EICHHORN, KARL FRIEDRICH: German jurist; son of Johann Gottfried Eichhorn, b. at Jena Nov. 20, 1781; d. at Cologne July 5, 1854. He studied law at Göttingen, Wetzlar and Vienna. In 1803 he commenced his academic activity at Göttingen, was appointed professor of law at Frankfort-on-the-Oder in 1805, and was called in 1811 to Berlin. He served in the war of 1813, and four years later, at the wish of his father, accepted a call to Göttingen. He retired on account of ill-health in 1829, but in 1831 returned to Berlin, lectured for a year, then devoted his time partly to his high offices in civil administration, and partly to literary pursuits. He withdrew entirely from public life in 1847, and, after residing four years on his estate at Ammern (near Tübingen), removed to Cologne, where he spent the remainder of his life. Eichhorn was regarded as the foremost of the historical school of German jurists, and wrote a number of legal works which still take high rank. In the domain of canon law he wrote Grundsätze des Kirchenrechts der katholischen und der evangelischen Religionspartei in Deutschland (2 vols., Göttingen, 1831-33); Gutachten für die Domgemeinde zu Bremen (Hanover, 1831); and Ueber die spanische Sammlung der Quellen des Kirchenrechts in the Abhandlungen der Berliner Akademie (Berlin, 1833-34) and in the Zeitschrift für geschichtliche Rechtswissenschaft, xi.

(C. T. G. VON SCHEURL.)

 

Bibliography: F. von Schulte, Karl Friedrich Eichhorn, sein Leben und Wirken, Stuttgart, 1884: J. C. Bluntschli and K. Brater, Staats-Wörterbuch, iii. 237 sqq., ib. 1858; Preussische Jahrbücher, xxxvi (1875), 22 sqq.; ADB, vi. 469 sqq.