HIRSCH, THEODOR:

By: Isidore Singer

German historian; born Dec. 17, 1806, at Altschottland, near Danzig; died Feb. 17, 1881. He studied theology, history, and geography at Berlin (having previously embraced Christianity); became professor at the Friedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium; and in 1833 proceeded in a similar capacity to Danzig, where he taught history for thirty-two years. He was devoted to the study of the history of his native town, by the municipal council of which he was charged in 1850 with the rearrangement and supervision of the city archives. His principal work is "Danzig's Handels- und Gewerbegeschichte Unter der Herrschaft des Deutschen Ordens," Leipsic, 1858. He also edited, with Strehlke and Töppen, the "Scriptores Rerum Prussicarum," 5 vols., ib. 1861-74. In 1865 Hirsch became assistant professor of history at the University of Greifswald and director of the Royal University Library. In 1880 he published the sixth volume of the "Urkunden und Aktenstücke zur Geschichte des Grossen Kurfürsten."

S.