August Ludwig von Schlözer facts for kids
August Ludwig von Schlözer (born July 5, 1735, died September 9, 1809) was an important German historian and teacher. He helped create a new way to study the history of Russia from the Middle Ages. He was part of a famous group of historians called the Göttingen School of History.
Contents
Early Life and Studies
August Ludwig von Schlözer was born in Gaggstatt, which is now part of Kirchberg an der Jagst in Germany. His family had many Protestant religious leaders. In 1751, he started studying theology (religious studies) at the University of Wittenberg. In 1754, he moved to the University of Göttingen to study history.
After his studies, in 1755, he worked as a private teacher in Stockholm, Sweden. He also studied old languages like Old Norse and Gothic at Uppsala. While in Sweden, he wrote about the history of trade and seafaring, which made him quite well-known. In 1759, he returned to Göttingen and began studying medicine.
Working in Russia
In 1761, Schlözer went to St. Petersburg, Russia. He worked as an assistant to Gerhardt Friedrich Müller, who was the official historian for Russia. Schlözer also taught Müller's children. While in Russia, he learned Russian and spent a lot of time studying Russian history.
He later had some disagreements with Müller. But he was helped by Count Rasumovski, who got him a job at the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 1765, Empress Catherine made him a full member of the Academy and a professor of Russian history. In 1767, he was also chosen as a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Return to Göttingen and Teaching
In 1767, Schlözer left Russia and moved back to Göttingen. He became a professor there in 1769. Schlözer was known as a brilliant teacher. Many students came to his classes, including famous historians like Arnold Heeren.
Schlözer was interested in many different subjects. He translated books about teaching and even a travel book about Jamaica for children. He also wrote an introduction to world history for kids in 1779. He believed that history should be connected to how society and government work.
He was very interested in political science and statistics. Statistics means collecting and studying numbers and facts. He thought statistics were important for governments to understand their people and country. His ideas helped a scholar named Adam František Kollár create the term ethnology. Ethnology is the study of different cultures and peoples.
His Political Newspaper
From 1776 to 1793, Schlözer ran his own political newspaper. It was called A.L. Schlözer's Briefwechsel meist historischen und politischen Inhalts, and later A.L. Schlözer's Staats-Anzeigen. This newspaper was very popular and had many readers.
In his newspaper, Schlözer often criticized the German government. It was the first German publication to print the Declaration of Human Rights in 1791. Because of its strong opinions, the government eventually stopped its publication in 1793.
Ideas on World History
Schlözer was a very diverse historian. He gave lectures on many topics, from Oliver Cromwell to the French Revolution. He also kept publishing on Russian history. His book Allgemeine nordische Geschichte (General Northern History) was considered a key book on Russian history for a long time. He also translated parts of the famous Nestor Chronicle, which is an old Russian history book.
In 1769, he started teaching about general world history. This was a big challenge for historians at the time. There was so much new information about different continents and the past. How could they organize all this information in a way that made sense? Schlözer worked on this problem and published his ideas in Vorstellung einer Universalgeschichte in 1772. He later improved it into his main work, Weltgeschichte nach ihren Haupttheilen im Auszug und Zusammenhange (Main elements of world history in excerpts and context).
Schlözer's Weltgeschichte
Schlözer's Weltgeschichte (World History) was a guide for education. It showed how science was understood at that time. Schlözer faced three main challenges when writing a global history:
- Scope: He wanted to include all of mankind, not just Europe. He also included all social classes and cultural developments. For example, he thought the invention of glass by the Phoenicians or the introduction of potatoes in Europe were more important than just listing emperors.
- Topic: The main idea was how things developed and how past events affect today. He believed five things were key to development: "The life-style determines, climate and nutrition creates, the sovereign forces, the priest teaches, and the example inspires."
- Structure: He created a new way to divide universal history into six periods:
* Urwelt (primeval world): From the creation to the Great Flood. * Dunkle Welt (dark world): From the Flood to Moses and the first written records. * Vorwelt (preworld): Up to the Persian Empire. * Alte Welt (old world): Up to the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 AD. * Mittelalter (Middle Ages): Up to the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus in 1492. * Neue Welt (the new world): Up to the present day.
This way of dividing history was not completely new, but Schlözer and his colleague Johann Christoph Gatterer were among the first to set the Middle Ages between 476 and 1492. These dates are still used today!
Counting History Backwards
Schlözer's most important new idea was to count years backwards from the birth of Jesus. This is what we now call BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini). At the time, people mostly believed the world was created in 3987 BC, based on the Bible. But new ideas were emerging that the Earth might be much older.
Schlözer's system allowed for new theories about the Earth's age. He mentioned he got the idea from other historians, but he was the one who made this new way of counting years popular in European history. This was a huge step because it became the basic way we understand all ancient history. It helped people move away from old beliefs about the world's creation.
Later Life and Family
In 1804, Schlözer was honored by Emperor Alexander I of Russia and became a privy councillor. He retired from his work in 1805. Many Russian historians, like Nikolai Karamzin, admired him greatly.
Schlözer married Caroline Roederer in 1769. They had five children. His daughter, Dorothea, born in 1770, was known for being very smart and learned. She even earned a doctor's degree in 1787 and was an expert on many subjects, including Russian coins.
His son Christian (1774–1831) became a professor. Another son, Karl von Schlözer, was a merchant and a Russian consul-general. Karl's son, Kurd von Schlözer (1822–1894), became a famous historian and diplomat. He even served as the German ambassador to the United States and the Vatican.
See also
In Spanish: August Ludwig von Schlözer para niños
- Liberalism
- Contributions to liberal theory
- Human history
- Ethnography
