Max Lenz

After graduating from school, he studied history and classical philology under Heinrich von Sybel for three semesters in Bonn.

In the following year he started working for the secret state archives in Marburg with the duty of editing the correspondence of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse.

A supporter of the methodology of Leopold von Ranke, Lenz advocated complete objectivity and neutrality in the study of history.

During the Methodenstreit, an intellectual controversy over the way academic enquiry is framed, he was a bitter opponent of Karl Gottfried Lamprecht.

In Berlin, Lenz continued to study the Reformation, publishing works about Gustav Adolf and Albrecht von Wallenstein, but he also started devoting his attention to other epochs, such as the French Revolution, the Napoleonic era, and the early German Empire.