The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Gfrörer, August Friedrich

GFRÖRER, August Friedrich, a German historian, born in Calw, March 5, 1803, died in Carlsbad, July 10, 1861. He studied theology at Tübingen from 1821 to 1825, was appointed in 1828 tutor in the theological seminary of that city, in 1830 librarian at Stuttgart, and in 1846 professor of history in the university of Freiburg. His first work, Philo und die jüdisch-alexandrinische Theosophie (2 vols., Stuttgart, 1831), was written from the critical standpoint of the Tübingen school; but while preparing his Geschichte des Urchristenthums (3 vols., 1838), he changed his views, and arrived at length, during the publication of his Allgemeine Kirchengeschichte (4 vols., 1841-'6), at the opinion that the Roman Catholic church is the true church of Christ; but he did not join that communion till 1853. Besides the works already mentioned, he wrote Gustav Adolf, König von Schweden (2 vols., 1835-'7); Geschichte der ost- und westfränkischen Karolinger (2 vols., Freiburg, 1858); Urgeschichte des menschlichen Geschlechts (2 vols., Schaffhausen, 1855); Papst Gregor VII. und sein Zeitalter (7 vols., 1859-'61); Geschichte des 18. Jahrhunderts (edited by Weiss, 3 vols., 1862-'3); and Zur Geschichte deutscher Volksrechte (edited by Weiss, 2 vols., 1866).