GERVINUS, GEORG GOTTFRIED Ger man historian and Shakespearian commentator, was born on May 20, 1805 at Darmstadt. He studied at Giessen and at Heidelberg, where he attended the lectures of Schlosser. In 1830 he became Privatdozent at Heidelberg, and in 1835 professor of history at Gottingen. His Geschichte der poetischen Nationallitteratur der Deutschen 5 vols., subsequently entitled Gescliichte der deutschen Dichtung; 5th edition, by K. Bartsch, 1871-74) is the first comprehensive and scholarly history of German litera ture. In 1837 he was one of the seven Gottingen professors dis missed for their protest against the violation of the constitution by the king of Hanover. After spending some years in Heidel berg, Darmstadt and Rome, Gervinus settled permanently in Heidelberg, where, in 1844, he was appointed honorary professor.
Between 1849 and 1852 Gervinus published his important work on Shakespeare (4 vols., 4th ed., 2 vols., 187 2 ; Eng. trans. by F. E. Bunnett, 1863, new ed. 1877). He also revised his History of German Literature, for a fourth edition (1853), and sketched out his Geschichte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts (8 vols., 18J4-60), which was preceded by an Einleitung in die Geschichte des neun zehnten Jahrhunderts (1853). He died on March 18, 1871.
Gervinus's autobiography (G. G. Gervinus' Leben, von ihm selbst) was published by his widow in 1893. It does not, however, go beyond the year 1836. See E. Lehmann, Gervinus, Versuch einer Charakteristik (1871) ; R. Gosche, Gervinus (1871) ; J. Dorfel, Gervinus als histor ischer Denker (1904) ; M. Rychner, G. Gervinus (Berne, 1922).