Peter Herde (Born 5 February 1933) is a German historian. His research activities range from fundamental work on papal diplomatics of the Middle Ages to the history of the country up to the Second World War. Life Herd was born in 1933 in Racibórz, Upper Silesia. He was the son of deputy headmaster Reinhard Herde and Hildegard Herde. He spent his childhood and the first years of his youth in Ratibor. Since autumn 1943 he attended the Realgymnasium Ratibor. The family fled from the Red Army at the end of January 1945 and found their new home in Arnsberg. In Neheim-Hüsten he passed his Abitur in 1953. In the summer semester of 1953 he began studying physics and mathematics at the University of Heidelberg. Fritz Ernst aroused Herde's interest in history through his lectures. In 1954 Herde went to the University of Munich to study history, German and English literature. Through Friedrich Baethgen, Herde turned to the history of the pope and the empire of the late Middle Ages. Bernhard Bischoff gave him an understanding of palaeography, the history of Medieval Latin literature and Manuscript Studies. Through Peter Acht he began to deal with the papal documents of the 13th century. In 1958, under the supervision of Peter Acht, he was awarded a doctorate in philosophy in Munich with the thesis Contributions to papal chancery and documents in the 13th century. The dissertation became a standard in the history of the papal chancellery and diplomacy. The work appeared in 1967 in a second, considerably extended edition. One year after his doctorate, Herde's first scientific essay Gestaltung und Krisis christlich-jüdischen Verhältnisses in Regensburg am Ende des Mittelalters was published. The essay was a result of his work on the edition of the documents and records on the history of the Jews in Regensburg. From 1960 to 1962 he worked at the German Historical Institute in Rome. The director Walther Holtzmann exerted a great influence on him. In Rome he established friendly relations with Hermann Goldbrunner, Dieter Girgensohn, Norbert Kamp, Arnold Esch, Rudolf Hiestand and Rupert Hacker. His habilitation dealt with the Formularium audientie litterarum contradictarum. After his habilitation in 1965 – also with Peter Acht – he worked as a lecturer in Munich. Already in 1968, at the age of 35, he was appointed full professor for middle and modern history at the University of Frankfurt. He took up the position