WEISS, JOHANN BAPTIST. – Priest, historian, b. at Ettenheim (Baden) on 17 June 1820, d. at Graz on 8 March 1899.
From 1846 he was a privat-docent at the University of Freiburg in Br. and subsequently editor of the newspaper Freiburger Zeitung; in 1852 he was forced to leave that chair for having supported Bishop Vicari in the struggle against the encroachments of the Baden government. From 1853 to 1891 he was a professor at the University of Graz. He is known especially for his monumental Weltgeschichte (22 vols., Vienna and Graz 1859–98, continued, for the period after the Congress of Vienna, by R. V. Kralik), one of the few works to treat the entire development of universal history from the Catholic point of view. The final volumes are particularly valuable. Other works: Geschichte affredi des Grossen (Schaffhausen 1852); Maria Theresia und der österreichische Erbfolgekrieg (Vienna 1863).