Erich Eyck

Erich Eyck (1878 – 23 June 1964) was a German historian.

Erich Eyck

He was born in Berlin and studied to become a lawyer.[1] Before the First World War one of his clients was the Russian Marxist revolutionary Anatoly Lunacharsky.[1] In 1928 he was elected to the Berlin Town Assembly, standing as a Democrat.[1] Eyck also wrote articles for the Vossische Zeitung.[1] However, following the rise of Adolf Hitler, Eyck emigrated to Britain in 1937, living in Boars Hill, Berkshire and Hampstead, London.[1] He took British nationality after 1945.[1]

From then on he focused on history, writing biographies of Otto von Bismarck and Wilhelm II, as well as a two-volume history of the Weimar Republic.[1] From early on in his life he had admired Britain's liberal political system and his political beliefs influenced his historical work.[1][2] Eyck wrote that he was "of the Liberal persuasion" and in 1938 he wrote a biography of the Liberal politician William Ewart Gladstone, who was his ideal statesman.[3]

In the early 1940s, he wrote a three-volume biography of Bismarck.[4] According to The Times, Eyck was one of the few people to have read all the evidence concerning Bismarck's career.[1] Karina Urbach has written that as "a lawyer, Eyck despised Bismarck's lack of respect for the rule of law, and as a liberal he passionately condemned Bismarck's cynicism towards liberal, democratic, and humanitarian ideals".[4] Eyck's interpretation was criticised by Hans Rothfels and Franz Schnabel, who argued that Eyck's belief that Germany could have gone down a liberal road was unrealistic and that Germany could have been united only by Bismarck.[5] Gerhard Ritter wrote to Eyck, lamenting that his work would confirm the negative impression people abroad had of German history.[5]

Eyck enjoyed a friendship with Theodor Heuss, the first President of postwar Germany.[1] In 1953 Heuss awarded him the Grand Cross of Merit.[1]