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GERVINUS, GEORG GOTTFRIED (18os–1871)

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 908 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GERVINUS, GEORG GOTTFRIED (18os–1871) , See also:German See also:literary and See also:political historian, was See also:born on the loth of May18os at See also:Darmstadt. He was educated at the gymnasium of the See also:town, and intended for a commercial career, but in 1825 he became a student of the university of See also:Giessen. In 1826 he went to See also:Heidelberg, where he attended the lectures of the historian See also:Schlosser, who became henceforth his See also:guide and his See also:model. In 1828 he was appointed teacher in a private school at See also:Frankfort-on-See also:Main, and in 183o Privatdozent at Heidelberg. A See also:volume of his collected Historische Schriften procured him the See also:appointment of See also:professor extraordinarius; while the first volume of his Geschichte der poetischen Nationallitteratur der Deutschen (1835–1842, 5 vols., subsequently entitled Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung; 5th edition, by K. Bartsch, 1871–1874) brought him the appointment to a See also:regular professorship of See also:history and literature at See also:Gottingen. This See also:work is the first comprehensive history of German literature written both with scholarly erudition and literary skill. In the following See also:year he wrote his Grundzuge der Historik, which is perhaps the most thoughtful of his philosophico-See also:historical productions. The same year brought his See also:expulsion from Gottingen in consequence of his manly protest, in See also:conjunction with six of his colleagues, against the unscrupulous violation of the constitution by Ernest See also:Augustus, See also:king of See also:Hanover and See also:duke of See also:Cumberland. After several years in Heidelberg, Darmstadt and See also:Rome, he settled permanently in Heidelberg, where, in 1844, he was appointed honorary professor. He zealously took up in the following year the cause of the German Catholics, hoping it would See also:lead to a See also:union of all the See also:Christian confessions, and to the See also:establishment of a See also:national See also:church. He also came forward in 1846 as a patriotic See also:champion of the See also:Schleswig-Holsteiners, and when, in 1847, King See also:Frederick See also:William IV. promulgated the royal See also:decree for summoning the so-called " See also:United See also:Diet " (Vereinigter Landtag), Gervinus hoped that this'event would See also:form the basis of the constitutional development of the largest German See also:state.

He founded, together with some other patriotic scholars, the Deutsche Zeitung, which certainly was one of the best-written political See also:

journals ever published in See also:Germany. His See also:appearance in the political See also:arena secured his See also:election as See also:deputy for the Prussian See also:province of See also:Saxony to the National See also:Assembly sitting in 1848 at Frankfort. Disgusted with the failure of that See also:body, he retired from all active political See also:life. Gervinus now devoted himself to literary and historical studies, and between 1849 and 1852 published his work on See also:Shakespeare (4 vols., 4th ed. 2 vols., 1872; Eng. trans. by F. E. Bunnett, 1863, new ed. 1877). He also revised his History of German Literature, for a See also:fourth edition (1853), and began at the same See also:time to See also:plan his Geschichte See also:des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts (8 vols., 1854–186o), which was preceded by an Einleitung in See also:die Geschichte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts (1853). The latter caused some stir in the literary and political See also:world, owing to the circumstance that the See also:government of See also:Baden imprudently instituted a See also:prosecution against the author for high See also:treason. In 1868 appeared See also:Handel and Shakespeare, zur Asthetik der Tonkunst, in which he See also:drew an ingenious parallel between his favourite poet and his favourite composer, showing that their intellectual See also:affinity was based on the See also:Teutonic origin See also:common to both, on their analogous intellectual development and See also:character. The See also:ill-success of this publication, and the indifference with which the latter volumes of his History of the 9th See also:Century were received by his countrymen, together with the feeling of disappointment that the unity of Germany had been brought about in another See also:fashion and by other means than he wished to see employed, embittered his later years.

He died at Heidelberg on thel8th of See also:

March 1871. Gervinus's autobiography (G. G. Gervinus' Leben, von ihm selbst) was published by his widow in 1893. It does not, however, go beyond the year 1836. See E. See also:Lehmann, Gervinus, Versuch einer Charakteristik (1871); R. Gosche, Gervinus (1871); J. Dorfel, Gervinus als historischer Denker (1904).

End of Article: GERVINUS, GEORG GOTTFRIED (18os–1871)

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