Heinrich Karl Ludolf von Sybel (2 December 1817 – 1 August 1895),

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

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 ...

, came from a

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

family which had long been established at Soest, in

Westphalia Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the regio ...

Life

He was born in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

, where his father held important posts in the public service under both the

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

and the

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

ns; in 1831 he was raised to the hereditary nobility. His home was one of the centres of the vigorous literary and artistic life for which Düsseldorf was renowned at that time. Sybel was educated at the local Gymnasium, and then at the

University of Berlin 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 ...

, where he came under the influences of

Friedrich Carl von Savigny Friedrich Carl von Savigny (21 February 1779 – 25 October 1861) was a German jurist and historian. Early life and education Savigny was born at Frankfurt am Main, of a family recorded in the history of Lorraine, deriving its name from the cast ...

and

Leopold von Ranke Leopold von Ranke (; 21 December 1795 – 23 May 1886) was a German historian and a founder of modern source-based history. He was able to implement the seminar teaching method in his classroom and focused on archival research and the analysis of ...

, whose most distinguished pupil he was to become. After taking his degree, he settled down in 1841 as a ''

Privatdozent ''Privatdozent'' (for men) or ''Privatdozentin'' (for women), abbreviated PD, P.D. or Priv.-Doz., is an academic title conferred at some European universities, especially in German-speaking countries, to someone who holds certain formal qualific ...

'' in history at the university of Bonn. He had already made himself known by critical studies on the history of the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

, of which the most important was his ''Geschichte des ersten Kreuzzuges'' (''History of the First Crusade'') (Düsseldorf, 1841; new ed., Leipzig, 1881), a work which, besides its merit as a valuable piece of historical investigation employing the critical methods he had learnt from Ranke, was also of some significance as a protest against the vaguely enthusiastic attitude encouraged by the

Romantic school Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

towards the Middle Ages. In 1861 Lady Duff-Gordon published an English translation of a part of this book, to which were added lectures on the crusades delivered in Munich in 1858, under the title ''History and Literature of the Crusades''.Sybel, H. von., Duff Gordon, L. (18--)
The history and literature of the crusades
London. This was followed by a study of the growth of German kingship (''Die Entstehung des deutschen Königtums'', Frankfurt, 1844, and again 1881), after which he was appointed professor. In the same year (1844) Sybel became prominent as an opponent of the

Ultramontane Ultramontanism is a clerical political conception within the Catholic Church that places strong emphasis on the prerogatives and powers of the Pope. It contrasts with Gallicanism, the belief that popular civil authority—often represented by th ...

party. The exhibition of the

Holy Shroud The Shroud of Turin ( it, Sindone di Torino), also known as the Holy Shroud ( it, Sacra Sindone, links=no or ), is a length of linen cloth bearing the negative image of a man. Some describe the image as depicting Jesus of Nazareth and bel ...

Trier Trier ( , ; lb, Tréier ), formerly known in English as Trèves ( ;) and Triers (see also names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle in Germany. It lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of red sandstone in the ...

had attracted enormous numbers of pilgrims, and so, indignant at what appeared to him a fake, he assisted in publishing an investigation into the authenticity of the celebrated relic. From this time he began to take an active part in contemporary politics and in controversy as a strong but moderate Liberal. In 1846 he was appointed professor at

Marburg Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approximate ...

, and though this small university offered little scope for his activities as a teacher, a seat in the Hessian ''Landtag'' gave him his first experience of politics. In 1848 he was present at Frankfurt, but he did not succeed in winning a seat for the National Assembly. His opposition to the extreme democratic and revolutionary party made him unpopular with the mob who broke his windows, and his liberalism made him suspect at court. He sat in the

Erfurt parliament The Erfurt Union (german: Erfurter Union) was a short-lived union of German states under a federation, proposed by the Kingdom of Prussia at Erfurt, for which the Erfurt Union Parliament (''Erfurter Unionsparlament''), lasting from March 20 to ...

of 1850, and was attached to the Gotha party, which hoped for the regeneration of Germany through the leadership of

