Heinrich Leo
Heinrich Leo (17 March 1799 – 24 April 1878) was a Prussian historian born in Rudolstadt, his father being chaplain to the garrison there. His family was not of Italian origin, as he himself was inclined to believe on the strength of family tradition, but established in Lower Saxony as early as the 10th century. The taste for historical study was early instilled into him by the eminent philologist Karl Wilhelm Göttling (1793 - 1869), who in 1816 became a master at the Rudolstadt gymnasium. From 1816 to 1819 Leo studied at the universities of Breslau, Jena and Göttingen, devoting himself to history, philology and theology. At this time the universities were still agitated by the Liberal and patriotic aspirations aroused by the War of Liberation; at Breslau Leo fell under the influence of Jahn, and joined the political gymnastic association (Turnverein); at Jena he attached himself to the radical wing of the students association, the so-called Black Band, under the leadership of Karl Follen. The murder of August von Kotzebue by Karl Sand, however, shocked him out of his revolutionary views, and from this time he tended, under the influence of the writings of Hamann and Herder, more and