Everything about Heinrich Von Treitschke totally explained
Heinrich Gotthard von Treitschke (
September 15,
1834 –
April 28,
1896) was a
nationalist German historian and political
writer during the time of the
German Empire.
Early life and teaching career
Treitschke was born in
Dresden. He was the son of an officer in the
Saxon army who rose to be governor of
Königstein and military governor of Dresden. Young Treitschke was prevented by deafness from entering the public service. After studying at the universities of
Leipzig and
Bonn, where he was a student of
Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann, he established himself as a
Privatdozent at Leipzig, lecturing on history and politics. At one point he became very popular with the students, but his political opinions made it impossible for the Saxon government to appoint him to a professorship.
At that time Treitschke was a strong
Liberal; he hoped to see Germany united into a single state with a parliamentary government, and all the smaller states swept away. In one statement he said that "Every virile people has established colonial power. All great nations in the fullness of their strength have desired to set their mark upon barbarian lands and those who fail to participate in this great rivalry will play a pitiable role in time to come." This harsh statement reflects on his increasing aggressiveness of European nationalism after
Otto von Bismarck's wars toward the
unification of Germany. It also discusses the
Social Darwinian theories of brutal competition among races. In 1863 he was appointed professor at
Freiburg; in
1866, at the outbreak of
Austro-Prussian War, his sympathies with the
Kingdom of Prussia were so strong that he went to Berlin, became a Prussian subject, and was appointed editor of the
Preussische Jahrbücher. His violent article, in which he demanded the annexation of the Kingdoms of
Hanover and
Saxony, and attacked with great bitterness the
Saxon royal house, led to an estrangement from his father, who enjoyed the warm friendship of the king. It was only equalled in its ill humour by his attacks on
Bavaria in 1870. After holding appointments at
Kiel and
Heidelberg, he was made professor at
Berlin in 1874.
Political career
In 1871, Treitschke became a member of the
Reichstag, and from that time till his death he was one of the most prominent figures in Berlin.
On
Heinrich von Sybel's death Treitschke succeeded him as editor of the
Historische Zeitschrift. He had outgrown his early Liberalism and become the chief
panegyrist of the
House of Hohenzollern. He made violent and influential attacks on all opinions and all parties which appeared in any way to be injurious to the rising power of Germany. He supported the government in its attempts to subdue by legislation the
Socialists,
Poles and
Catholics (
Kulturkampf).
As a strong advocate of
colonial expansion, Treitschke was a bitter enemy of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. He was to a large extent responsible for the
chauvinistic anti-British feeling of the last years of the
19th century.
In the Reichstag Tretischke had originally been a member of the
National Liberal Party, but in 1879 he was the first to accept the new commercial policy of
Bismarck, and in his later years he joined the Moderate Conservatives, though his deafness prevented him from taking a prominent part in debate.
Treitschke was one of the few important public figures who supported
antisemitic attacks which became prevalent from 1878 onwards. He attacked the alleged refusal of
German Jews to assimilate into German culture and society and the flow of Jewish immigrants from
Russian Poland. Treitschke coined a phrase "Die Juden sind unser Unglück!" ("The Jews are our misfortune!") adopted as a motto by
Der Stürmer several decades later. Because of his respected status, Treitschke's remarks aroused widespread controversy.
Literary career
Treitschke approached history as a politician, and confined himself to those periods and characters in which great political problems were being worked out: above all, he was a patriotic historian, and he never wandered far from Prussia. His great achievement was the
History of Germany in the Nineteenth Century. The first volume was published in 1879, and during the next sixteen years four more volumes appeared, but at his death he'd only advanced to the year 1847. He also wrote biographical and historical essays, and essays on contemporary politics.
The most important essays were collected as
Historische und politische Aufsatze ; a selection from his more controversial writings was made under the title
Zehn Jahre deutscher Kämpfe; in 1896 a new volume appeared, called
Deutsche Kämpfe, neue Folge. After his death his lectures on political subjects were published under the title
Politik. He brought out also in 1856 a short volume of poems called
Vater-ländische Gedichte, and another volume in the following year. His first works to be translated into English were two pamphlets on the
war of 1870,
What we demand from France (London, 1870), and
The Baptism of Fire of the North German Confederation (1870).
Treitschke's students included
Heinrich Class,
Hans Delbrück,
W.E.B. Dubois,
Otto Hintze,
Max Lenz,
Erich Marcks (historian),
Friedrich Meinecke,
Karl Peters,
Ludwig Schiemann,
Gustav Schnürer,
Georg Simmel and
Friedrich von Bernhardi. During
World War I, many writers in the West, particularly in Britain, blamed Bernhardi for creating attitudes amongst the political class of Germany that were seen as an incitement to war. A complete translation of both volumes of Treitschke's
Politics was published in London in 1916.
Politics also appeared in an abridged English translation edited by
Hans Kohn and published in 1963.
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