Johann Gustav Droysen

Lore & Background

Droysen was born at Treptow in Pomerania on 6 July 1808, the son of an army chaplain. As a child, he witnessed military operations during the War of Liberation, which laid the foundation for his ardent attachment to Prussia. He was educated at the gymnasium of Stettin and the University of Berlin, and from 1827 to 1829 served as private tutor to Felix Mendelssohn, who set several of Droysen's poems to music. In 1829 he became a master at the Graues Kloster school in Berlin and later lectured at the University of Berlin, becoming a professor without salary in 1835. The historian Jacob Burckhardt visited his class in 1839–40.

Droysen's early work focused on classical antiquity. He published a translation of Aeschylus in 1832 and a paraphrase of Aristophanes (1835–1838), but his reputation as a historian was established by his *Geschichte Alexanders des Grossen* (History of Alexander the Great, 1833). This work idealized power and success, a framework he learned from Hegel's teaching. He followed it with *Geschichte des Hellenismus* (1836–1843), in which he created the term 'Hellenistic' to refer to the period between Alexander's conquests and the emergence of the Roman Empire. He also published *Vorlesung des Freiheits Krieg* (1846) and *Outlines of the Principles of History* (1858).

Reader's Guide

Droysen's significance lies in his role as a founder of the Prussian school of historiography, which emphasized the role of power and great men in history. His *History of Alexander the Great* was the first work to represent this new German historical thought, and his coinage of the term 'Hellenistic' shaped the study of the ancient world. Politically, he was a determined supporter of Prussian hegemony, seeing it as the only route to German unification, and he served in the Frankfurt parliament of 1848. His later magnum opus, *Geschichte der preussischen Politik* (1855–1886), traced the growth of the Prussian monarchy to 1756 and consumed 32 volumes. Droysen's methodological work, *Erhebung der Geschichte zum Rang einer Wissenschaft* (1863), reflected his new approach to research and writing. His legacy includes influencing later historians such as Felix Gilbert, who wrote his doctoral dissertation on Droysen in 1931.

Did You Know?

• Droysen was the private tutor of composer Felix Mendelssohn from 1827 to 1829.
• He coined the term 'Hellenistic' to describe the period between Alexander the Great's conquests and the rise of the Roman Empire.
• He served as secretary to the committee for drawing up a proposed constitution in the revolutionary Frankfurt parliament of 1848.
• His son Gustav wrote historical works on Gustavus Adolphus and Duke Bernhard of Weimar.