George Phillips

Life

He was born in Königsberg, the son of James Phillips, an Englishman who had acquired wealth as a merchant in Königsberg, and of a Scotswoman née Hay. On completing his course at the gymnasium, George studied law at the Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin and the University of Göttingen (1822–24); his principal teachers were von Savigny and Karl Friedrich Eichhorn, and, under the influence of the latter, he devoted himself mainly to the study of Germanic law.

After obtaining the degree of Doctor of Law at Göttingen in 1824, he paid a long visit to England. In 1826, he qualified at Berlin as Privatdozent (tutor) for German law, and in 1827 was appointed professor extraordinary in this faculty. In the same year he married Charlotte Housselle, who belonged to a French Protestant family settled in Berlin. Phillips formed a close friendship with his colleague K. E. Jarcke, professor at Berlin since 1825, who had entered the Catholic Church in 1824. Jarcke's influence and his own studies on medieval Germany led to the conversion of Phillips and his wife in 1828 (14 May).

Jarcke having moved to Vienna in 1832, Phillips accepted in 1833 a call to Munich as counsel in the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior. In 1834, he was named professor of history, and a few months later professor of law at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. He now joined a Catholic circle including Joseph Görres, Johann Adam Möhler, Ignaz von Döllinger, and Johann Nepomuk von Ringseis. In 1838, he founded with Guido Görres the militant "Historischpolitische Blätter".