Maximilian Wolfgang Duncker

Maximilian Wolfgang Duncker (* October 15, 1811 in Berlin, † July 21, 1886 in Ansbach ) was a German historian and politician.

Origin and family

Maximilian Duncker was a son of the publishing bookseller Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Duncker (1781-1869), founder of the publishing house Duncker & Humblot, and his wife Fanny Auguste Babette nee Wolff. His brothers were the publisher Alexander Duncker (1813-1897), the Berlin politician Hermann Rudolf Carl Duncker (1817-1892), member of the Prussian National Assembly, and the publisher and publicist Franz Duncker (1822-1888), co-founder of the Hirsch - Duncker clubs. Maximilian Duncker married in 1842 Charlotte Guticke.

Life and career

After visiting the Friedrich- Wilhelm- Gymnasium in Berlin Duncker Maximilian studied history, philosophy and philology in Berlin and Bonn. He received his doctorate in 1834, Dr. phil. After his military service as a one-year volunteer, he was in 1834 at the Royal Library in Berlin worked. In the same year began investigations against Maximilian Duncker because of his membership in the fraternity Marcomannia Bonn, which he had joined in 1832. This led in 1837 to the sentencing to six years imprisonment and a ban on holding public office. After half a year in jail in Köpenick he was pardoned in 1838 and received permission to habilitation. This was a year later at the University of Halle. He was until 1842 a lecturer in history and at the same time held a leading position in his father's publishing company. From 1842 to 1857 he was an associate professor of history at Halle. In 1851, a criminal case against him was initiated on the basis of his work four months of foreign policy. In 1857 he received a professorship at the University of Tübingen, where he became a full professor of political history, international law and the theory of statistics. As early as 1859 he moved to the immediate government service and was until 1861 Head of Zentralpreßstelle the State Ministry in Berlin. He was assigned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a council to the President of the State Ministry. In 1861 he became lecturer Council and Policy Advisor to the Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm (the future Frederick III. ). In connection with the war of 1866 he was a Prussian civil commissioner in Electoral Hesse. Since 1867 to 1874 he was director of the Prussian State Archives in Berlin.

Publicist and historian

Since 1832, Duncker was a journalist. From 1858 he was a member of the Prussian Yearbooks and was there since 1867 head of the political correspondence. He was also the author of numerous political and historical scientific monographs and articles. Among them were the History of the Imperial Diet in Frankfurt (Berlin 1849), Ancient History ( 4 volumes, Berlin 1852-1857 ). Along with other authors, among them Gustav Droysen, he gave out certificates and documents in the file on the history of the Great Elector, and Prussian State headlines from the reign of King Frederick II. After leaving government service in 1874, he was again predominantly scientific and active in journalism and was regarded in 1884 as the " historian of the House of Brandenburg ". He was also a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences and the Society of Sciences in Göttingen.

Policies and mandates

Since the 1840s Duncker worked in a variety of ways in the context of national and liberal movement. In 1848 he was a member of the constitutional clubs hall.

Duncker was 1848/49 member of the Frankfurt National Assembly for the electoral district of Halle and was a member of the Group Casino. In 1849 he took the Gotha Nachparlament and 1850 part of the Erfurt Union Parliament. From 1849 to 1852, and from 1860 to 1861 he was a member of the Prussian House of Representatives for different constituencies. He first heard of various left-wing political groups and in the 1860s the fraction Vincke. In 1867 he was a member of the constituent Reichstag of the North German Confederation and was there at the old liberals.

Works (selection)

  • Treatises of modern history. Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1887
  • From the time of Frederick the Great and Frederick William III. Essays on the history of Prussia. Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1876
  • The history of the German national assembly in Frankfurt. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1849
  • History of antiquity. 4 volumes, Duncker & Humblot. Berlin later Leipzig 1852-1857 (see Related links)
  • JG Droysen and M. Duncker ( Eds.): Prussian State headlines from the reign of King Frederick II Duncker, Berlin 1877-1892
  • Four months of foreign policy. With certificates. Veit, Schiementz, Berlin 1851
  • Henry of Gagern. A biographical sketch. Costenoble and Remmelmann, Leipzig 1850
  • Origen Germanicae. Commentatio fine. Berlin 1840
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