Raumer, FRIEDRICH LUDWIG GEORG VON

Raumer, FRIEDRICH LUDWIG GEORG VON, German historian, was born at Wörlitz, near Dessau, in the duchy of Anhalt, on 14th May 1781, studied law at Halle and Göttingen, and entered the Prussian state service in 1801. In 1811 he accepted the chair of History and Politics at Breslau; in 1819 he was called to fill the similar chair at Berlin. He was for some time secretary of the Berlin Academy. In 1848 he was sent to Paris as ambassador of the German parliament. He died on 14th June 1873. The first scientific historian to popularise history in German, Von Raumer wrote Geschichte der Hohenstaufen (6 vols. 1823-25), his best book, based on critical research, and agreeably written; Geschichte Europas seit dem Ende des 15 Jahrhunderts (8 vols. 1832-50); Beiträge zur neueren Geschichte (5 vols. 1836-39); and edited the useful Historisches Taschenbuch from 1830. In the years 1830-43 he made extensive journeys, going as far as the United States; the observations made during these trips were written in several books dealing with England (1835 and 1841), Italy (1840), the United States (1845), &c. See his Lebenserinnerungen und Briefwechsel (2 vols. 1861).