Anton Heinrich Springer

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Anton Heinrich Springer (1825–1891), German writer, was born at Prague in July 1825 and was educated at the university of his native city. Taking an interest in art, he visited Munich, Dresden and Berlin, and spent some months in Italy; afterwards he settled at Tübingen and in 1848 he returned to Prague and began to lecture at his own university on the history of the revolutionary epoch. The liberal tone of these lectures brought him into disfavour with the ruling authorities, and in 1849 he left Bohemia and passed some time in England, France and the Netherlands. In 1852 he settled at Bonn, where he lectured on art and became a professor in 1850; in 1872 he went to the university of Strassburg and in 1873 to Leipzig. As a journalist and a publicist Springer advocated the federal union of the states ruled by the Austrian emperor, and asserted the right of Prussia to the headship of Germany; during the Crimean War he favored the emancipation of the small states in the south-east of Europe from Turkish supremacy. After many years of feeble health, he died at Leipzig on the 31st of May 1891.

A fiery personality, he disparaged the art historian Hermann Grimm, whom, according to Kessler, he attacked from the lectern as a writer of dime novels for wealthy readers. Likewise he berated the art historian Herrmann Knackfuß as "Hermann Knackwurst." Jakob Burckhardt fully cognizant of Springer's enmity, reportedly gave one Springer student (Pauli) a rough reception when Pauli applied to study under him.

Springer is known as a writer both on history and on art. In the former connection his most important work is his Geschichte Österreichs seit dem wiener Frieden (Leipzig, 1863-1865), which has been translated into Czech (Prague, 1867). His other historical works are: Geschichte des Revolutionszeitalters (Prague, 1849); Österreich nach der Revolution (Prague, 1850); Österreich, Preussen und Deutschland (Prague, 1851); Paris im 18 Jahrhundert (Leipzig, 1856); and Protokolle des Verfassungs-Ausschusses im österreichischen Reichstage 1848-1849 (Leipzig, 1885).

His principal works on art are: Leitfaded der Baukunst des christlichen Mittelalters (Bonn, 1854); the valuable Handbuch der Kunstgeschichte (7th ed., Leipzig, 1906), a revised edition of his Grundzilge der Kunstgeschichte (Leipzig, 1887-1888); Geschichte der bildenden Künste im 14 Jahrhundert (Leipzig, 1858); Bilder aus der neueren Kunstgeschichte (Bonn 1867, and again 1886); Raffael und Michelangelo (Leipzig, 1877 and 1885); and Die Kunst des 14 Jahrhunderts (Leipzig 1880-1881). Springer wrote two biographies: Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann (Leipzig, 1870-1872), and Albrecht Dürer (Berlin, 1892); and was responsible for the German edition of Crowe and Cavalcaselle's Lives of the Early Flemish Painters, which was published at Leipzig in 1875. His book of reminiscences, Aus meinem Leben (Berlin, 1892), containing contributions by G. Freytag and H. Janitschek, was edited by his son Jaro Springer (b. 1856), who is also known as a writer on art.