James Wycliffe Headlam

“ It forms a complete history of the growth of the Prussian monarchy down to the year 1756. This, like all Droysen’s work, shows a strongly marked individuality, and a great power of tracing the manner in which important dynamic forces worked themselves out in history. ”

“ In 1840 Droysen was appointed professor of history at Kiel. He was at once attracted into the political movement for the defence of the rights of the Elbe duchies, of which Kiel was the centre. Like his predecessor F. C. Dahlmann, he placed his historical learning at the service of the estates of Schleswig-Holstein and composed the address of 1844, in which the estates protested against the claim of the king of Denmark to alter the law of succession in the duchies. ”

“ The impressions of these early years laid the foundation of the ardent attachment to Prussia which distinguished him, like so many other historians of his generation. He was educated at the gymnasium of Stettin and at the university of Berlin ”