Humboldt Wilhelm: Biography and Works

Wilhelm von Humboldt had a great influence on the development of culture and literature. His works continue to influence scientists and thinkers of our time. Every educated person considers it his duty to study carefully the works that Humboldt Wilhelm wrote at the time. His thoughts and conclusions are still relevant for contemporaries of the XX and XXI centuries. To understand his ideas, it is necessary to go deeper into his biography, to find out in which city Wilhelm Humboldt was born, where he created, whose friendship exerted a special influence on him.

Origin

Wilhelm von Humboldt, as well as his equally gifted younger brother Alexander, came from a noble and wealthy family, who had significant opportunities and finances. They belonged, among other things, to the famous Tegel castle in Berlin.

Humboldt Wilhelm was born on June 22, 1767 in the city of Potsdam. His father, Alexander Georg, came from the clan of the Prussian bourgeoisie. His grandfather became a nobleman due to his military merits. Mother, Baroness Elizabeth von Holvede has French roots. The oppression of the Huguenots in France forced her family to leave their homeland and move to Germany, to Berlin. When Alexander Georg came to Berlin after retirement, he met his future wife. They had two sons - Alexander and Wilhelm.

Education

The Humboldt family spared no money for the education of their children. At the age of 20, Wilhelm Humboldt entered the University in Frankfurt an der Oder, and from 1788 began to listen to lectures on philology and history at the University of Göttingen. From 27 to 30 years he lived in Jena, where he got many acquaintances with famous philosophers and thinkers. Among them, it is especially worth noting the names of Schiller and Goethe. Subsequently, he leaves for Paris to study the culture of France - in fact it flows in part and the French blood. However, he spent a lot of time traveling in Spain and the Basque region.

Professional activity

Humboldt Wilhelm became a significant figure in the political arena of Prussia. At various times from 1801 to 1819 he occupied important state posts, was the plenipotentiary envoy in Vienna, the Vatican, Paris, Prague. Being Minister of Religious Affairs and Education, he managed to implement a large-scale reform of secondary and higher education in Prussia. It was Humboldt who owned the idea of taking the primary school out of religious influence and making it an independent educational institution.

In 1809 he founded the University in Berlin. Now this educational institution bears the name of Humboldt. It was in Berlin that Wilhelm Humboldt lived and worked, whose biography is inextricably linked with one of the most influential cities in Germany.

Humboldt did not stop there. His merits are evident at the famous Vienna Congress, which defined the new structure of Europe after the fall of Napoleon's power. Until 1819, Wilhelm Humboldt was an influential diplomat and participated in the adoption of the most important decisions for the country. He represented the interests of the country in the international arena and achieved great success in this field.

Hobbies

The brilliant education and financial security of his family allowed Wilhelm to enter the circle of prominent scientists and philosophers of his time. In addition to his professional interest in politics, von Humboldt has always been interested in humanism and his ideas. For example, back in the 1790s he wrote a work titled "Thoughts on an attempt to define the boundaries of state actions", in which he develops the idea of complete freedom of the individual from the state. Humboldt sets out the idea that the main task of the state is to ensure the territorial integrity of the country, but it has no right to interfere in the affairs of individual citizens. The ideas outlined in this work were so innovative that the work was censored and was banned from printing. In the light it came out only in the middle of the XIX century.

This is not the only work in which Wilhelm Humboldt set out his ideas and reflections. Linguistics received in his person one of the reformers and founders of modern concepts.

Thanks to the breadth of horizons and high education, Wilhelm Humboldt was a member of all literary salons. He was often invited to listen to his opinion on this or that occasion, to get feedback about the literary works read.
In 1791, his wife became Caroline von Dachereden - one of the most educated and intelligent women of her time. She helped and supported everything that Wilhelm von Humboldt was doing. After the wedding, the Humboldt House became the site of regular meetings of the best minds of all Europe. Here one could meet writers, scientists, philosophers, and politicians.

One of Wilhelm's main hobbies was traveling. He traveled a lot around the countries of Europe, often stayed long in Switzerland and Rome. It was during his trips that he was imbued with love and great interest in foreign languages and other cultures.

Proceedings

The linguistic concept of Wilhelm Humboldt received his maximum design after his retirement and the completion of his political and state career. He had a lot of free time, and it turned out to bring his thoughts and ideas into a single written form.

The first work was the work "On the comparative study of languages in relation to different epochs of their development." He read it in the walls of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. Further, the work "On the origin of grammatical forms and their influence on the development of ideas" was published. It laid out the foundations of theoretical linguistics, which Wilhelm Humboldt described. Linguistics still draws much from his writings, and theorists discuss his ideas and postulates.

There are also unfinished works that Humboldt Wilhelm did not have time to finalize and publish. "On the language of Kavi on the island of Java" is one such work. What to emphasize the versatility and breadth of talent and thought of this philosopher and thinker.

His main work, On the Difference in the Structure of Human Languages and Its Impact on the Spiritual Development of Mankind, was published, unfortunately, posthumously. In it, Humboldt Wilhelm tried as much as possible to expound the essence of his research.

He stressed the unity of the spirit of the people and of his language. After all, language reflects the creative beginning of each language, reflects the soul of the whole people.

Achievements

Wilhelm von Humboldt became not only a prominent political statesman, but also left a significant mark as an outstanding scientist. He defended the interests of his country during the territorial redistribution of Europe, the creation of a new world order. And I did it undoubtedly successfully. His work was highly appreciated by the emperor. He was a skilled diplomat.

After the termination of the professional work and with occurrence of a free time has borrowed (occupied) with studying of languages, their classification, allocation of the general lines and distinctions. He outlined his ideas in his writings, which were published. The depth of research was so serious that his concept formed the basis of a new science - linguistics. Some of his ideas anticipated their time for a hundred years and were confirmed decades later. On the basis of his conclusions, a separate science of sounds in linguistics developed - phonology.

The reform of education that he carried out helped to move the effort to eliminate illiteracy among the population. It was with him that the school began to acquire familiar features. Before that, there was practically no schooling system.

Cultural heritage

The works of Wilhelm von Humboldt laid the foundation for a new science - linguistics, linguistics. He argued the theses, which gave food for the mind to many philosophers and scientists. Until now, linguists discuss and debate about many of his conclusions, agree with something, argue about something. But one thing is certain: it is impossible to study this science and not to know the name of Wilhelm Humboldt.

In addition to the scientific works that Wilhelm von Humboldt left to his descendants about the language, another university was founded by him, in which thousands of young and talented people graduated.

Significance for contemporaries

The concept of Wilhelm von Humboldt became a revolution in linguistics. Yes, according to the majority of theoreticians, scientific thought has gone ahead, and some of the ideas and ideas of the ancestor of this science have become obsolete and become irrelevant. But nevertheless, it will be very useful for every scientist to learn and understand the course of logical reasoning by von Humboldt in the process of creating his works.

He spent a lot of time systematizing and classifying different languages by language groups and general features or differences. Humboldt talked about the persistence and at the same time of the variability of the language - how it changes over time, what influences these changes, which ones will remain forever, and which ones will also disappear.

Monuments and monuments

There are dozens of monuments and monuments in honor of Wilhelm von Humboldt, but one of the most extraordinary became a crater on the visible side of the moon, which was named after the great scientist.

In Berlin, a monument in honor of Humboldt on one of the main streets of the city - Unter den Linden.