Hermann Heimpel: atypical biography of a German historian

The article is focused on the life and work of a prominent German historian of the Middle Ages, Hermann Heimpel (1901-1988). He had welcomed the Nazis in power with enthusiasm and had worked on the history of Medieval Reich, which he saw as a prototype of the 'Third Reich'. After the World War II Heimpel, alone among other historians, admitted the errors of the German way and of his own behaviour.