MARKUS, LUDWIG

MARKUS, LUDWIG (1798–1843), historian. Born and educated in Dessau, Germany, he studied medicine at the University of Berlin, but abandoned it to take up philosophy and astronomy. In 1825 he moved to Paris, and from 1830 until 1838 he taught German at the Royal College at Dijon. Markus was an active member of the Society for Jewish Culture and Science in Berlin, and one of his lifelong passions was the study of the Falashas (beta israel ) of Abyssinia. This earned him heinrich heine 's sobriquet, "King of Abyssinia." He wrote Histoire des Wandales (1836) in which he traced the rise and collapse of the Vandal empire in Africa, and in 1842, published Géographie ancienne des états Barbaresques. Suffering from recurrent fits of depression, especially after the death of his mother, he moved back to Paris 1838 and died there penniless in an insane asylum. Baroness de Rothschild paid for the funeral, and Heine wrote an obituary. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Elbogen, in: MGWJ, 81 (1937), 177–85; H. Heine, Saemtliche Werke, 14 (1964), 43–58. (George Schwab / Bjoern Siegel (2nd ed.)