Friedrich Meinecke (Meinecke)

Meinecke, Friedrich (Meinecke), (1862-1954), German historian, opponent of the Nazi ideology. Born October 30, 1862 in Salzwedel. He studied at the universities of Bonn and Berlin (1882-1886), worked in the Prussian State Archives. From 1893 to 1935 was chief editor of the journal Historishe tsaytshrift "(" Historische Zeitschrift "). Professor of Strasbourg (1901-06), Freiburg (1906-14), Berlin (1914-28) universities. Trudy Meinecke devoted to studying the history of ideas, which Meinecke believed the engine of the historical process. In his book "Cosmopolitanism and the national State" (1908) he introduced the history of Germany's reunification in the form of the nation state. The defeat of Germany in the 1 st World War led Meinecke to abandon the traditional presentation to him of the state as the incarnation of moral ideas ( "The idea of public reason in modern history", 1924). Meinecke was to assert that history plays an important role irrational, "demonic" beginning. As a supporter of Western liberalism and speaking out for an alliance with Western powers, he at the same time, was an admirer of the Prussian authoritarian rule and tried in the works to bring together these two opposing concepts. After Hitler came to power, a major theoretical and methodological work of Meinecke "The emergence of Historicism" (1936), . in which he summarized his views on the historical phenomenon as a purely individual complexes, . not assigned to any objective laws.,
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. Meinecke not share rude and arrogant nationalism of Hitler, and often said so in the pages of his magazine, which led to his resignation in 1935 from his post as chief editor and from his post as university lecturer
. After the defeat of the Third Reich Meinecke in his book "Germany catastrophe" (1946), though criticized by many of the policies of Hitler and Germanic imperialism, . nevertheless defended the dual nature of germanskogo spirit - both sublime and profane, . peaceful and warlike,
. Meinecke criticized the "vile degenerative militarism", which became a tool of Hitler and his vicious circle. "Deed Hitler - wrote Meinecke - should be viewed as satanic eruption began in world history."

. In 1948 the U.S. occupation authorities appointed a new rector Meinecke at the Free University in West Berlin, where he worked until his death on Feb. 6, 1954.