Sir Alfred Eckhard Zimmern (26 January 1879–24 November 1957) was an English
classical scholar
Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
, historian, and political scientist writing on international relations. A British policymaker during World War I and a prominent
liberal
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Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
thinker, Zimmern played an important role in drafting the blueprint for what would become the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...
.
He was the inaugural Woodrow Wilson Chair of International Politics at
Aberystwyth University
, mottoeng = A world without knowledge is no world at all
, established = 1872 (as ''The University College of Wales'')
, former_names = University of Wales, Aberystwyth
, type = Public
, endowment = ...
.
His book ''The Third British Empire'' was among the first to apply the expression "
British Commonwealth
The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the Co ...
" to the
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
. He was a prominent
liberal internationalist
Liberal internationalism is a foreign policy doctrine that argues two main points: first, that international organizations should achieve multilateral agreements between states that uphold rules-based norms and promote liberal democracy, and, s ...
. He was also credited with coining the phrase "
welfare state
A welfare state is a form of government in which the state (or a well-established network of social institutions) protects and promotes the economic and social well-being of its citizens, based upon the principles of equal opportunity, equitabl ...
", which was made popular a few years later by
William Temple.
Early life and background
Zimmern was born on 26 January 1879 in
Surbiton
Surbiton is a suburban neighbourhood in South West London, within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames (RBK). It is next to the River Thames, southwest of Charing Cross. Surbiton was in the historic county of Surrey and since 1965 it has ...
, Surrey, UK. He was raised in a cosmopolitan, upper-middle class family.
He was Huguenot on one side and German-Jewish on the other.
His mother was Mathilde Eckhard. His father, Adolphus Hermann Christian Anton Zimmern, was a naturalised British citizen, born in Germany. Adolphus Zimmern was also the patriarch of a prominent Eurasian family in Hong Kong. Judge Archie Zimmern and former Hong Kong Stock Exchange chairman Francis Zimmern were both his nephews. The writers, translators and suffragettes
Helen Zimmern
Helen Zimmern (25 March 1846 – 11 January 1934) was a naturalised British writer and translator born in Germany. She was instrumental in making European culture more accessible in English.
Biography
Zimmern and her parents emigrated in 1850 t ...
and
Alice Zimmern
Alice Louisa Theodora Zimmern (22 September 1855 – 22 March 1939) was an English writer, translator and suffragist. Her books made a significant contribution to debate on the education and rights of women.
Early years and education
Zimmern wa ...
were his cousins.
Alfred was brought up a Christian and later an active participant in the
World Council of Churches
The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most juri ...
. Later in life he became a supporter of Zionism. He was educated at
Winchester College
Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of the ...
, and read classics at
New College, Oxford
New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at th ...
, where he won the
Stanhope essay prize
The Stanhope essay prize was an undergraduate history essay prize created at Balliol College, Oxford, by Philip Henry Stanhope, 5th Earl Stanhope in 1855.
Notable winners
Notable Stanhope Prize winners:
* John Richard Magrath, 1860
* Francis J ...
in 1902.
At
Berlin University
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...
, he came under the influence of
Wilamowitz
Enno Friedrich Wichard Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (22 December 1848 – 25 September 1931) was a German classical philologist. Wilamowitz, as he is known in scholarly circles, was a renowned authority on Ancient Greece and its literature ...
and Meyer.
Academic career
Zimmern was educated at New College, Oxford; he obtained a First in Classical Moderations in 1900, followed by a First in Literae Humaniores ('Greats', a combination of philosophy and ancient history) in 1902. He was appointed Lecturer in Ancient History, New College, Oxford (1903), and Fellow and tutor, New College (1904–1909). He authored ''The Greek Commonwealth'' in 1911 where he characterized the rise of Athens as a positive for its neighbors and the Athenian Empire as an empire of freedom.
Later he was a staff inspector at the Board of Education (1912–1915) and a member of the
Political Intelligence Department of the Foreign Office (1918–1919).
He became the inaugural Woodrow Wilson Chair of International Politics and the first Professor of International Politics (also known as International Relations) in the world, at
Aberystwyth University
, mottoeng = A world without knowledge is no world at all
, established = 1872 (as ''The University College of Wales'')
, former_names = University of Wales, Aberystwyth
, type = Public
, endowment = ...
(1919–1921).
The endowment for the Woodrow Wilson Chair was announced in 1918 and Zimmern began work in the position in April 1919. After leaving
Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth () is a university and seaside town as well as a community in Ceredigion, Wales. Located in the historic county of Cardiganshire, means "the mouth of the Ystwyth". Aberystwyth University has been a major educational location in ...
, he taught at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
in 1922 and 1923.
He was the inaugural
Montague Burton Professor of International Relations
The Montague Burton Professorship of International Relations is a named chair at the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics and Political Science. Created by the endowment of Montague Burton in UK universities, the Oxford chair ...
, Oxford University (1930–1944),
and co-founder of the
Royal Institute of International Affairs
Royal may refer to:
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(1919). He was a member of the
Round Table Group (1913–1923)
and later provided the
insider
''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German publ ...
source of information for
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...
professor
Carroll Quigley
Carroll Quigley (; November 9, 1910 – January 3, 1977) was an American historian and theorist of the evolution of civilizations. He is remembered for his teaching work as a professor at Georgetown University, and for his writing about g ...
.
Zimmern was a proponent of a British Commonwealth, arguing that it could evolve and adapt to shifting circumstances and changing perspectives among its members.
