Education
Burckhardt was born in Basel to Carl Christoph Burckhardt, and attended gymnasium in Basel and Glarisegg (in Steckborn). He subsequently studied at the universities of Basel, Zürich, Munich, and Göttingen, being particularly influenced by professors Ernst Gagliardi and Heinrich Wölfflin.
Career
Carl Jacob Burckhardt entered the Swiss diplomatic service but later took up an academic career, and in 1932 was invited to Geneva as professor of history. In 1937 he was entrusted with the difficult office of League of Nations high commissioner in Danzig, an appointment which was terminated by the outbreak of war in 1939. From 1944 to 1948 he was president of the International Red Cross. As a young diplomat in Vienna in the 1920s he was a friend of H. von Hofmannsthal. He is the author of Erinnerungen an Hofmannsthal (1948); the correspondence of the two men was published in 1956. His principal historical work is Richelieu (3 vols., 1935–66), which he completed at the age of 75. He published his Werke (6 vols.) in 1971. They include fiction, essays, and some of his vast correspondence stretching over more than six decades.