [Frank Ankersmit](/source/Frank_Ankersmit) gives a description of him: He had an unusually strong and fascinating personality -- I never met anyone even remotely coming close to what he was like. Just to give you an idea: he was all that one might associate with [François Guizot](/source/Fran%C3%A7ois_Guizot), very much aloof, very intelligent, both impossible to get close to and yet very much accessible and blessed with the rhetorical powers of a Pericles. If he had decided for a political career, the recent history of my country would have been completely different from what it is now. It rarely happened, but if he really felt that this was necessary he could raise a rhetorical storm blowing away everything and everybody. Indeed, when thinking of him, I never am sure what impressed me most, his scholarship or his personality. He was a truly wonderful man.[1] Kossmann became member of the [Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences](/source/Royal_Netherlands_Academy_of_Arts_and_Sciences) in 1961 and resigned in 1966. He joined again as member in 1973.[2] ## Bibliography (selection) - *La Fronde* (doctoral thesis). Leiden: Universitaire Pers, 1954 (In French) - *In Praise of the Dutch Republic. Some seventeenth-century attitudes* (inaugural lecture University College London). London: Lewis 1963 - *The Low Countries: 1780-1940* ([Oxford History of Modern Europe](/source/Oxford_History_of_Modern_Europe)). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978, 790 pp. - *The Low Countries. History of the Southern and Northern Netherlands*. Rekkem: Flemish-Netherlands Foundation Ons Erfdeel, 1987 (written by Dr. E.H. Kossmannn and Dr. J.A. Kossmann-Putto) - *Political thought in the Dutch Republic. Three Studies*. Amsterdam: KNAW, 2000 - *Over conservatisme* [On Conservatism], Amsterdam: Athenaeum Polak & Van Gennep, 1981 ([Huizinga Lecture](/source/Huizinga_Lecture) of 1980) ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Sublime Experience and Politics, Rethinking History, vol 11, no 2, June 2007, p. 263. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** ["E.H. Kossmann (1922 - 2003)"](http://www.dwc.knaw.nl/biografie/pmknaw/?pagetype=authorDetail&aId=PE00001369). Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 28 July 2015. ## Sources - [H.L. Wesseling](/source/Henk_Wesseling), ['Ernst Heinrich Kossmann, Leiden 31 januari 1922 - Groningen 8 november 2003'](http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_jaa004200401_01/_jaa004200401_01_0011.php), *Jaarboek van de Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde 2004*, p. 106-125 (in Dutch). - [File Ernst Kossmann](http://www.dbnl.org/auteurs/auteur.php?id=koss002) in the Digital Library of Dutch Literature (DBNL), including online versions of some of his books. Authority control databases International ISNI VIAF GND FAST WorldCat National United States France BnF data Italy Czech Republic Netherlands Norway Sweden Poland Vatican Israel Catalonia Belgium Croatia Academics CiNii People Netherlands Trove Deutsche Biographie DDB Other IdRef Open Library Yale LUX --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Ernst Kossmann](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Kossmann) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Kossmann?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.