Erich Eyck
Erich Eyck(1878 – 23 June 1964) was a German historian.
He was born inBerlinand studied to become alawyer.[1]Before theFirst World Warone of his clients was the Russian Marxist revolutionaryAnatoly Lunacharsky.[1]In 1928 he was elected to the Berlin Town Assembly, standing as aDemocrat.[1]Eyck also wrote articles for theVossische Zeitung.[1]However, following the rise ofAdolf Hitler,Eyck emigrated toBritainin 1937, living inBoars Hill,BerkshireandHampstead,London.[1]He took British nationality after 1945.[1]
From then on he focused on history, writing biographies ofOtto von BismarckandWilhelm II,as well as a two-volume history of theWeimar Republic.[1]From early on in his life he had admired Britain's liberal political system and his political beliefs influenced his historical work.[1][2]Eyck wrote that he was "of the Liberal persuasion" and in 1938 he wrote a biography of theLiberalpoliticianWilliam Ewart Gladstone,who was his ideal statesman.[3]
In the early 1940s, he wrote a three-volume biography of Bismarck.[4]According toThe Times,Eyck was one of the few people to have read all the evidence concerning Bismarck's career.[1]Karina Urbachhas written that as "a lawyer, Eyck despised Bismarck's lack of respect for therule of law,and as a liberal he passionately condemned Bismarck's cynicism towards liberal, democratic, and humanitarian ideals ".[4]Eyck's interpretation was criticised byHans RothfelsandFranz 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.[5]Gerhard Ritterwrote to Eyck, lamenting that his work would confirm the negative impression people abroad had of German history.[5]
Eyck enjoyed a friendship withTheodor Heuss,the firstPresidentof postwar Germany.[1]In 1953 Heuss awarded him theGrand Cross of Merit.[1]
Works
[edit]- Die Krisis der deutschen Rechtspflege(Berlin, 1926).
- Gladstone(Erlenbach-Zürich and Leipzig: Eugen Rentsch Verlag, 1938).
- Bismarck:
- Volume I(Erlenbach-Zürich: Eugen Rentsch Verlag, 1941).
- Volume II(Erlenbach-Zürich: Eugen Rentsch Verlag, 1943)
- Volume III(Erlenbach-Zürich: Eugen Rentsch Verlag, 1944).
- Die Pitts und die Fox: Zwei Paar verschlungener Lebensläufe(Zürich: Rentsch, 1947).
- (English translation by Eric Northcott),Pitt versus Fox: Father and Son(London: Bell, 1950).
- Das Persönliche Regiment Wilhelms II: Politische Geschichte des Deutschen Kaiserreiches von 1890 bis 1914(Erlenbach-Zurich: Eugen Rentsch Verlag, 1948).
- Bismarck After Fifty Years(London: George Phillip & Son, 1948)
- (Essay published as a pamphlet by the Historical Association)
- Bismarck and the German Empire(London: George Allen & Unwin, 1950).
- Geschichte der Weimarer Republik, Band I: Vom Zusammenbruch des Kaisertums bis zur Wahl Hindenburgs(Erlenbach-Zürich: Eugen Rentsch Verlag, 1954).
- (English translation by Harlan P. Hanson and Robert G. L. Waite),A History of the Weimar Republic. Volume I: From the Collapse of the Empire to Hindenburg's Election(Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1962).
- Geschichte der Weimarer Republik, Band II: Von Der Konferenz von Locarno bis zu Hitlers Machtubernahme(Erlenbach-Zürich: Eugen Rentsch Verlag, 1956).
- (English translation by Harlan P. Hanson and Robert G. L. Waite),A History of the Weimar Republic. Volume II: From the Locarno Conference to Hitler's Seizure of Power(Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1963).
Notes
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