Eduard Gans (March 22, 1797 – May 5, 1839) was a German jurist.

Biography

Gans was born in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

to prosperous

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

ish parents. He studied law first at the Friedrich Wilhelm University,

, then at

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

, and finally at

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

, where he attended

G. W. F. Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealism, German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political phi ...

's lectures, and became thoroughly imbued with the principles of Hegel's

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

. In 1820, after taking his doctor's degree, he returned to Berlin as a lecturer. In 1825 he converted to the Evangelical Church in Prussia, and the following year was appointed extraordinary, and in 1828 ordinary, professor in the Berlin University faculty of

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

. Before converting, he was a member of the Society for the Culture and Science of the Jews, alongside Joel Abraham List, Isaac Marcus Jost and Leopold Zunz. At this period, the historical school of

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, also known as theory of law or philosophy of law, is the examination in a general perspective of what law is and what it ought to be. It investigates issues such as the definition of law; legal validity; legal norms and values ...

was coming to the front. Gans, his Hegelian tendencies predisposing him to treat law historically, applied the method to one special branch—the right of succession. His great work, ''Erbrecht in weltgeschichtlicher Entwicklung'' (1824, 1825, 1829 and 1835), is of enduring value, not only for its extensive survey of facts, but for the admirable manner in which the general theory of the slow evolution of legal principles is presented. In 1830, and again in 1835, Gans visited

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, and formed an intimate acquaintance with the leaders of literary culture and criticism there. The liberality of his views, especially on political matters, drew upon Gans the displeasure of the

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

n government, and his course of lectures on the history of the last fifty years (published as ''Vorlesungen über die Geschichte der letzten fünfzig Jahre'', Leipzig, 1833–1834) was prohibited. He died in Berlin. Other works are a treatise on the fundamental laws of property (''Über die Grundlage des Besitzes'', Berlin, 1829), a portion of a systematic work on the Roman civil law (''System des römischen Zivilrechts'', 1827), and a collection of his miscellaneous writings (''Vermischte Schriften''. 1832). Gans edited the ''Philosophie der Geschichte in Hegel's Werke'', and contributed a preface. He also wrote ''Das Erbrecht in Weltgeschichtlicher Entwickelung'' (4 vols., 1834) which was translated into French.

References

Eduard Gans
on ''

Encyclopædia Britannica The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, ...

'' * Johann Braun: Judentum, Jurisprudenz und Philosophie. Bilder aus dem Leben des Juristen Eduard Gans (1797–1839). Nomos, Baden-Baden 1997, * * Converts to Protestantism from Judaism German Protestants 19th-century German Jews Jurists from Berlin Jurists from the Kingdom of Prussia 1797 births 1839 deaths Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin Hegelian philosophers 19th-century German philosophers 19th-century German jurists Humboldt University of Berlin alumni {{germany-law-bio-stub