Johannes, or Johann Friedrich Gottlieb Falke (20 April 1823 – 2 March 1876) was a German

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

. He was born at

Ratzeburg Ratzeburg (; Low German: ''Ratzborg'') is a town in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is surrounded by Ratzeburger See, four lakes—the resulting isthmuses between the lakes form the access lanes to the town. Ratzeburg is the capital of the distri ...

Duchy of Holstein The Duchy of Holstein (; ) was the northernmost state of the Holy Roman Empire, located in the present German state of Schleswig-Holstein. It originated when King Christian I of Denmark had his County of Holstein-Rendsburg elevated to a duchy ...

. Entering the

University of Erlangen-Nuremberg A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

in 1843, he soon began to devote his attention to the history of the

German language German (, ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Western Europe, Western and Central Europe. It is the majority and Official language, official (or co-official) language in Germany, Austria, Switze ...

and literature, and in 1848 went to

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, where he remained five years, and diligently availed himself of the use of the government library for the purpose of prosecuting his historical studies. In 1856 he was appointed secretary of the German museum at

Nuremberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...

, and in 1859, keeper of the manuscripts. With the aid of the manuscript collections in the museum he now turned his attention chiefly to

political history Political history is the narrative and survey of political events, ideas, movements, organs of government, voters, parties and leaders. It is closely related to other fields of history, including diplomatic history, constitutional history, soci ...

, and, with Johann H. Müller, established a historical journal under the name of "Zeitschrift für deutsche Kulturgeschichte" (4 volumes, Nuremberg, 1856-1859). To this journal he contributed a history of German taxation and commerce. On the latter subject he published separately ''Geschichte des deutschen Handels'' (2 volumes, Leipzig, 1859-1860) and ''Die Hansa als deutsche See- und Handelsmacht'' (Berlin, 1862). In 1862 he was appointed secretary of the state archives at

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

, and, a little later, keeper. There he began the study of Saxon history, still devoting his attention chiefly to the history of commerce and economy, and published ''Die Geschichte des Kurfürsten August von Sachsen in volkswirthschaftlicher Beziehung'' (Leipzig, 1868) and ''Geschichte des deutschen Zollwesens'' (Leipzig, 1869). He died at Dresden.

References

* 1823 births 1876 deaths People from Ratzeburg 19th-century German historians 19th-century German writers 19th-century German male writers German male non-fiction writers People from the Duchy of Holstein {{Germany-historian-stub