Alexander von Humboldt
A Metabiography
This volume, the first metabiography of the great scientist, traces Humboldt’s biographical identities through Germany’s collective past to shed light on the historical instability of our scientific heroes.
“Rupke’s study . . . will doubtless become a standard reference for the Humboldt industry and for writers of scientific metabiographies to come.”—Isis
“Engaging. . . . Rupke’s meticulous analysis is fascinating on many scores.”—Times Higher Education Supplement (UK)
“A study borne of considerable scholarship and one with important methodological implications for historians of geography.”—Charles W. J. Withers, Progress in Human Geography
“Rupke’s study . . . will doubtless become a standard reference for the Humboldt industry and for writers of scientific metabiographies to come.”
“A detailed, rewarding, and well-illustrated account.”
“A study borne of considerable scholarship and one with important methodological implications for historians of geography.”
“Engaging. . . . Rupke’s meticulous analysis is fascinating on many scores.”
“The book examines how Humboldt has been portrayed in the biographical literature by his fellow Germans. . . . With each major shift in politics, a new image of Humboldt was created. . . . A marvelously fascinating book.”
Prefaces
Chronology of Alexander von Humboldt's Life
Introduction: The Several Lives of Alexander von Humboldt
The Humboldt Phenomenon
Appropriating Humboldt
Fashioning Himself
Chapter 1: Liberal Democrat before the Empire Period
National Hero of the "Forty-Eighters"
The Long Shadow of Bismarck
Kosmos and Volksbilding
Literary Face of German Science
Subversive Democrat at the Prussian Court
Chapter 2: The Wilhelmian and Weimar Kultur Chauvinist
Identity Changes
Kultur Nationalist
Special Envoy to Latin America
Chapter 3: The Aryan Supremacist of National Socialism
Nazification
Kosmos and German Idealism
Certification of Aryan Purity
Friend of Faupel
Chapter 4: East Germany's Antislavery Marxist
The Academy's Socialist
The GDR as Humboldt's Rightful Heir
Denazification — East
Nearly a Miner
Between Forster and Marx
The Great Abolitionist
"Our Man in Havana"
Chapter 5: West Germany's Cosmopolitan Friend of the Jews
Westernization
Fraternity Member
Denazification — West
Cosmopolitan Liberal
Friend of the Jews
"... Almost an American"
Chapter 6: Today's Pioneer of Globalization
Free Market Victorious
Globalization "Wessie"
A Green Humboldt
Anglification
Postmodernist Cracks
Outing Humboldt
Humboldt and Germany
Institutional Embeddedness
Political Regimes and Biographical Truths
Metabiographical Reflections
List of Institutions and Political Parties
A Note on Citation
Printed Sources
Index
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