Friedrich Meinecke

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Friedrich Meinecke (October 30, 1862-February 6, 1954) was a liberal German historian; and probably the most famous German historian of his generation. As a representative of an older tradition still writing after World War II, he was an important figure to the end of his life.

Meinecke served as editor of the journal, Historische Zeitschrift, between 1896-1935 and was the chairman of the Historische Reichskommission between 1928-1935. He was born in Salzwedel, Prussia and was educated at the University of Bonn and the University of Berlin. He worked as an archivist at the German State Archives between 1887-1901.

Meinecke was best known for his work on 18th-19th century German intellectual and cultural history. The book that made his reputation was his 1908 work Weltbürgertum und Nationalstaat (Cosmopolitanism and the National State), which traced the development of national feelings in the 19th century. Starting with Die Idee der Staatsräson (1924), much of his work concerns the conflict between Kratos (power) and Ethos (morality), and how to achieve a balance between the two.

Under the Second Reich, Meinecke had called for more democracy in Germany. One of his students was Heinrich Brüning, the future Chancellor. Under the Weimar Republic, Meinecke was an Vernunftsrepublikaner (republican by reason), someone who supported the republic as the least worse alternative. Under the Third Reich, he had some sympathy for the regime, especially in regard to its early anti-semitic laws. After 1935, Meinecke fall into an state of semi-disgrace, and was removed from as editor of the Historische Zeitschrift. Through Meinecke remained in public an supporter of the Nazi regime, in private, he became increasing bothered by what he regarded as the violence and crudeness of the Nazis. His best known book was Die Deutsche Katastrophe (The German Catastrophe) in 1946, which depicts Nazi Germany as a result of a series of unfortunate accidents, and argued that National Socialism was an aberration which had no connection to the course of German history. In 1948, he helped to found the Free University of Berlin.

[edit] Work

Das Leben des Generalfeldmarschalls Hermann von Boyen, 2 volumes, 1896-1899.
Das Zeitalter der deutschen Erhebung, 1795-1815, 1906.
Weltbürgertum und Nationalstaat: Studien zur Genesis des deutschen Nationalstaates, 1908.
Radowitz und die deutsche Revolution, 1913.
Die Idee der Staatsräson in der neueren Geschichte, 1924.
Geschichte des deutsch-englischen Bündnisproblems, 1890-1901, 1927.
Staat und Persönlickeit, 1933.
Die Entstehung des Historismus, 2 volumes, 1936.
Die deutsche Katastrophe: Betrachtungen und Erinnerungen, 1946.
1848: Eine Säkularbetrachtung, 1948.
Werke, 9 volumes, 1957-1979.

[edit] References

Erbe, Michael (editor) Friedrich Meinecke heute: Bericht über ein Gedenk-Colloquium zu seinem 25. Todestag am 5. und 6. April 1979, Berlin: Colloquium Verlag, 1981.
Hofer, Walther Geschichtsschreibung und Weltanschauung; Betrachtungen zum Werk Friedrich Meineckes, Munich: Oldenbourg, 1950.
Iggers, George The German Conception of History: The National Tradition of historical Thought fromr Herder to the Present, Middletwon, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1968, revised edition, 1983.
Meineke, Stefan Friedrich Meinecke: Persönlichkeit und politisches Denken bis zum Ende des ersten Weltkrieges, Berlin: de Gruyter, 1995.
Pois, Robert, Friedrich Meinecke and German Politics in the Twentieth Century, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972.
Schulin, Ernst "Friedrich Meinecke" from Deutsche Historiker, edited by Hans-Ulrich Wehler, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1971.
Sterling, Richard Ethics in a World of Power: The Political Ideas of Friedrich Meinecke, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1958.