Friedrich Ludwig Georg von Raumer

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Friedrich Ludwig Georg von Raumer (May 14, 1781 - June 14, 1873), was a German historian.

Friedrich von Raumer (1781-1873)

He was born at Wörlitz in Anhalt. His father (who died in 1822), was Kaminerdirektor in Anhalt and did great service to agriculture. After studying at the Joachimsthal Gymnasium, Berlin, and at the universities of Halle and Göttingen, Raumer began to practise law, and rose in the civil service under Hardenberg, the chancellor. He was made a professor at the University of Breslau in 1811, and in 1819 he became professor of political science and history at Humboldt University, Berlin, holding the chair until 1847, and giving occasional lectures until 1853.

In 1815 he had carried on historical investigations in Venice, and in the two following years he bad travelled in Germany, Switzerland and Italy. In 1848 he was elected a member of the German parliament at Frankfurt, where he associated himself with the right centre, supporting the proposal for a German empire under the supremacy of Prussia; and he was one of the deputation which offered the imperial crown to Frederick William IV. After the breakdown of the German parliament, Raumer returned to Berlin, where he was made a member of the first chamber of the Prussian parliament.

Raumer's style is direct, lucid and vigorous, and in his day he was a popular historian, but judged by strictly scientific standards he does not rank among the first men of his time. His first work, published anonymously in 1806, was entitled Sechs Dialoge über Krieg und Handel. This was followed by Das britische Besteuerungssystem (1810), Handbuch merkwürdiger Stellen aus den lateinischen Geschichtschreibern des Mittelalters (1813), Herbstreise nach Venedig (1816) and other books.

His most famous works are Geschichte der Hohenstaufen und ihrer Zeit (1823-25) and Geschichte Europas seit dem Ende des 15ten Jahrhunderts (1832-50). In 1831 appeared Briefe aus Paris und Frankreich im Jahre 1830 and Briefe aus Paris zur Erlauterung der Geschichte des 16ten und 17ten Jahrhunderts.

He went to England in 1835, to Italy in 1839 and to America in 1843, and these visits led to the publication of various works. England in 1835 (1836), Beitrage zur neuern Geschichte aus dem Britischen Museum und Reichsarchive (1836-39), Italien, Beitrage zur Kenntnis4 dieses Landes (1840), Die Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika (1845).

Among his later books were Antiquarische Briefe (1851), Historisch-politische Briefe über die geselligen Verhältnisse der Menschen (1860), Lebenserinnerungen und Briefwechsel (1861) and Handbuch zur Geschichte der Literatur (1864-66). In 1830 Raumer began the Historisches Taschenbuch published by Brockhaus, which from 1871 was continued by Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl.