Heinrich Schrörs

Who is Heinrich Schrörs?

Johann Heinrich Schrörs was a German Catholic church historian.

He studied theology in Bonn, Würzburg and Innsbruck, where he was a student of Josef Jungmann. In 1877 he was ordained as priest in Innsbruck, and in 1885 became a professor of canon law at Freiburg im Breisgau. During the following year, with encouragement from Friedrich Althoff, he attained the chair of church history at the University of Bonn. At Bonn he served as university dean on five different occasions.

In 1887 he founded one of the first church history seminars in Germany, also building a well-equipped Seminarbibliothek. Schrörs was devoted to higher education policy issues, especially in regards to his insistence on the principle of scientific education for theologians. His views on education led to years of open conflict with the Archdiocese of Cologne.