ECKSTEIN, FERDINAND von. – Politician and writer, b. at Altona (Hamburg) in September 1790, d. in Paris on 25 November 1861.
While in Rome in 1809, he was deeply moved by the deportation of Pius VII and embraced the Catholic faith. Opposed to Napoleon, he enlisted in 1812 in Lützow’s Freikorps 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 incompatibility between Catholicism and liberty, he upheld this axiom throughout his life through an inexhaustible journalistic activity. From 1826 to 1829 he founded and directed Le Catholique and collaborated with Le correspondant.
BIBL.: T. Foisset, Le baron d'E., in Le correspondant, 55 (1862), pp. 118–28; W. Koch, s. V. in LThK, III, cols. 531–32. Silvio Furlani