. During the period 1859–1866, Sybel was engaged in a literary controversy with the historian,

Julius von Ficker Julius von Ficker, or Johann Kaspar Julius Ficker von Feldhaus (30 April 1826 – 10 June 1902) was a Roman Catholic German historian. In 1898 he was awarded the Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts. During the years that followed he was occupied with his major chronicle of the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

, ''Geschichte der Revolutionszeit 1789–1800'', for which he had made prolonged studies in the archives of Paris and other countries. The later editions of the earlier volumes were enlarged and altered, and a new edition was published at Stuttgart in 1882. The first three volumes were translated into English by

Walter Copland Perry Walter Copland Perry (1814 – December 1911) was a noted British author and barrister-at-law. Life Perry was the only son of Rev. Isaac Perry, of Liverpool. During the 1830s, he was a doctoral student of the University of Göttingen. Later a stu ...

(1867–1869). In this work he showed for the first time the connection between the internal and external history of France. By systematically studying the records, he was also the first to check and correct the traditional account of many episodes of France's internal history. He demonstrated that letters attributed to

Marie Antoinette Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne (; ; née Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child a ...

were not genuine. He undermined the influential revolutionary legends, expounded by French writers. Sybel was interested in

Edmund Burke Edmund Burke (; 12 January NS.html"_;"title="New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">NS">New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">NS/nowiki>_1729_–_9_July_1797)_was_an_ NS.html"_;"title="New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style"> ...

, on whom he had published two essays. The work was in fact the first attempt to substitute for the popular view of Thiers and

Lamartine Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine (; 21 October 179028 February 1869), was a French author, poet, and statesman who was instrumental in the foundation of the Second Republic and the continuation of the Tricolore as the flag of France. ...

, a line which was later taken up by Taine and

Albert Sorel Albert Sorel (13 August 184229 June 1906) was a French historian. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature nine times. Life He was born at Honfleur and remained throughout his life a lover of his native Normandy. His father, a rich man ...

. In 1856, on the recommendation of Ranke, Sybel accepted the post of professor at Munich, where King

Maximilian II of Bavaria Maximilian II (28 November 1811 – 10 March 1864) reigned as King of Bavaria between 1848 and 1864. Unlike his father, King Ludwig I, "King Max" was very popular and took a greater interest in the business of Government than in personal extra ...

, a generous patron of learning, hoped to establish a school of history. Here he found a fruitful field for his activity. Besides continuing his work on the Revolution and on the Middle Ages, he occupied himself fully with the Historical Seminar which he instituted; with the ''

Historische Zeitschrift ''Historische Zeitschrift'', founded in 1859 by Heinrich von Sybel is considered to be the first and for a time the foremost historical journal. The creation of this journal inspired Gabriel Monod to found the French '' Revue historique'' in 1876. ...

'' which he founded - the original model of the numerous historical periodicals which now exist – and as secretary of the new Historical Commission. Political differences soon interfered with his work; as a supporter of Prussia and a Protestant, especially as a militant champion against the Ultramontanes, he was from the first an object of suspicion to the Clerical party. In the political excitement which followed the war of 1859 he found that he could not hope for the unreserved support of the king, and therefore in 1861 he accepted a professorship at

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-Ruhr r ...

, which he held until 1875. He was elected a member of the Prussian Lower House, and during the next three years was one of the most active members of that assembly. In several important debates he led the attack on the government, and opposed the policy of Bismarck, not only on finances but also on

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and

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affairs, in particular the impending crisis with Denmark over

Schleswig The Duchy of Schleswig ( da, Hertugdømmet Slesvig; german: Herzogtum Schleswig; nds, Hartogdom Sleswig; frr, Härtochduum Slaswik) was a duchy in Southern Jutland () covering the area between about 60 km (35 miles) north and 70 km ...

and

Holstein Holstein (; nds, label=Northern Low Saxon, Holsteen; da, Holsten; Latin and historical en, Holsatia, italic=yes) is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is the southern half of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of German ...

