Friedrich Ludwig Georg von Raumer (May 14, 1781 - June 14, 1873) was a German historian. He was the first scientific historian to popularize history in German. He traveled extensively and served in German legislative bodies.
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He was born at Wörlitz in Anhalt-Dessau. 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. He entered the Prussian civil service in 1801 as a civil magistrate, and rose in the service to become councillor to Chancellor Hardenberg in 1809.
He was made a professor at the University of Breslau in 1811, where he served until 1816. In 1819, he became professor of political science and history at the University of Berlin holding the chair until 1847, and giving occasional lectures until 1853. He was for some time secretary of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. That position he also resigned in 1847.
At different times between 1816 and 1855, he traveled extensively through Europe and the United States. In 1815, he carried on historical investigations in Venice, and in the two following years he travelled in Germany, Switzerland and Italy. He went to England in 1835, to Italy in 1839 and to the United States in 1841-1843. He revisited the United States 1853-55. These visits led to the publication of various works.
In 1848 he was elected a member of the Frankfurt Parliament, where he associated himself with the right centre, supporting the proposal for a German empire under the supremacy of Prussia. He was sent to Paris as ambassador by imperial regent Archduke John of Austria, and 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.
He died at Berlin in 1873.
His most famous works are Geschichte der Hohenstaufen und ihrer Zeit (1823–25) and Geschichte Europas seit dem Ende des 15ten Jahrhunderts (1832–50). His first work, published anonymously in 1806, was entitled Sechs Dialoge über Krieg und Handel.
Other works include:
In 1830, Raumer began the Historisches Taschenbuch published by F. A. Brockhaus, which was continued by Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl after 1871.
According to the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, “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.” According to Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography, “He is justly considered as one of the great historians of the 19th century.”
His brother, Karl Georg von Raumer, was a geologist and educator.