journalist and historian whose comprehensive universal cultural history was a major contribution to the development of the German Kulturgeschichte (History of Civilization) school.

After studying at the Swiss universities of Bern and Geneva, he taught German, geography, and history at the local school at Sankt Gallen (1857–59), later serving as an administrator of his canton and as its archivist. In 1872 he went to Leipzig to edit the Freimaurerzeitung (“Freemason News”) and in 1879 returned to Switzerland as editor of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

His greatest work is considered to be the Allgemeine Kulturgeschichte, 8 vol. (1877–1908; “Universal History of Civilization”), from earliest times to the closing years of the 19th century. His other major book is the Kulturgeschichte des deutschen Volkes, 2 vol. (1903; “Cultural History of the German People”). He also wrote cultural histories of the Swiss people, of Judaism, of the Crusades, and of the role of women in history. His publications were a forceful challenge to the traditional emphasis on political and military themes in German historiography.