Leo, Heinrich

Leo, Heinrich a famous German historian, was born at Rudolstadt, March 19, 1799. He studied at Breslau and Jena, and commenced his academical career at Erlangen in 1820. In 1824 he was at Berlin, accepted a call to Halle in 1830, and died April 24, 1878. Leo was orthodox in religion, and conservative in politics, and from this standpoint wrote his Lehrbuch der Universalgeschichte (Halle, 1835-44, 6 volumes; 3d ed. 1849-53). Liberalism found in him a violent opponent, and the liberal tendencies in State and Church he assailed in Studien und Skizzen zur Naturgeschichte des Staates (ibid. 1833), Die Hegelingen (1838), Signatura Temporis (1849), more especially in. the KreuzZeitung, the organ of the political conservatives, and in Evangelische Kirchenzeitung, the organ of orthodoxy. His political tendencies were acknowledged by king Frederick William IV, and in 1863 he was made a member of the Prussian upper house for life. See Lichtenberger, Encyclop. des Sciences Religieuses, s.v.; Brockhaus, Conversations-Lexikon, s.v. (B.P.)