Eduard Gans, a German jurist, horn of Jewish parents in Berlin, March 22, 1798, died there, May 5, 1839. He studied successively at the universities of Berlin, Gottingen, and Heidelherg, and became early associated with Hegel, whose philosophical opinions he adopted, and through whose influence he conceived a strong antipathy to the historical school of jurisprudence, then supported by the great names of Savigny and Hugo. In 1820 he became a doctor of law and published his Scho-lien zum Gajus. In his great work Das Erb-recht in weltgeschichtlicher Entwickelung (4 vols., Stuttgart, 1824-'35), he assails the scientific principles of the historical school of jurisprudence, and aims at treating the science of law according to the Hegelian philosophy. He visited France and England in 1825, and in 1826, having become nominally a convert to Christianity, was appointed professor extraordinary in the university of Berlin. His clear and vivacious manner of lecturing was strikingly in contrast with the monotonous gravity usual in German universities, and gained for him crowded audiences. He began a course in 1835 upon the history of the last 50 years, but was obliged by the government to suspend it.

He was among the most active of those who prepared the posthumous edition of the complete works of Hegel, of which the Philosophic der Geschichte was in great part elaborated by Gans.