BRUNNER, HENRY (184o-1915), German historian, was born at Wels, Upper Austria, June 22 1840, and died at Bad Kissingen Aug. II He became professor at the University of Lemberg (Lwow) in 1866, then at Prague, at Strasbourg and in 1873 at Berlin. From 1872 Brunner devoted himself especially to studying the early laws and institutions of the Franks and kindred peoples of western Europe and on these subjects his researches have been of supreme value. He also became a leading authority on modem German law. In 1886 after the death of G. Waitz, he undertook the supervision of the Leges section of the Monumenta Germaniae historica.
His most important works are: Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte in vols. i. and ii. of Bindung's Handbuch der deutschen Rechtswissenschaft (5887-92) ; and Grundziige der deutschen Rechtsgeschichte (1901, 6th ed. 1917).