Heinrich von Sybel

Heinrich von Sybel, (born Dec. 2, 1817, Dusseldorf, Rhine Province, Prussia—died Aug. 1, 1895,
Marburg, Ger.), German historian who departed from the dispassionate manner of his teacher
Leopold von Ranke and made himself a spokesman of nationalistic political Prussianism.

While studying in Berlin (1834–38), he learned from Ranke the critical method of evaluating
historical sources, and his rst book, Geschichte des ersten Kreuzzugs (1841; The History and
Literature of the Crusades, 1861) is among the most distinguished products of the Ranke school.
His study of German kingship, Entstehung des deutschen Königtums (1844), is generally
considered to be of the same group.

Sybel’s political interests soon separated him, at least academically, from Ranke, whose
detachment he grew to despise as soulless respectability. He held professorial chairs at Marburg
(1846), Munich (1856), and Bonn (1861), saying of himself that he was four-sevenths politician and
three-sevenths professor, and he came to believe passionately in the historian’s vocation as teacher.
His involvement in contemporary politics was consistent with these views. He sat in the Hessian
Landtag (1848), the Erfurt Parliament (1850), the Prussian Landtag (1862–64; 1874–80), and the
Prussian Constituent Assembly of 1867. A believer in Prussia’s mission to lead Germany toward
uni cation, he was an enemy of ultramontanism and feudalism; he rejected medieval imperial
policy and eventually came to support Otto von Bismarck.

Sybel’s political views are clear from his later books. His greatest work, Geschichte der
Revolutionszeit von 1789 bis 1800, 5 vol. (1853–79; History of the French Revolution), which was
particularly valuable for its connection of French domestic events with the wider European scene,
showed vigorous opposition to revolutionary ideals. His last work, Die Begründung des deutschen
Reiches durch Wilhelm I, 7 vol. (1889–94; The Founding of the German Empire by William I), for
which Bismarck opened the state archives, is the rst detailed account of the subject. It is
somewhat marred, however, by a disregard of internal affairs and by excessive Prussianism.

In forming the Historische Zeitschrift in 1859 in Munich, Sybel provided the model for many other
periodicals. In 1875 Bismarck appointed him director of the Prussian archives, and he began a great
series of publications.

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