Eberhard Friedrich Bruck papers, 1875-1970

Eberhard F. Bruck (1877-1960), an authority on Roman law, was born in Breslau, Germany. He received a doctorate in classical studies from Breslau University in 1904 and a doctorate in law from Frederick-Wilhelm University in 1928. Bruck taught at the universities of Geneva, Breslau, Frankfurt, and Bonn, before fleeing to the United States in the aftermath of the 1933 Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service which targeted Jewish professionals in Germany. Bruck began working at Harvard University in 1939 as a Research Fellow in Law.

As one of a group of distinguished teachers from German universities who came to the United States in 1939 as “refugee scholars,” Bruck was supported by the Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced Foreign Scholars. While at Harvard he taught in the Law School and in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Bruck also taught a popular undergraduate course in the history of Roman law. In addition to teaching, he was a sought-after lecturer at academic clubs and seminars in the United States and Germany.

After his retirement in 1952, Bruck continued his public lectures and conducted research in the field of history and law, especially the early roots of Roman and Greek law and the influence of pagan and Christian religion on early law. He wrote books titled Roman Law in the Framework of Cultural History (1954) and Church Fathers and the Social Law of Inheritance (1956).