Son of a plumber, he studied history, economics and history of art in
Leipzig, starting in 1895. In 1899 he obtained a
PhD, worked for several newspapers and was active in the
Alldeutscher Verband and favoured the creation of a
German Navy. In 1905 he passed the exam as an interpreter in Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, French, English, Italian and Dutch. Between 1906 and 1913 he taught in the
Prussian Royal Academy in
Posen. In 1913 he became
Professor for
Eastern European history in
Berlin. He started his political career as a member of the
Prussian constitutional assembly. In 1918 he joined the DNVP (
German National People's Party), and was a member of the
Reichstag from 1920 to 1930. In 1922 he helped negotiate the
Treaty of Rapallo with the new
Soviet Union, as an interpreter. He felt that this would also lead to an international rehabilitation of Germany after the Great War. He greatly admired President
Hindenburg, whom he also entertained at dinner in his home. Between 1923 and 1934 he repeatedly travelled to the Soviet Union and founded the Journal
Osteuropa (Eastern Europe) which still exists. In 1928 he went on an extensive lecturing tour through the United States. Back in Berlin he maintained contacts with Russian emigrants. Although he was a German nationalist (like many of his contemporaries in 1914 he had enthusiastically welcomed the outbreak of
World War I), the
Nazis considered him a
Bolshevik. Consequently, he resigned from the Reichstag in 1932 and was forced to retire in 1935. After
World War II, he once more became a professor of history in Berlin, this time with Soviet approval. He published extensively on Russian and American History and was widely recognized in both East and West Germany. In 1966 his classic text
Grundzüge der Geschichte Russlands was translated and published as
The Evolution of Russia as part of the "Library of European Civilization" series. ==References==