. In 1864 he did not stand for re-election, owing to an eye infection, but in 1866 he was one of the first to point out the way to a reconciliation between Bismarck and his former opponents. He had a seat in the Constituent Assembly of 1867, and while he joined the National Liberals he distinguished himself by opposing the introduction of

universal suffrage Universal suffrage (also called universal franchise, general suffrage, and common suffrage of the common man) gives the right to vote to all adult citizens, regardless of wealth, income, gender, social status, race, ethnicity, or political stanc ...

, sharing the distrust of many Liberals over its effects. In 1874 he returned to the Prussian parliament in order to support the government in its conflict with the Clericals, and after 1878 with the

Socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

s. He explained and justified his position in two pamphlets that analysed the teaching of the Socialists and traced Clerical policy during the 19th century. In 1880 he retired, like so many other Liberals, disheartened by the change in political life which he blamed on universal suffrage. In 1875, Bismarck appointed him to the post of director of the Prussian archives. Under his superintendence was begun the great series of publications, besides that of the correspondence of

Frederick the Great Frederick II (german: Friedrich II.; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772, and King of Prussia from 1772 until his death in 1786. His most significant accomplishments include his military successes in the Sil ...

, which he helped to edit. His last years were occupied with his great work, ''Die Begründung des deutschen Reiches durch Wilhelm I'' (''The Founding of the German Empire under William I'')(Munich, 1889–1894), a work of great importance on

German unification The unification of Germany (, ) was the process of building the modern German nation state with federal features based on the concept of Lesser Germany (one without multinational Austria), which commenced on 18 August 1866 with adoption of t ...

, for which he was allowed to use the Prussian state papers and was therefore able to write a history of the greatest events of his own time with full access to highly secret sources of information. As a history of Prussian policy from 1860 to 1866 it is of incomparable value. After the fall of Bismarck permission to use the secret papers was withdrawn, and therefore vols. vi. and vii., which deal with the years 1866 to 1870, are of less importance. This work has been translated into English as ''The Founding of the German Empire'', by M L Perrin and G Bradford (New York, 1890–1891). Sybel did not live to write an account of the war with France, dying at Marburg on 1 August 1895. His other writings include ''Die deutsche Nation und das Kaiserreich'' (1862) and a large number of historical articles. Sybel left two sons, one of whom became an officer in the

Prussian army The Royal Prussian Army (1701–1919, german: Königlich Preußische Armee) served as the army of the Kingdom of Prussia. It became vital to the development of Brandenburg-Prussia as a European power. The Prussian Army had its roots in the co ...

; the other, Ludwig von Sybel (1846-1929), a professor of archaeology in the university of Marburg, was the author of several works dealing with Greek archaeology. Some of Sybel's numerous historical and political essays have been collected in ''Kleine historische Schriften'' (3 vols, 1863, 1869, 1881; new ed., 1897); ''Vorträge und Aufsätze'' (Berlin, 1874); and ''Vorträge und Abhandlungen'', published after his death with a biographical introduction by

Conrad Varrentrapp Conrad Varrentrapp (17 August 1844, in Braunschweig 28 April 1911, in Marburg) was a German historian. He studied at the University of Göttingen as a pupil of Georg Waitz and at the University of Berlin as a student of Leopold von Ranke. In 18 ...

(Munich, 1897).

References

* * Gooch, G.P. ''History and historians in the nineteenth century'' (1913).
onlineBiography
at

Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie ''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'' (ADB, german: Universal German Biography) is one of the most important and comprehensive biographical reference works in the German language. It was published by the Historical Commission of the Bavarian Aca ...

External links

*
History and Literature of the Crusades
trans. Lady Duff Gordon (at

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)
Geschichte des ersten Kreuzzugs
(at Google Books) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sybel, Heinrich von 1817 births 1895 deaths Writers from Düsseldorf People from the Rhine Province German Protestants German untitled nobility National Liberal Party (Germany) politicians Prussian politicians 19th-century German historians Historians of the Crusades Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) Humboldt University of Berlin alumni University of Bonn alumni University of Bonn faculty University of Marburg faculty Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich faculty 19th-century German male writers German male non-fiction writers Members of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities