Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeren (October 25, 1760 – March 6, 1842) was a
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
historianAn historian is an individual who studies and writes about history, and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all events in time...
.
He was born at Arbergen, near Bremen. He studied
philosophyPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned...
,
theologyThe term "theology" literally means the study of God, deriving from the Greek word theos, meaning 'God', and the suffix -ology from the Greek word logos meaning "discourse", "theory", or "reasoning"...
and
historyHistory is the study of the human past, with special attention to the written record. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it often attempts to investigate objectively the patterns...
at the University of Göttingen, and then travelled in
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
,
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
and the Netherlands. In 1787 he was appointed a professor of philosophy, and then of history, at Göttingen, and he afterwards was chosen
Aulic CouncilThe Aulic Council was originally an executive-judicial council for the Holy Roman Empire....
lor, privy councillor, etc., the usual rewards of successful German scholars.
Heeren's chief merit as an historian was that he looked at the ancient world from a fresh point of view. Instead of merely narrating their political events, he examined their economics, their constitutions and their financial systems, and thus was able to throw new light on the development of the old world. He possessed vast and varied learning, perfect calmness and impartiality, and great power of historical insight, and is now looked back to as the pioneer in the movement for the economic interpretation of history.
Heeren's chief works are:
- Ideen über Politik, den Verkehr, und den Handel der vornehmsten Völker der alten Welt (2 vols., Göttingen, 1793–1796; 4th ed., 6 vols., 1824–1826; Eng. trans., Oxford, 1833)
- Geschichte des Studiums der klasszschen Litteratur seit dem Wiederaufleben der Wissenschaften (2 vols., Göttingen, 1797–1802)
- Geschichte der Staaten des Altertums (Göttingen, 1799)
- Geschichte des europäischen Staatensystems (Göttingen, 1800)
- Versuch einer Entwickelung der Folgen der Kreuzzüge für Europa (Göttingen, 1808; French trans., Paris, 1808), a prize essay of the Institute of France.
Besides these, Heeren wrote brief biographical sketches of
Johannes von MüllerJohannes von Müller was a Swiss historian.-Biography:He was born at Schaffhausen.In his youth his maternal grandfather, Johannes Schoop , roused in him an interest in the history of his country...
(Leipzig, 1809);
Ludwig Timotheus SpittlerLudwig Timotheus Spittler was a German historian who was born in Stuttgart. He published works on national, church and political history....
(Berlin, 1812); and Christian Gottlob Heine (Göttingen, 1813). With
Friedrich August UkertFriedrich August Ukert was a German history scholar, teacher and humanitarian. He was born in Eutin, Bishopric of Lübeck....
(1780–1851) he founded the famous historical collection,
Geschichte der europäischen Staaten (Gotha, 1819 seq.), and contributed many papers to learned periodicals.
A collection of his historical works, with autobiographical notice, was published in 15 volumes (Göttingen, 1821–1830).
In 1822, he was elected a foreign member of the
Royal Swedish Academy of SciencesThe Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences or Kungliga Vetenskapsakademin is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. The Academy is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization which acts to promote the sciences, primarily the natural sciences and mathematics.The Academy was founded on 2 June...
.