Karl Wilhelm Nitzsch (22 December 1818 in

Zerbst Zerbst () is a town in the district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Until an administrative reform in 2007, Zerbst was the capital of the former Anhalt-Zerbst district. Geography Zerbst is situated in the Anhalt-Wittenberg regio ...

– 20 June 1880 in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

) 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 stu ...

known for his studies of

ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 B ...

and

medieval Germany The Germani tribes i.e. Germanic tribes are now considered to be related to the Jastorf culture before expanding and interacting with the other peoples. The concept of a region for Germanic tribes is traced to time of Julius Caesar, a Roman ge ...

. He was the son of

classical philologist 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 Latin literature includes the essays, histories, poems, plays, and ot ...

Gregor Wilhelm Nitzsch Gregor Wilhelm Nitzsch (22 November 1790 – 22 July 1861) was a German classical scholar known chiefly for his writings on Homeric epic. Brother of Karl Immanuel Nitzsch, he was born at Wittenberg. In 1827 he was appointed professor of ancient l ...

(1790–1861). In 1842 he received his doctorate from the

University of Kiel Kiel University, officially the Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel, (german: Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, abbreviated CAU, known informally as Christiana Albertina) is a university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in ...

with a dissertation involving the Greek historian

Polybius Polybius (; grc-gre, Πολύβιος, ; ) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , which covered the period of 264–146 BC and the Punic Wars in detail. Polybius is important for his analysis of the mixed ...

. Following graduation, he took an extended study trip to Italy (1842–43). In 1848 he became an associate professor at Kiel, where in 1858 he was named a full professor of history. Later, he was a professor of history at the Universities of

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was named ...

(from 1862) and

(from 1872).

Principal works

* ''Polybius. Zur geschichte antiker politik und historiographie'', 1842 – "Polybius. On the history of ancient politics and

historiography Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians ha ...

. * ''Die Gracchen und ihre nächsten Vorgänger vier Bücher römischer Geschichte'', 1847 – The

Gracchi The Gracchi brothers were two Roman brothers, sons of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus who was consul in 177 BC. Tiberius, the elder brother, was tribune of the plebs in 133 BC and Gaius, the younger brother, was tribune a decade later in ...

and their closest predecessors, Four books on Roman history. * ''Vorarbeiten zur Geschichte der Staufischen Periode'', 1859 – Preliminary work on the history of the Hohenstaufen period. * ''Ministerialität und bürgerthum im 11. und 12. jahrhundert'', 1859 – Ministeriality and bourgeoisie in the 11th and 12th centuries. * ''Die römische Annalistik von ihren ersten Anfängen bis auf Valerius Antias'', 1873 – The Roman Annalists; from their beginnings up until

Valerius Antias Valerius Antias ( century BC) was an ancient Roman annalist whom Livy mentions as a source. No complete works of his survive but from the sixty-five fragments said to be his in the works of other authors it has been deduced that he wrote a chroni ...

. * ''Nordalbingische studien'', 1874 –

Nordalbingia Nordalbingia (german: Nordalbingien) (also Northern Albingia) was one of the four administrative regions of the medieval Duchy of Saxony, the others being Angria, Eastphalia, and Westphalia. The region's name is based on the Latin name ''Alba'' f ...

n studies. * ''Deutsche Studien. Gesammelte Aufsätze und Vortäge zur deutschen Geschichte'', 1879 – German studies, collected essays and lectures on German history. * ''Geschichte des deutschen Volkes bis zum Augsburger Religionsfrieden'', 1883 – History of the German people up until the Peace of Augsburg. * ''Geschichte der römischen republik'', 1884 – History of the

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kin ...

. * Books about Karl Wilhelm Nitzsch: * ''Karl Wilhelm Nitzsch : die methodischen Grundlagen seiner Geschichtschreibung : ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Geschichtswissenschaft'', 1912 (by Herbert Merzdorf) – Karl Wilhelm Nitzsch: the methodological foundations of his historical writing: a contribution to the history of historical science.OCLC Classify
(published works)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nitzsch, Karl Wilhelm University of Kiel alumni Academic staff of the University of Kiel Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin Academic staff of the University of Königsberg 19th-century German historians 19th-century German male writers 1818 births 1880 deaths People from Zerbst German male non-fiction writers