ECKSTEIN, FERDINAND von. - Politician and writer, born in Altona (Hamburg) in September 1790, died in Paris on 25 November 1861.
While in Rome in 1809, he was deeply moved by the deportation of Pius VII and converted to the Catholic faith. Opposed to Napoleon, in 1812 he enlisted in the Lützow Free Corps and took part in the Battle of Leipzig. After Bonaparte’s fall, he served in the French ministries of war and foreign affairs. Convinced that there was no antithesis between Catholicism and liberty, he upheld this principle throughout his life through unceasing public activity. From 1826 to 1829 he founded and directed *Le Catholique* and contributed to *Le Correspondant*.
BIBL.: T. Feissel, *Le baron d’E.*, in *Le Correspondant*, 55 (1862), pp. 118–28; W. Koch, s.v., in *LThK*, III, cols. 31–32. Silvio Furiani