Johann Nepomuk Sepp was born in
Bad Tölz,
Bavaria, to a tanner and dyer, Josef Bernhard Sepp and his wife Maria Victoria Oefele. He studied philosophy and Catholic theology, law, philology and history in
Munich, 1834–1836 and 1837–1839. In 1836, he interrupted his university studies for a trip to Switzerland and Italy, after which he entered the
Gregorianum seminary in Munich. In 1839, he was awarded a
Ph.D., and established himself as a private scholar in Bad Tölz. From 1844 to 1846, he taught as lecturer at the
University of Munich. After he had traveled to Syria, Palestine and Egypt in 1845 and 1846, he was appointed assistant professor in Munich in 1846, but was dismissed in 1847, along with seven of his colleagues, as a result of their involvement in opposition to the elevation of
Lola Montez, mistress of
Ludwig I of Bavaria, to the nobility. Sepp had his teaching qualification withdrawn and was banished from the Bavarian capital. In 1848, he was elected to the
Frankfurt National Assembly, and in 1849 to the Bavarian Chamber of Representatives. In 1850, after the resignation of King
Ludwig I of Bavaria, Sepp was rehabilitated, and in 1850–1864 and 1864–1867 was associate professor of history in Munich. In 1861 he bought the partially destroyed
Wessobrunn Abbey, which was then being used as a quarry, in order to preserve it for posterity. in the ruins of the Cathedral of Tyre, 1874 , Lebanon, drawn by Sepp in 1879 Sepp retired suddenly in December 1867 "for personal reasons". He was appointed to the in
1868, and in 1869 again elected to the Bavarian Chamber, where he was one of the most influential representatives of the German national cause during the critical period between 1870 and 1871. In 1872, he undertook a new journey to Palestine on behalf of the new German Empire. In 1874, Sepp went to
Tyre, Lebanon to excavate the remains of
Frederick Barbarossa buried in a
cathedral there, during the reign of German Emperor
Wilhelm I. Sepp was highly literate and a capable publicist. He was sometimes prone to original and idiosyncratic interpretations of history, so was respectfully nicknamed by colleagues "
die umgestürzte Bücherkiste" ("the overturned bookcase"). His final major work, his contribution to German folklore, appeared in 1890: "The Religion of the Ancient Germans. Their continued existence in folk tales, processions and festivities to the present". This was a kind of view in hindsight, a compressed, comparative survey of a lifetime of accumulated and processed historical anthropological and religious knowledge; like most of his works, it has not enjoyed a new edition. Still frequently cited today is his study of the myths, legends, customs and manners of Bavaria, the
Altbayerischer Sagenschatz of 1876. This work, although heavily compressed and eclectic, attempted an overview of the mythology of Bavaria, with literary references. Sepp also published under the pseudonym "Eusebius Amort der Jüngere". From the 1830s Sepp belonged to the circle of
Joseph Görres in Munich. In 1847, he was also founder of the
Akademische Tafelrunde in Munich. While in the Frankfurt National Assembly he belonged to the Catholic Club, and from 1849 to 1856 to the "Society for Constitutional Monarchy and Religious Freedom in Munich", whose spokesman he was at times. Johann Nepomuk Sepp was buried in the
Alter Südfriedhof in Munich. His tombstone has been preserved. His son, Bernhard Sepp, was also a historian. == Selected works ==