Below divided his study of Max Lenz into three large sections. He has "a general appreciation of the medieval emperor
politics", discusses the individual emperors until Konrad II in the second part. and finishes the work with the policies of Friedrich I. George von Below discusses first the publications that have come out since his book "German realm politics once and now." He emphasizes the influence and the tradition of the old
empire and criticizes that neither of the defenders of the Italian empire politics is made legitimate. According to his opinion it is aloud for the
history writer to pass a judgement upon the
policy of the men of the past. Therefore he also
sees his blame at the medieval German emperors justified. Below’s method is the transmission of modern concepts of justice on the Middle Ages, whereby he tries to prove the old German empire as a state. Reason for that are his national thoughts in connection with the French-German war, whose procedures he accompanied with most intimate feelings. He rejected evolutionary patterns or causalities. Below sees the upswing of the German kingdom justified in the fact that Heinrich I was in the possession of a strong master duchy, while his predecessor had possessed only a title of duke. By it he tries to disprove the thesis that the German domestic policy goes back to the Italian policy of Otto I. According to Below Otto’s Italian politics isn’t justified in its strength, but in the increasing attenuation of the realm. Otto II felt the negative effects, the rule of Otto III is for Below the faithful image of the impracticability of the Italian politics. Below deals with the time of Salier relatively briefly. The acquisition of Burgund, the
imperial position towards the church reform and the fight between the emperor and the senate are seen as the most important points. Below sees a new upswing of the German imperial politics with the accession of Friedrich I. He compares Barbarossa with Heinrich I and comes in the end to a conclusion that neither man leads a fight against the strongest power in the realm like their predecessors but instead make pacts with it. The alliance of a group of princes and the
historical meaning of the imperial concessions to the princes are discussed in detail on the documentary material from the years 1156-1180. Below lets a short history of the imperial department follow after he has dealt with the development of the episcopacy. Afterwards an emphasis is again on the historical meaning of the concessions because of the princes. Below wanted to determine the state consciousness. Finally Below criticizes the total analysis of Friedrich’s history with newer researchers and states a lack of any political-historical view. In his investigation Below comes to the conclusion that the medieval imperial politics proved to be unproductive. Below derives his theories mainly from sources of justice. Gaps due to absence of source material are projected to a certain extent "." In those cases Below leans to the philosophy of the positivism, which limits his research as well known to the actual, real one and undoubted one. In "his" history humans with his individual strengths and weaknesses do not arise, but in the center always territorial terms stand such as state, city and country, whereby a special weight is put on the respective condition and administration. Also a reason for that is the one-sided use of sources, which in the case of the "Italian imperial politics" are based mainly upon the evaluated documentary material. Contemporary chronicles, annals, self certifications, literature in general of the "telling" character are excluded. Thus the realization that the possibility of identification is only small explains why George von Below who stands among the most widely read historians does not rank at the top of our view, but his work stands in the shade. Nevertheless Below works as name, as epitome of the contentious historian without prejudice at the tturn of the 19th century.
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