Gustav von Ewers

Ewers was a farmer’s son from the village of Amelunxen (now a part of Beverungen) in the Bishopric of Paderborn.

Influenced by the Hegelian definition of society and state, he described the traditional tribal structure of Russia as the foundation of Russian statehood, most notably in this 1826 monograph Das älteste Recht der Russen.

Evers' ideas have found a continued reception among Russian legal theorists.

On the basis of his publications, he was offered in 1810 the Chair of History, Statistics, and Geography of the Russian State at the University of Dorpat (now Tartu) in what is today Estonia.

In 1816, Ewers declined an offer of the Chair of Political Economy at the newly founded University of Berlin.