Barthold georg niebuhr biography definition and example

Barthold Georg Niebuhr was a German historian and the founder of the scientific-critical method in the study of history. Niebuhr studied at the University of Kiel and then spent over a year in England and Scotland.

Niebuhr, a prominent scholar born in , played a critical role in shaping British classical education through his lectures and writings on Roman history.

From to , he served as the director of the National Bank of Denmark, and from to , he was invited by Stein to become the director of the National Bank of Prussia. In , Niebuhr started giving lectures on Roman history at the University of Berlin. From to , he served as the ambassador of Prussia to the Vatican, and later became a professor at the University of Bonn.

While the actual results of this work were valuable, it was his method that made it groundbreaking. Niebuhr attempted to extract the rational core from the legends surrounding the founding of Rome, focusing on the history of the society and state formation in Rome rather than on exceptional individuals. By the end of the 19th century, it was realized that excessive criticism was unproductive.

Niebuhr was not so poor in great and amiable qualities, as to require an artificial light, in order to retain the es- teem of those whose esteem he would have.

However, Niebuhr's method remains the foundation of any serious historical research to this day. Barthold Georg Niebuhr German historian, founder of the scientific-critical method in the study of history Date of Birth: Contact About Privacy. Mikhail Alpatov. Adolf Ermann. Pier Giovanni Capriata. Alfred DuPont Chandler Jr. Paul Gide.