Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

RITTER, KARL (1779–1859)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 370 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

RITTER, KARL (1779–1859) , See also:German geographer, was See also:born at Quedlinburg on the 7th of See also:August 1779, and died in See also:Berlin on the 28th of See also:September 1859. His See also:father, a physician, See also:left his See also:family in straitened circumstances, and Karl was received into the Schnepfenthal institution then just founded by See also:Christian Gotthilf Salzmann (1744–1811) for the purpose of testing his educational theories. The Salzmann See also:system was practically that of See also:Rousseau; conformity to natural See also:law and enlightenment were its watchwords; See also:great See also:attention was given to See also:practical See also:life; and the See also:modern See also:languages were carefully taught, to the See also:complete exclusion of Latin and See also:Greek. Ritter already showed See also:geographical aptitude, and when his schooldays were See also:drawing to a See also:close his future course was determined by an introduction to Bethmann Hollweg, a banker in See also:Frankfort. It was arranged that . Ritter should become See also:tutor to Hollweg's See also:children, but that in the meantime he should attend the university at his See also:patron's expense. His duties as tutor in the Hollweg family began at Frankfort in 1798 and continued for fifteen years. The years 1814–19, which he spent at See also:Gottingen in See also:order still to See also:watch over the welfare of his pupils, were those in which he began to devote him-self exclusively to geographical inquiries. He had already travelled extensively in See also:Europe when in 1817-18 he brought out his first masterpiece, See also:Die Erdkunde See also:im Verhaltnis zur Natur and zur Geschichte See also:des Menschen (Berlin, 2 vols., 1817–r818). In 1819 he became See also:professor of See also:history at Frankfort, and in 182o professor extraordinarius of history at Berlin, where shortly afterwards he began also to lecture at the military See also:college. He remained in this position till his See also:death. The second edition of his Erdkunde (1822-58) was conceived on a much larger See also:scale than the first, but he completed only the sections on See also:Africa and the various countries of See also:Asia.

The service rendered to See also:

geography by Ritter was especially_ notable because he brought to his See also:work a new conception of the subject. Geography was, to use his own expression, a See also:kind of See also:physiology and See also:comparative See also:anatomy of the See also:earth: See also:rivers, mountains, glaciers, &c., were so many distinct See also:organs, each with its own appropriate functions; and, as his See also:physical See also:frame is the basis of the See also:man, determinative to a large extent of his life, so the structure of each See also:country is a leading See also:element in the historic progress of the nation. Moreover, Ritter was a scientific compiler of the first See also:rank. Among his See also:minor See also:works may be mentioned Vorhalle europdischer Volkergeschichten vor Herodot (Berlin, 1820); Die Stupas . . . an der indobaktrischen Konigsstrasse and die Kolosse von Bamiyan (1838).; Einleitung zur allgemeinen vergleichenden Geographee (Berlin, 1852) ; Bemerkungen uber Veranschaulichungsmittel raumlicher Verhaltnisse bei graphischen Darstellungen durch See also:Form u. Zahl," in the Trans. of the Berlin See also:Academy, 1828. After his death selections from his lectures were published under the titles Geschichte der Erdkunde (1861), Allgemeine Erdkunde (1862), and See also:Europa (1863). Several of his works (e.g. the " See also:Palestine " volumesof his Erdkunde) were translated into See also:English. " Karl Ritter" See also:foundations were established in his memory at Berlin and See also:Leipzig, for the furtherance of geographical study. See G. Kramer, Karl Ritter, ein Lebensbild (See also:Halle, 1864 and 187o; 2nd ed., 1875) ; W. L.

See also:

Gage, The Life of Karl Ritter (See also:London, 1867) ; F. Marthe, ' Was bedeutet Karl Ritter See also:fur die Geographie," in Zeitsch. der Ges. f. Erdk. (Berlin, 1879). All Ritter's works mentioned above were published at Berlin.

End of Article: RITTER, KARL (1779–1859)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
RITTER, HEINRICH (1791-1869) 		[next]
RITUAL (from Lat. ritus, a custom, especially a rel...

Site © 2006 - Net Industries