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WILHELM VON GIESEBRECHT (1814–1889)

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 3 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WILHELM VON See also:

GIESEBRECHT (1814–1889)  , See also:German historian, was a son of Karl See also:Giesebrecht (d . 1832), and a See also:nephew of the poet See also:Ludwig Giesebrecht (1792–1873) . See also:Born in See also:Berlin on the 5th of See also:March 1814, he studied under See also:Leopold von See also:Ranke, and his first important See also:work, Geschichte Ottosll., was contributed to Ranke's Jahrbucher See also:des deuischen Reichs unter dem sachsischen Hause (Berlin, 1837–1840) . In 1841 he published his Jahrbucher des Klosters Altaich, a reconstruction of the lost Annales Altahenses, a See also:medieval source of which fragments only were known to be extant, and these were obscured in other See also:chronicles . The brilliance of this performance was shown in 1867, when a copy of the See also:original See also:chronicle was found, and it was seen that Giesebrecht's See also:text was substantially correct . In the meantime he had been appointed Oberlehrer in the Joachimsthaler Gymnasium in Berlin; had paid a visit to See also:Italy, and as a result of his re-searches there had published De litterarum studiis apud Italos primis medii aevi seculis (Berlin, 1845), a study upon the survival of culture in See also:Italian cities during the See also:middle ages, and also several See also:critical essays upon the See also:sources for the See also:early See also:history of the popes . In 1851 appeared his See also:translation of the Historiae of See also:Gregory of See also:Tours, which is the See also:standard German translation . Four years later appeared the first See also:volume of his See also:great work, Geschichte der deuischen Kaiserzeit, the fifth volume of which was published in 1888 . This work was the first in which the results of the scientific methods of See also:research were thrown open to the See also:world at large . Largeness of See also:style and brilliance of portrayal were joined to an See also:absolute mastery of the sources in a way hitherto unachieved by any German historian . Yet later German historians have severely criticized his glorification of the imperial era with its Italian entanglements, in which the interests of See also:Germany were sacrificed for idle See also:glory . Giesebrecht's history, however, appeared when the new German See also:empire was in the making, and became popular owing both to its patriotic See also:tone and its See also:intrinsic merits .

In 1857 he went to See also:

Konigsberg as See also:professor ordinarius, and in 1862 succeeded H. von See also:Sybel as professor of history in the university of See also:Munich . The Bavarian See also:government honoured him in various ways, and he died at Munich on the 17th of See also:December 1889 . In addition to the See also:works already mentioned, Giesebrecht published a See also:good monograph on See also:Arnold of See also:Brescia (Munich, 1873), a collection of essays under the See also:title Deutsche Reden (Munich, 1871), and was an active member of the See also:group of scholars who took over the direction of the Monumenta Germaniae historica in 1875 . In 1895 B. von See also:Simson added a See also:sixth volume to the Geschichte der deuischen Kaiserzeit, thus bringing the work down to the See also:death of the See also:emperor See also:Frederick I. in 1190 . See S . Riezler, Gedachtnisrede auf Wilhelm von Giesebrecht (Munich, 1891); and See also:Lord See also:Acton in the See also:English See also:Historical See also:Review, vol. v . (See also:London, 1890) .

End of Article: WILHELM VON GIESEBRECHT (1814–1889)
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