neander, johann august wilhelm (1789-1850),
German church historian. Jewish by birth, his original name was David Mendel. He was baptized as a Protestant in 1806 and changed his name to Neander. He taught ecclesiastical history at Berlin from 1813 until he died. Apart from his famous General History of the Christian Church (6 vols., 1826-1852), he wrote a number of monographs, including one on the subject of Gnosticism (1818). As a confirmed Protestant, he held to primitive Christian simplicity. His oeuvre appeared posthumously as Collected Works (14 vols., Gotha, 1862-1867).