Background
David was born in Olsztyn (Allenstein) in Poland).
David was born in Olsztyn (Allenstein) in Poland).
He studied at the University of Leipzig, where he also received a Magister degree.
1550 on compiled extensive volumes on Prussian history. After Giese received the Diocese of Warmia, David joined the ducal court of Albert, Duke of Prussia, in Königsberg (Królewiec) in 1549, taking his oath on March 26, 1550. Albert commissioned a work on the history of Prussia, mainly to counter the - in his view - biased Polish and Catholic works.
However, he was only able to produce a recent history of Prussia before he died.
Hence David researched documents of Prussian history, and started to write his Prussian Chronicles ("Preußische Chronik") from ca. 1575. While David utilized large parts of the work of Simon Grunau, he also frequently corrected errors by Grunau.
David married a wealthy widow in Leipzig. He instituted scholarships at the University of Leipzig, mainly for poor students from his hometown.
Before David was able to complete his chronicles, he died at Königsberg in 1583 at the age of 80.
Since then he has become well known past the borders of his homeland for these Prussian Chronicles. He is ranked as a "modern" historian, as he based his studies on historic sources. The Prussica-Sammlung Trunz started by another Allenstein native, Doctor August Trunz (1875-1963), contains works by David.
lieutenant is housed in the library of the University of Münster.
West. A. East. H. 537.