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 A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Un ...

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 d ...

Prussian Westphalia The Province of Westphalia () was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1815 to 1946. In turn, Prussia was the largest component state of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918, of the Weimar Republic and from 191 ...

. 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 ...

, 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 ...

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 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 ...

, and from 1867 to 1870 of the

North German Reichstag North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

, 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 Heine is both a surname and a given name of German origin. People with that name include: People with the surname * Albert Heine (1867–1949), German actor * Alice Heine (1858–1925), American-born princess of Monaco * Armand Heine (1818–1883) ...

(''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 an ...

and the

Second Coalition The War of the Second Coalition (1798/9 – 1801/2, depending on periodisation) was the second war on revolutionary France by most of the European monarchies, led by Britain, Austria and Russia, and including the Ottoman Empire, Portugal, Na ...

. 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