Erich Eyck, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetErich Eyck
German historian of modern age
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Berlin
About Erich Eyck
- Erich Eyck (1878 – 23 June 1964) was a German historian. He was born in Berlin and studied to become a lawyer.
- Before the First World War one of his clients was the Russian Marxist revolutionary Anatoly Lunacharsky.
- In 1928 he was elected to the Berlin Town Assembly, standing as a Democrat.
- Eyck also wrote articles for the Vossische Zeitung.
- However, following the rise of Adolf Hitler, Eyck emigrated to Britain in 1937, living in Boars Hill, Berkshire and Hampstead, London.
- He took British nationality after 1945.From then on he focused on history, writing biographies of Otto von Bismarck and Wilhelm II, as well as a two-volume history of the Weimar Republic.
- From early on in his life he had admired Britain's liberal political system and his political beliefs influenced his historical work.
- Eyck wrote that he was "of the Liberal persuasion" and in 1938 he wrote a biography of the Liberal politician William Ewart Gladstone, who was his ideal statesman.In the early 1940s, he wrote a three-volume biography of Bismarck.
- According to The Times, Eyck was one of the few people to have read all the evidence concerning Bismarck's career.
- Karina Urbach has written that as "a lawyer, Eyck despised Bismarck's lack of respect for the rule of law, and as a liberal he passionately condemned Bismarck's cynicism towards liberal, democratic, and humanitarian ideals".
- Eyck's interpretation was criticised by Hans Rothfels and Franz Schnabel, who argued that Eyck's belief that Germany could have gone down a liberal road was unrealistic and that Germany could have been united only by Bismarck.
- Gerhard Ritter wrote to Eyck, lamenting that his work would confirm the negative impression people abroad had of German history.Eyck enjoyed a friendship with Theodor Heuss, the first President of postwar Germany.
- In 1953 Heuss awarded him the Grand Cross of Merit.
Read more at Wikipedia
See Also
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- Famous historian of the modern age's Birthdays in December, Germany