Johann jakob bachofen biography

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Johann Jakob Bachofen (–) was a Swiss jurist, student of Greco-Roman antiquity, and anthropologist.

Bachofen came from a prominent Basel family that, from the early eighteenth century, had amassed great wealth in the silk industry.

This wealth rendered Bachofen financially independent. After graduating from the Gymnasium, in , he studied at the universities of Basel, Berlin, and Göttingen; his interests lay in the classics and in jurisprudence. While Bachofen was at Berlin, Friedrich von Savigny focused his interest on Roman law, and the doctoral dissertation he submitted to the University of Basel was in this field ().

Johann jakob bachofen biography wikipedia

He concluded his studies with a two years’ stay in Paris and in England. When he was only 27, he was appointed full professor of the history of Roman law at Basel, from which position he resigned two years later, in , to have more time for his own research.

From to he also held an appointment as