PUFENDORF, SAMUEL, FREIHERR VON

(baron of ) born Jan. 8, 1632, Dorfchemnitz, near Thalheim, Saxony died Oct. 13, 1694, Berlin German jurist and historian, best known for his defense of the idea of natural law. He was created a baron in the last year of his life. Additional reading The best biography of Pufendorf is the article by Harry Bresslau in the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, vol. 26 (1888); see also the brief biography by Paul Meyer, Samuel Pufendorf (1894). G.H. von Treitschke, Historische und politische Aufstze, vol. 4 (1897); J.G. Droysen, Abhandlungen zur neueren Geschichte (1876); and F. Meinecke, Die Idee der Staatsrson in der neueren Geschichte, 3rd ed. (1929), all treat his achievements as historian. For a discussion of Pufendorf's teaching of natural history, see Hans Welzel, Die Naturrechtslehre Samuel Pufendorfs (1958).