Ludwig Dehio (25 August 1888 – 24 November 1963) was a Germanarchivist andhistorian.

Dehio was born inKönigsberg, the son ofart historianGeorg Dehio. He studiedphilosophy,philology and history at theUniversity of Strasbourg and received his doctorate in 1912. Later in his career he served asStaatsarchivrat at theGeheimes Staatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz (Prussian Privy State Archives) inBerlin. From 1945 to 1954 he was director of the Hessian state archives in Marburg. He was catalyst in the founding of the "archives school" in Marburg.^[1][2]

In 1946 he was named an honorary professor ofmedieval andmodern history at theUniversity of Marburg. From 1949 to 1956 he was an editor of theHistorische Zeitschrift.^[1][2] He died inMarburg.

The relevance of Dehio's classic work onThe precarious balance was highlighted in a commentary inDie Zeit (2003). Historian Volker Ullrich, reflecting on "U.S. hegemony" after the Cold War, called for policymakers to revisit classics like Dehio in the tradition ofLeopold von Ranke, whose insights he found echoed inHeinrich August Winkler's works. Ullrich proposed to apply Dehio's balance-of-power thinking to contemporary politics:

This hegemonic power, which has drifted away from its own values, must be restrained—and who is better suited for this task, given its painful historical experiences, than old Europe? England, the classic proponent of thebalance of power, has subordinated itself to the U.S. underTony Blair, but there are also nascent efforts in Europe to form a counterweight. These should be expanded. (...) And they (the classics) hold an important lesson: Every attempt by a power to dominate the world has so far failed. Hubris is followed by nemesis.^[3]

Works by Dehio that have been translated into English:

• "Germany and world politics in the twentieth century" (1959); translated by Dieter Pevsner,Deutschland und die Weltpolitik im 20. Jahrhundert (1955).
• "The precarious balance; four centuries of the European power struggle" (1962); translated by Charles Fullman,Gleichgewicht oder Hegemonie: Betrachtungen über ein Grundproblem der neueren Staatengeschichte (1948).

Works with German titles:

• Innozenz IV. und England, 1913 –Innocent IV andEngland.
• Historisch-politisches Archiv zur deutschen Geschichte des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts, 1930 – Historical-political archives of German history in the 19th and 20th centuries.
• Übersicht über die Bestände des Brandenburg-preussischen Hausarchivs zu Berlin-Charlottenburg, 1936.
• Friedrich Meinecke, der Historiker in der Krise: Festrede, 1952 –Friedrich Meinecke, an historian in the crisis.
• Friedrich Wilhelm IV. von Preussen. Ein Baukünstler der Romantik, 1961 –Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, an architect ofRomanticism.^[4][5]

Works About Dehio

Aaron Zack, "Hegemonic War and Grand Strategy: Ludwig Dehio, World History, and the American Future" (Lexington Books, 2017.)

• 1888 births
• 1963 deaths
• Writers from Königsberg
• People from East Prussia
• German archivists
• 20th-century German historians
• University of Strasbourg alumni
• Academic staff of Marburg University

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata