Hermann Hüffer (24 March 1830 – 15 March 1905) was a German

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

and jurist.

Biography

Hüffer was born in

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state di ...

, Prussian Westphalia. Having finished his classical education in his native city, he went to

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

and applied himself to the study of

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

, the history of literature, and history. He was compelled to take up

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...

in consequence of a serious disease of the eye, but never lost his fondness for history. In the year 1853 he graduated in Breslau with the dissertation: ''Justinianische Quasi-Pupilar-Substitution'', and, after a long educational tour in Italy and France, qualified as lecturer on canon and Prussian civil law at Bonn. In 1860 he became professor extraordinary, and in 1873 ordinary professor. From 1865 to 1870 he was a member of the Prussian Chamber of Deputies, and from 1867 to 1870 of the North German Reichstag, but did not affiliate with the

Catholic Centre Party The Centre Party (german: Zentrum), officially the German Centre Party (german: link=no, Deutsche Zentrumspartei) and also known in English as the Catholic Centre Party, is a Catholic political party in Germany, influential in the German Empire ...

because the formation of a party on sectarian lines appeared to him a hazardous experiment. In addition to numerous essays in periodicals and a few juristic professional treatises, he published several works on the history of literature as well as on historical subjects. Among the former class are his writings on Heine (''Aus dem Leben Heinrich Heines'', 1878) and on ''

Annette von Droste-Hülshoff Baroness Anna Elisabeth Franziska Adolphine Wilhelmine Louise Maria von Droste zu Hülshoff, known as Annette von Droste-Hülshoff (; 10 January 179724 May 1848), was a 19th-century German poet, novelist, and composer of Classical music. She was ...

und ihre Werke'' (1887). His contributions to history are confined to a period of scarcely ten years, namely, the early years of the French Republic. It is suggested that he created an entirely new conception of the relations of the two great German powers to the French Revolution and to each other, and accordingly of the dissolution of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...

of the German Nation. His principal work is entitled: ''Diplomatische Verhandlungen aus der Zeit der französischen Revolution'' (Diplomatic negotiations at the time of the French Revolution) in three volumes (1869–79), of which the first treats of the hostility of Austria and Prussia to the Revolution down to the

Treaty of Campo Formio The Treaty of Campo Formio (today Campoformido) was signed on 17 October 1797 (26 Vendémiaire VI) by Napoleon Bonaparte and Count Philipp von Cobenzl as representatives of the French Republic and the Austrian monarchy, respectively. The trea ...

, while the second and third deal with the Congress of

Rastatt Rastatt () is a town with a Baroque core, District of Rastatt, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located in the Upper Rhine Plain on the Murg river, above its junction with the Rhine and has a population of around 50,000 (2011). Rastatt was a ...

and the Second Coalition. Worthy of mention among his other works are ''Der Krieg von 1799 und die 2. Koalition'' (2 volumes, 1904) and ''Quellen zur Geschichte des Zeitalters der französischen Revolution'' (Historical sources in the age of the French Revolution) (2 vols., 1900-).

References

;Attribution * Cites sources: ** HERRMANN in ''Biographisches Jahrbuch'', X (1907), 210-22; ** Idem in ''Annalen. des historischen Vereins für den Niederrhein'' LXXX (1906), 1-78.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Huffer, Hermann 1905 deaths 1830 births 19th-century German historians Jurists from North Rhine-Westphalia Members of the Prussian House of Representatives People from Münster People from the Province of Westphalia Humboldt University of Berlin alumni University of Breslau alumni University of Bonn alumni Academic staff of the University of Bonn German male non-fiction writers