DUNCKER, MAXIMILIAN WOLFGANG German historian and politician, eldest son of the pub lisher Karl Duncker, was born at Berlin on Oct. 15, 181 i. He studied at the universities of Bonn and Berlin till 1834, when he was condemned to six years' imprisonment, afterwards reduced to six months, for belonging to students' societies. In 1842 he be came a lecturer at Halle university. Elected to the National Assem bly at Frankfort in 1848, he joined the Right Centre party, and was chosen reporter of the projected constitution. He sat in the Erfurt assembly in 185o, and in the second Prussian chamber from 1849 to 1852. In 1859 he was assistant in the ministry of State in the Auerswald cabinet, and in 1867 he became director of the Prus sian archives, with which it was his task to incorporate those of Hanover, Hesse and Nassau. He retired on Jan. 1, 1875, and died at Ansbach on July 21, 1886. Duncker's fame rests mainly on his Geschichte des Alterthums (1st ed., 1852-57; 5th ed. in 9 vols., 18 78-86 ; Eng. trans. by Evelyn Abbott, 18 7 2) .
His works include: Zur Geschichte der deutschen Reichsversamm lung in Frankfurt (1849) ; the anonymous Vier Monate auswdrtiger Politik (1851) ; Origines Germanicae (1840) ; Die Krisis der Reforma tion (1845) and Feudalitat and Aristokratie (1858) . See his Politischer Briefwechsel (ed. W. Schulze, 1923) ; and Haym, Das Leben Max Dunckers (1891) .