Otto Seeck

Who was Otto Seeck?

Otto Seeck was a German classical historian who is perhaps best known for his work on the decline of the ancient world. He was born in Riga.

He first began studying chemistry at the University of Dorpat but transferred to the University of Berlin to study classical history under Theodor Mommsen. Seeck earned his doctorate from the University of Berlin in 1872 after writing his thesis on the Notitia Dignitatum, a document enumerating the roles and responsibilities of administrative officials of the later Roman empire c. 400 C.E. He habilitated under Mommsen in Berlin in 1877 and, with the help of Mommsen, secured a post at the University of Greifswald in 1881, where he taught Roman History and Archaeology. There he met Karl Julius Beloch. In 1907 he went to the University of Münster where he continued teaching and writing.

Seeck has written many influential works on late antiquity and social Darwinism. He has been widely published in such academic journals as the Deutsche Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft, Hermes, Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte, and the Zeitschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte. Many of his monographs, including his influential 6-volume Geschichte des Untergangs der antiken Welt -- which set forth his beliefs concerning Social Darwinism, later influencing Oswald Spengler -- are still in print today, and they remain highly regarded.