Erik Arup

Erik Ipsen Arup (November 22 1876 - September 23 1951), was a Danish historian, known as the pioneer of liberal-radical history writing in Denmark.

Born as the son of a Zealandian provincial doctor he grew up during the years of the long Danish constitutional struggle. As a young man he was deeply impressed by Viggo Hørup and his political anti-militarist line, an attitude that is always clearly felt his writings. He was educated both a theologian and a historian. During World War I Arup was connected to the radical Zahle cabinet as a permanent under-secretary, 1916-1947 he was a professor at the University of Copenhagen.

First of all Arup must be regarded one of the early Scandinavian materialist historians. His break-through was his dissertation "Studier i engelsk og tysk Handels Historie" (1907) (i. e. "Studies of German and English History of Trade"), a pioneering work stressing the geographic and economic instead of the national or ethnic background of the development of trade. Today many consider it a work of European size. Besides he for instance treated the economic history in Schleswig-Holstein, Medieval economy and 18th Century foreign policy besides writing a popular biography about Hørup (1941).

The main work of Arup is however his unfinished "Danmarks Historie" I-II (1925-32) which treats Danish history until 1624 (a posthumous volume 1955 deals with the period until 1665). It was thought of as a textbook at the University but because of great debate it was never completed. What is new in this book is that he treats the development of his country mostly on the basis of material development, of agriculture, trade and partly health reasons. Political or national relations are not ignored but pushed a bit in the background. The work is influenced by his political views: his favourite aversions are war policy, arbitrary royal power, many national myths and all he regards as nationalist views. Among his ”victims” are Saxo Grammaticus, Absalon and King Christian IV while men like for instance Christian II and some medieval opposition figures are shown a more positive interest. His language is both engaged and sharp, marked by his unambiguous attitudes. He concentrates on contemporary documents rather than chronicles and represents strict demands on source criticism that do not exclude audacious conclusions

The book provoked bitter attacks from many Danish historians. Arup was accused of non-patriotic views and of superficial treatment of history (he did not mention any sources in his work). Much of this was probably just an expectable conservative reaction against the radical views that were still not accepted. More relevant and still repeated is perhaps the criticism against Arup of lacking sense of history and of anachronist views (his trying to find “parliamentarian” traces of Medieval government). Besides it has been argued that his work is more of a revaluation of existing values than of new discoveries. Nevertheless this book is still considered the most consequent break with traditional history writing in Denmark and has inspired later radical and Marxist historians. The heated debate hurt the both polemic and vulnerable Arup and probably hampered his interest of finishing his work. During much of his work Arup was on collision course with more colleagues of his age but he also got many faithful followers among younger historians.

Besides publishing this book Arup was the editor of "Historisk Tidsskrift" (i. e. "Periodical of History") 1917-24 engaged in the edition of Danish Medieval sources 1931-37 and for some years he was co-worker at the Danish-Swedish periodical "Scandia". He took a special interest in Iceland and as a member of more organisations dealing with Danish-Icelandian relations he always showed himself complying with Icelandian wishes by the division of common cultural heritage.

In many ways Arup considered himself a modern heir of Arild Huitfeldt. Among his congenial contemporaries must be mentioned the Swede Curt Weibull. His methodical views seem to be inspired by French historians like Charles Seignobos and Charles-Victor Langlois.

He was the cousin of Sir Ove Arup.

References

* "Dansk Biografisk Leksikon", vol. 1, 1979.
* Axel E. Christensen: "Festskrift, udg. af Københavns Universitet" nov. 1952 (detailed obituary).