SCHLOZER, AUGUST LUDWIG VON (1735-1809)

This article appears in Volume V24, Page 343 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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SCHLOZER, AUGUST LUDWIG VON (1735-1809) , German historian, was born at Gaggstedt, in the county of Hohenlohe-Kirchberg, on the 5th of July 1735. Having studied theology and oriental languages at the universities of Wittenberg and Gottingen, he went in 1755 as a tutor to Stockholm, and after-wards to Upsala; and while in Sweden he wrote in Swedish an Essay on the General History of Trade and of Seafaring in the most Ancient Times (1758). In 1759 he returned to Gottingen, where he began the study of medicine. In 1761 he went to St

Petersburg

PETERSBURG

with Gerhardt Friedrich Muller, the Russian historiographer, as Miller's literary assistant and as tutor in his family. Here Schlozer learned Russian and devoted himself to the study of Russian history. In 1762 a quarrel with Muller placed him in a position of some difficulty from which he was delivered by an introduction to Count Rasumovski, who procured his appointment as adjunct to the Academy. In 1765 he was appointed by the empress Catherine an

ordinary

ORDINARY (med. Lat. ordinarius, Fr. ordinaire)

member of the Academy and professor of Russian history. In 1767 he left Russia on leave and did not return. He settled at Gottingen, where in 1764 he had been made professor extraordinarius, and

doctor

DOCTOR (Lat. for " teacher ")

honoris causa in 1766, and in 1769 he was promoted to an

ordinary

ORDINARY (med. Lat. ordinarius, Fr. ordinaire)

professorship. In 1804 he was ennobled by the emperor Alexander I. of Russia and made a privy councillor. He retired from active work in 18o5 and died on the 9th of September 1809.
Schlozer's activity was enormous, and he exercised great influence by his lectures as well as by his books, bringing historical study into

touch

TOUCH (derived through Fr. toucher from a common Teutonic and Indo-Germanic root, cf. " tug," " tuck," O. H. Ger. zucchen, to twitch or draw)

with political science generally, and using his vast erudition in an attempt to solve practical questions in the state and in society. He was " a journalist before the days of journalism, a traveller before that of travelling, a critic of authorities before that of political oppositions." His most important works were his Ailgemeine nordische Geschichte, 2 vols. (

Halle

, 1772) and his translation of the Russian chronicler Nestor to the year 98o, 5 vols. (Gottingen, 18021809). He awoke much intelligent

interest

INTEREST

in universal history by his Weltgeschichte im Auszuge and Zusammenhange, 2 vols. (2nd ed., Gottingen, 17921801); and in several works he helped to lay the foundations of statistical science. He also produced a strong impression by his political writings, the Briefwechsel, 10 vols. (17761782) and the Staatsanzeigen, 18 vols. (17821793).
Schlozer, who in 1769 married Caroline Roederer, daughter of Johann Georg Roederer (17261763), professor of medicine at Gottingen and

body

BODY

physician to the king of England, left five children. His daughter Dorothea, born on the loth of August 1770, was one of the most beautiful and learned women of her time, and received in 1787 the degree of

doctor

DOCTOR (Lat. for " teacher ")

. She was re-cognized as an authority on several subjects, especially on Russian coinage. After her marriage with Rodde, the burgomaster of Lubeck, she devoted herself to domestic duties. She died on the 12th of July 1825 (see Reuter, Dorothea Schlozer, Gottingen, 1887). Schlozer's son Christian (1774-1831) was a professor at Bonn, and published Anfangsgriunde der Staatswirthschaft (18041806) and his father's Offentliches and Privat-Leben aus Originalurkunden (1828). The youngest son, Karl von Schlozer, a merchant and Russian

consul

-general at Lubeck, was the father of Kurd von Schlozer (18221894), the historian
and diplomatist, who in 1871 was appointed German

ambassador

AMBASSADOR (also EMBASSADOR, the form sometimes still used in America; from the Fr. ambassadeur, with which compare Ital. ambasciatore and Span. embajador, all variants of the Med. Lat. ambassiator, ambassiator, ambasator, &c., derived from Med. Lat. amba

to the United States and in 1882 to the Vatican, when he was instrumental in healing the breach between Germany and the papacy caused by the " May Laws."
See Zermelo, August Ludwig SchlOzer (Berlin, 1875) ; Wesendpnck, Die Begriindung der neuern deutschen Geschichtsschreibung durch Gatterer and Schlozer (

Leipzig

LEIPZIG

, 1876) and F. Frensdorff in Allgemeine deutsche Biog. vol. xxxi.

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