HURTER, FRIEDRICH von. - Historian, b. 19 March 1787 at Schaffhausen (Switzerland), d. 27 Aug. 1865 at Graz (Austria). He studied at Göttingen from 1804 to 1806. A Protestant pastor at Schaffhausen, he proved very conciliatory towards Catholics; he therefore did not long enjoy the sympathies of Protestant circles: in 1841 he resigned his post, and on 16 June 1844 he converted to Catholicism.
Court historian in Vienna, he published in eleven volumes a work, still valuable today, on Emperor Ferdinand II (Geschichte Kaiser Ferdinands II. und seiner Eltern bis zu dessen Krönung in Frankfurt, Schaffhausen 1850-1860), and dealt with the life of Wallenstein (Beiträge zur Geschichte Wallenstein, 1855; Wallensteins vier letzte Lebensjahre, 1862). His work in four volumes won wide renown: Geschichte Papst Innocenz's III. und seiner Zeitgenossen, Hamburg 1834-42, which was also translated into Italian.