Saxon Biography
Editor-in-chief: Joachim Schneider
Editors: Frank Metasch, Henrik Schwanitz
The “Saxon Biography” collects data of individuals who were active in the Mark Meissen, in the Electorate of Saxony resp. in the Kingdom and until the Free State of Saxony of today. Eminent personalities from all areas of life (politics, economy, science, technology, arts etc.), from the Middle Ages to present, are taken into consideration. Embedded between the great national biographical dictionaries and the biographical handbooks of other federal states, as well as other regional and local manuals, the “Saxon Biography” incorporates persons who may be less prominent, but have been of supra-local importance nevertheless. Since 1999, the editors collected data of about 12.000 persons that played a significant role in Saxony.
Since June 2005, the biographical dictionary is online available. The “Saxon Biography” is open to supplements, and, using new information technologies, aims at an intensive mutual communication. In this way, the editors intend to facilitate the communication of data and dictionary articles to the users, and at the same time, they hope for impulses and suggestions of potential authors of further biographies.
In addition the publication as printed volumes is considered, with one about librarians from Dresden already published in 2014. In the course of the next years, it is planned to publish singular volumes with biographies on certain particular topical and temporal aspects. In this way, we hope to engage interest in the complete project of the “Saxon Biography”.
Saxon Biography – website – saebi.isgv.de
The “Saxon Biography” - the online dictionary on Saxon history - offers information on more than 12 000 significant personalities from the Middle Ages to the Free State of Saxony of today. Next to a database, that provides exhaustive research opportunities, a permanently growing number of dictionary articles on personalities from all areas of life can be accessed, on science and arts, politics and administration, economy and technology, trade and transport, school, church, and social life. Clicking on the icon leads you directly to the “Saxon Biography”.
Since May 2012, the articles of the “Saxon Biography” can also be accessed through the European „Biographie-Portal“.
This project is a cooperation between the “Bayerische Staatsbibliothek” (Bavarian State Library), the “Historische Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften” (Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences), the “Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften” (Austrian Academy of the Sciences and the “Stiftung Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz” (Foundation Historical Dictionary of Switzerland). With the aid of a shared register, more than 100.000 scientifically founded biographies from almost all social areas and historical epochs have become accessible. In future, the “Biography Portal” will be complemented with further national and regional biographical dictionaries from all over Europe.