Julius Wilhelm Zincgref was a patriot as well as a reformer. He believed that national identity finds its source and sustenance in a common language and in educational and linguistic reforms that guarantee national and religious freedoms.

Zincgref was born on 3 June 1591 in Heidelberg to Laurentius Zincgref, legal counselor to the elector palatine, and Margaretha Zincgref, née Dresch; by the time of his mother's death in 1620 he would be the only one of their six children--three daughters and three sons--still alive. At sixteen he enrolled at the University of Heidelberg to continue in his father's footsteps by earning a law degree. After completing the humanistic part of his studies in 1612 he undertook a five-year course of travel to study in Basel, Orléans, Marseilles, England, the Netherlands, and Italy. During his travels he became acquainted with many jurists and professors of law, and he also...