author
Gustav Berthold Volz
1871–1938
A meticulous German historian best remembered for bringing Friedrich the Great’s world into print, he devoted much of his career to editing letters, documents, and historical writings that opened Prussian history to later readers.
1 Audiobook
Der Graf von Saint-Germain: Das Leben eines Alchimisten
by Gustav Berthold Volz
About the author
Born in Halle (Saale) on November 4, 1871, Gustav Berthold Volz was a German historian and the son of the geographer and historical researcher Berthold Volz. Sources describe him as a student of Albert Naudé, and his work centered on modern history, especially the age of Frederick the Great.
Volz is chiefly known for editing large bodies of source material connected with Frederick the Great. He began publishing the Politische Korrespondenz Friedrichs des Großen in 1899 and went on to issue many volumes, helping preserve and organize an enormous documentary record. He also edited works related to the Count of Saint Germain and published writings and documents from the broader Prussian historical tradition.
He died on September 27, 1938. Today, he is remembered less as a popular narrative historian than as a careful scholarly editor whose editions made important eighteenth-century sources far easier to study and revisit.