Heinrich von Treitschke

Born in Dresden in 1834, Heinrich von Treitschke grew up in Saxony and studied at several German universities before building a career as a historian and teacher. Severe deafness kept him from the kind of public career he first imagined, but it did not stop him from becoming a prominent academic speaker and writer.

He taught at Freiburg, Kiel, Heidelberg, and later Berlin, where he became especially influential through his lectures and historical writing. He also served in the Reichstag and was closely associated with German nationalism and the political climate of the new German Empire.

Treitschke is remembered both for his impact on German historical and political thought and for the aggressive nationalism and antisemitism in parts of his work. He died in Berlin in 1896, and his legacy is now studied as an important but troubling part of 19th-century European intellectual history.