Thoughts on Althusius and on the Development of Liberalism in Germany

This article examines the trajectory of classical liberal thought in Germany, highlighting both its early intellectual foundations and its nineteenth-century flowering. Building on the insights of Austrian scholars such as Ralph Raico, Murray Rothbard, and Ludwig von Mises, it situates German liberalism within a longer lineage than is often acknowledged. The underappreciated Johannes Althusius and Samuel von Pufendorf articulated federalist and natural law principles that anticipated later liberal commitments to limited government, voluntary association, and the rule of law. Althusius’s covenantal federalism, revived by Otto von Gierke in the nineteenth century, provided a vision of political order rooted in layered associations rather than centralized sovereignty. Pufendorf, meanwhile, broke with scholastic traditions to ground natural law in human sociability, stressing rulers’ accountability and citizens’ rights. By linking these early modern theorists with the later liberal activism of John Prince-Smith and Eugen Richter, the article illuminates a continuous—if embattled—tradition of German liberal thought. Germany’s development was not reducible to a Sonderweg culminating in authoritarianism; rather, there existed a rich liberal alternative, one that was ultimately defeated but not erased. Recovering this lineage not only enriches understanding of German intellectual history but also underscores the enduring relevance of liberty’s often-forgotten champions.