The present editor is the fourth to edit Hegel's lectures on the philosophy of world history. They were originally edited by Eduard Gans in 1837 as part of the ‘Complete Edition’ [‘Vollstandige Ausgabe’] of Hegel's works produced ‘by an association of friends of the deceased’; they were re-edited in 1840 by Karl Hegel; and the last edition, which underwent three impressions (1917, 1920, and 1930), was prepared by Georg Lasson as part of the ‘Critical Edition’ [‘Kritische Ausgabe’] of Hegel's works in the ‘Philosophical Library’ [‘Philosophische Bibliothek’] series. The text was modified by each of these editors in turn, and although the last of them, Georg Lasson, reproduced his version of the text unaltered in the second and third impressions of the ‘Philosophical Library’ edition, he expanded it to such an extent in the light of subsequently discovered manuscripts and lecture notes, from which he incorporated several important sections, that the manner in which he presented the work as a whole could no longer be justified and yet another revised edition became necessary.

Hegel held this course of lectures at two-yearly intervals, with four hours of lectures per week, from the winter semester of 1822–3 onwards; he delivered them for the last time during the winter semester of 1830–1; so that the course was given five times in all.