Zimmern founded the League of Nations Society in 1917. In 1918, he was appointed as head of a section in the British Foreign Office to think through the establishment of an international organization for peace.
Zimmern drafted the blueprint of what would become the League of Nations: a regular conference system with a permanent secretariat and open to universal membership.
Zimmern was skeptical of Wilsonian guarantees for national self-determination, warning against fixing state boundaries too rigidly and warning against making the League responsible for protecting minority rights.
He argued for placing the supervision of Africa under an international commission.
Zimmern opposed the creation of a democratic powerful World State, arguing that it was too mechanistic, impractical, and prone to tyranny.
Zimmern also opposed a loose and informal concert system.
Internationalism
Zimmern is an influential proponent of
liberal internationalism
Liberal internationalism is a foreign policy doctrine that argues two main points: first, that international organizations should achieve multilateral agreements between states that uphold rules-based norms and promote liberal democracy, and, se ...
. By critics, Zimmern was described as a
utopian
A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia'', describing a fictional island society ...
and
idealist
In philosophy, the term idealism identifies and describes metaphysical perspectives which assert that reality is indistinguishable and inseparable from perception and understanding; that reality is a mental construct closely connected to ide ...
thinker on
international relations
International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such as ...
. He is cited often, in this perspective, in
E. H. Carr
Edward Hallett Carr (28 June 1892 – 3 November 1982) was a British historian, diplomat, journalist and international relations theorist, and an opponent of empiricism within historiography. Carr was best known for '' A History of Soviet Rus ...
's ''The Twenty Years' Crisis'' (1939); Carr and Zimmern are characterised as being "at opposite ends of the theoretical and political spectrum".
Zimmern contributed to the founding of the
League of Nations Society The League of Nations Society was a political group devoted to campaigning for an international organisation of nations, with the aim of preventing war.
The society was founded in 1915 by Baron Courtney and Willoughby Dickinson, both members of t ...
and of
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
.
He was Deputy Director of the League's
Institute for Intellectual Co-operation, in Paris, in the mid-1920s;
after tension with the Director, the French historian
Julien Luchaire
Julien may refer to:
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* ''Julien'' (album), by Dalida, 1973
* "Julien" (song), by Carly Rae Jepsen, 2019
Places Un ...
, both left. He was nominated in 1947 for the
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...
,
Nomination database
/ref> in connection with his UNESCO work.
Zimmern joined the British Labour Party
The Labour Party is a List of political parties in the United Kingdom, political party in the United Kingdom that has been described as an alliance of Social democracy, social democrats, Democratic socialism, democratic socialists and trade u ...
in 1924, and was Labour candidate for Carnarvon Boroughs against David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for leading the United Kingdom during t ...
in the general election of 1924. A close friend of Ramsay MacDonald, Zimmern followed him in 1931 when MacDonald formed the National Government. He became an active member of the National Labour Organisation
The National Labour Organisation, also known as the National Labour Committee or simply as National Labour, was a British political group formed after the 1931 creation of the National Government to co-ordinate the efforts of the supporters of ...
and frequently wrote articles for its journal, the ''News-Letter''. Zimmern was one of five writers who contributed to a book ''Towards a National Policy: Being a National Labour Contribution'' in April 1935.
Zimmern died in Avon, Connecticut
Avon ( ) is a town in the Farmington Valley region of Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town had a population of 18,932.
History
Avon was settled in 1645 and was originally a part of neighboring Farmington, ...
, on 24 November 1957.
Works
''Henry Grattan''
(1902)
''Nationality and Government''
with other war-time essays (1919)
"Greek Political Thought"
an essay in ''The Legacy of Greece'' (1921)
''Europe in Convalescence''
(1922)
*''America and Europe''
*''Prospects of Democracy & Other Essays''
''The Greek Commonwealth: Politics and Economics in Fifth Century Athens''
1911; 5th edition 1931, Oxford, reprint 1977
''The Economic Weapon Against Germany''
London: Allen & Unwin, 1918
*''The Third British Empire'' (1926; 3rd edition 1934), London: Oxford University Press
''The League of Nations and the Rule of Law 1918–1935''
(1936)
"The Ethical Presuppositions of a World Order"
an essay in ''The Universal Church and the World of Nations'' (1938).
Further reading
*Jeanne Morefield (2004), ''Covenants Without Swords: Idealist Liberalism and the Spirit of Empire'', on Zimmern and Gilbert Murray.
*Baji, Tomohito (2021). ''The International Thought of Alfred Zimmern: Classicism, Zionism and the Shadow of Commonwealth''. Palgrave Macmillan.
*Griffiths, Mark. 1999. "Alfred Zimmern." in ''Fifty Key Thinkers in International Relations''. Routledge.
Notes
External links
*
*
*
*Donald Markwell
Donald John Markwell (born 19 April 1959) is an Australian social scientist, who has been described as a "renowned Australian educational reformer". He was appointed Head of St Mark's College, Adelaide, from November 2019. He was Senior Adviser ...
, 'Sir Alfred Eckhard Zimmern', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004
Biographical page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zimmern, Alfred Eckhard
1879 births
1957 deaths
20th-century British historians
20th-century British writers
Alumni of New College, Oxford
British political scientists
British Jewish writers
Cornell University faculty
English Jews
English people of German-Jewish descent
Fellows of New College, Oxford
Jewish British politicians
Jewish historians
Labour Party (UK) parliamentary candidates
Montague Burton Professors of International Relations (University of Oxford)
People educated at Winchester College