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DAHLMANN, FRIEDRICH CHRISTOPH (1785-1...
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See also:DAHLMANN, See also:FRIEDRICH CHRISTOPH (1785-186o) , See also:German historian and politician, was See also:born on the 13th of May 1785; he came of an old Hanseatic See also:family of See also:Wismar, which then belonged to See also:Sweden. His See also:father, who was the burgomaster of the See also:town, intended him to study See also:theology, but his See also:bent was towards classical See also:philology, and this he studied from 1802 to 18o6 at the See also:universities of See also:Copenhagen and See also:Halle, and again at Copenhagen. After See also:finishing his studies, he translated some of the See also:Greek tragic poets, and the Clouds of See also:Aristophanes. But he was also interested in See also:modern literature and See also:philosophy; and the troubles of the times, of which he had See also:personal experience, aroused in him, as in so many of his contemporaries, a strong feeling of German patriotism, though throughout his See also:life he was always proud of his connexion with Scandinavia, and Gustavus See also:Adolphus was his particular See also:hero. In 1809, on the See also:news of the outbreak of See also:war in See also:Austria, Dahlmann, together with the poet Heinrich von See also:Kleist, whom he had met in See also:Dresden, went to Bohemia, and was afterwards with the Imperial See also:army, up till the See also:battle of Aspern, with the somewhat vague See also:object of trying to convert the See also:Austrian war into a German one. This See also:hope was shattered by the defeat of See also:Wagram. He now decided to try his fortunes in See also:Denmark, where he had influential relations. After taking his See also:doctor's degree at See also:Wittenberg (181o) he qualified at Copenhagen in 1811, with an See also:essay on the origins of the See also:ancient See also:theatre, as a lecturer on ancient literature and See also:history, on which he delivered lectures in Latin. His influential See also:friends soon brought him further See also:advancement. As See also:early as 1812 he was summoned to See also:Kiel, as successor to the historian See also:Dietrich See also:Hermann Hegewisch (1746-1812). This See also:appointment was in two respects a decisive moment in his career; on the one See also:hand it made him give his whole See also:attention to a subject for which he was admirably suited, but to which he had so far given only a secondary See also:interest; and on the other hand, it threw him into politics. In 1815 he obtained, in addition to his professorate, the position of secretary to the perpetual deputation of the estates of See also:Schleswig-See also:Holstein. In this capacity he began, by means of See also:memoirs or of articles in the Kieler Blatter, which he founded himself, to appear as an able and zealous See also:champion of the See also:half-forgotten rights of the See also:Elbe duchies, as against Denmark, and of their See also:close connexion with See also:Germany. It was he upon whom the Danes afterwards threw the blame of having invented the Schleswig-Holstein question; certainly his activites See also:form an important See also:link in the See also:chain of events which eventually led to the See also:solution of 1864. So far as this interest affected himself, the See also:chief profit See also:lay in the fact that it deepened his conception of the See also:state, and directed it to more See also:practical ends. Whereas at that See also:time See also:mere See also:speculation dominated both the See also:French Liberalism of the school of Rotteck, and Karl See also:Ludwig von See also:Haller's Romanticist See also:doctrine of the See also:Christian state, Dahlmann took as his premisses the circumstances as he found them, and evolved the new out of the old by a quiet See also:process of development. Moreover, in the inevitable conflict with the Danish See also:crown his upright point of view and his German patriotism were further confirmed. After his transference to See also:Gottingen in 1829 he had the opportunity of working in the same spirit. As confidant of the See also:duke of See also:Cambridge, he was allowed to take a See also:share in framing the Hanoverian constitution of 1833, which remodelled the old aristocratic See also:government in a direction which had become inevitable since the See also:July revolution in See also:Paris; and when in 1837 the new See also: Though no orator, and in spite of a See also:personality not particularly amiable or winning, he produced a profound impression upon See also:young men by the pregnancy of his expression, a consistent logical method of thought based on See also:Kant and bythe manliness of his See also:character. When the revolution of 1848 See also:broke out, the " father of German See also:nationality," as the See also:pro-visional government at See also:Milan called him, found himself the centre of universal interest. Both See also:Mecklenburg and See also:Prussia offered him in vain the See also:post of See also:envoy to the See also:diet of the See also:confederation. Naturally, too, he was elected to the national See also:assembly at See also:Frankfort, and took a leading See also:part in the constitutional committees appointed first by the diet, then by the See also:parliament. His object was to make Germany as far as possible a See also:united constitutional monarchy, with the exclusion of the whole of Austria, or at least, of its non-German parts. Prussia was to provide the See also:emperor, but at the same time—and in this lay the doctrinaire weakness of the system—was to give up its See also:separate existence, consecrated by history, in the same way as the other states. When, therefore, Frederick William IV., without showing any anxiety to bind himself by the conditions laid down at Frankfort, concluded with Denmark the seven months' truce of See also:Malmo (26th See also:August 1848), Dahlmann proposed that the national parliament should refuse to recognize the truce, with the See also:express intention of clearing up once for all the relations of the parliament with the See also:court of See also:Berlin. The See also:motion was passed by a small See also:majority (See also:September 5th); but the members of Dahlmann's party were just those who voted against it, and it was they who on the 17th of September reversed the previous See also:vote and passed a See also:resolution accepting the truce, after Dahlmann had failed to form a See also:ministry on the basis of the resolution of the 5th, owing to his objection to the Radicals. Dahlmann afterwards described this as the decisive turning-point in the See also:fate of the parliament. He did not, however, at once give up all hope. Though he took but little active part in See also:parliamentary debates, he was very active on commissions and in party conferences, and it was largely owing to him that a German constitution was at last evolved, and that Frederick William IV. was elected hereditary emperor (28th of See also: The king's refusal was less of a surprise to him than to most of his colleagues. He counted on being able to compel recognition of the constitution by the moral pressure of the consent of the See also:people. It was only when the attitude of the Radicals made it clear to him that this course would See also:lead to a revolution, that he decided, after a See also:long struggle, to retire from the national parliament (21st May). He was still, however, one of the chief promoters of the well-known See also:conference of the imperial party at See also:Gotha, the proceedings of which were not, however, satisfactory to him; and he took part in the sessions of the first Prussian chamber (1849-1850) and of the parliament of See also:Erfurt (1850). But finally, convinced that for the moment all efforts towards the unity of Germany were unavailing, he retired from See also:political life, though often pressed to stand for See also:election, and again took up his work of teaching at Bonn. His last years were, however, saddened by illness, bereavement and continual See also:friction with his colleagues. His See also:death took See also:place on the 5th of See also:December r86o, following on an apoplectic See also:fit. He was a See also:man whose personality had contributed to the progress of the See also:world, and whose teaching was to continue to exercise a far-reaching influence on the development of German affairs. His chief See also:works were:—Quellenkunde der deutschen Geschichte nach der Folge der Begebenheiten geordnet (183o, 7th edition of Dahlmann-See also:Waitz, Quellenkunde, Leipzig, 1906); Politik, auf den Grund and das See also:Mass der gegebenen Zustande zuriickgefiihrt (1 vol., 1835); Geschichte Diinemarks (3 vols., 1840-1843); Geschichte der englischen Revolution (1844); Geschichte der franzosischen Revolution (1845). See A. See also:Springer, Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann (2 vols., 1870-1872) ; and H. v. See also:Treitschke, Histor. and polit. Aufsatze, i. 365 et seq. (F. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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