550 LEOPOLD VON RANKE. 



From 1828 to 1836 he and Savigny edited the " Historische-politische 

 Zeitschrift," which was distinctly opposed to the liberal and democratic 

 spirit of the age. Rauke lived in a period of political reaction. Cau- 

 tious statesmen were turning away in distrust from the revolutionary 

 spirit begotten by France. Scholars were urged to strengthen the 

 foundations of existing society by reviving a knowledge of an illustri- 

 ous past. It was a period most favorable to historical studies, although 

 not to political progress in popular ways. By conservative methods 

 of reconstruction, scholars and statesmen hoped to build up Germany 

 anew. Eichhorn studied early Germanic law and institutions. The 

 Grimm brothers studied Germanic folk-lore. Savigny investigated the 

 history of Roman law in the Middle Ages. Niebuhr wrote his Roman 

 history, and Ranke carried Niebuhr's idea into the history of modern 

 Europe, with a specifically German impulse proceeding from Luther 

 and the German Refoi-mation. At the j^atriotic instance of Baron 

 vom Stein, an historical society was founded at Frankfurt on the Main 

 in 1818, for the reconstruction of German history from the very foun- 

 dations. By Stein's recommendation George Pertz was engaged to 

 edit the original sources of German history, now well developed in a 

 magnificent series of volumes called the " Mouumenta Germania) His- 

 torica." Pertz was also put in charge of the royal library at Berlin, 

 which became the centre of historical activity for all Germany, as it is 

 now the centre of politics for the new German Emjjire. The con- 

 servatives were perhaps wiser than the radicals in that slow historical 

 upbuilding of now reunited Germany. 



Into this process of peaceful, scientific reconstruction not only of 

 Germany, but of modern Europe, Ranke entered heart and soul. He 

 was j)re-eminently the man who tauglit Young Germany how to utilize 

 the historical materials which Pertz was beginning to collect and pub- 

 lish. Ranke early instituted at the University of Berlin an historical 

 seminary, or, as it was then called, historical exercises, for the critical 

 use of the original sources of mediaeval history. AVhile his own work 

 was for many years in the modern field, he preferred to keep his stu- 

 dents upon mediaeval ground, where materials could be better mastered. 

 A little company of advanced students met once a week in Ranke's 

 own library, and learned, under his direction, to apply the critical 

 method. This was the origin of the famous Ranke school of his- 

 torians, of which Germany is now full. Three generations of histori- 

 cal scholars have been trained under his direct or indirect influence. 

 Dr. Jastrow, of Berlin, from whom the writer obtained some mate- 

 rials for the present sketch, says there is not a single professor of his- 



