Wilhelm von Humboldt had a huge impact on the development of culture and literature. His works continue to influence scholars and thinkers of our time. Each educated person considers it his duty to carefully study the works that Humboldt Wilhelm wrote in his time. His thoughts and conclusions still remain relevant for contemporaries of the 20th and 21st centuries. To understand his ideas, you need to delve into his biography, find out in which city William Humboldt was born, where he worked, whose friendship had 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, which had significant opportunities and finances. They also owned 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 a clan of the Prussian bourgeoisie. His grandfather became a noble thanks to his military merits. Mother, Baroness Elizabeth von Holwede has French roots. The oppression of the Huguenots in France forced her family to leave their native lands and move to Germany, to Berlin. When Alexander Georg arrived in Berlin after his retirement, he met his future wife. They had two sons - Alexander and Wilhelm.
Education
The Humboldt family did not spare funds for the education of their children. At the age of 20, Wilhelm Humboldt entered the University of Frankfurt an der Oder, and from 1788 he began to listen to lectures on philology and history at the University of Gottingen. From 27 to 30 he lived in Jena, where he made many acquaintances with famous philosophers and thinkers. Among them, the names of Schiller and Goethe are especially worth noting. Subsequently, he leaves for Paris to study the culture of France - after all, French blood also flows in it. However, he spent a lot of time traveling around 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 held important government posts, was plenipotentiary envoy to Vienna, the Vatican, Paris, and Prague. As Minister for Religious Affairs and Education, he managed to carry out a large-scale reform of secondary and higher education in Prussia. It was Humboldt who owned the idea of removing the elementary school from 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 determined the new structure of Europe after the fall of Napoleon’s power. Until 1819, William 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 was always interested in humanism and his ideas. For example, back in the 1790s he wrote a work entitled "Thoughts on an attempt to determine the boundaries of the state’s actions," in which he develops the idea of complete freedom of the individual from the state. Humboldt sets forth the idea that the main task of the state is to ensure the territorial integrity of the country, but it does not have the right to intervene in the affairs of individual citizens. The ideas presented in this work were so innovative that the work was censored and banned for publication. It was published only in the middle of the XIX century.
This is not the only work in which William Humboldt set forth his ideas and thoughts. Linguistics received in his person one of the reformers and founders of modern concepts.
Due to his broad outlook and high education, William Humboldt was a member of all literary salons. He was often invited to listen to his opinion on a particular occasion, to learn reviews about read literary works.
In 1791, his wife was Carolina von Daherenden - one of the most educated and smart women of her time. She helped and supported everything that Wilhelm von Humboldt was doing. After the wedding, the Humboldt House became a place of regular meetings of the best minds of all of Europe. Here one could meet writers, scientists, philosophers, and politicians.
One of Wilhelm's main hobbies was travel. He traveled extensively throughout Europe, often staying for a long time in Switzerland and Rome. It was during his trips that he was imbued with love and a huge interest in foreign languages and other cultures.
Proceedings
The linguistic concept of Wilhelm Humboldt received its maximum design after his retirement and the completion of his political and state career. He had a lot of free time, and managed 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 eras of their development." He read it in the walls of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. Then the work “On the emergence of grammatical forms and their influence on the development of ideas” was published. It laid out the foundations of theoretical linguistics, which was described by Wilhelm Humboldt. Linguistics still draws a lot from his works, and theorists discuss his ideas and postulates.
There are also unfinished works that Humboldt Wilhelm did not manage to finalize and publish. “On the language of Kawi on the island of Java” is one of such works. That emphasize the versatility and breadth of talent and thoughts of this philosopher and thinker.
His main work, “On the difference in the structure of human languages and its influence on the spiritual development of mankind,” was, unfortunately, published posthumously. In it, Humboldt Wilhelm tried to explain as much as possible the essence of his research.
He emphasized the unity of the spirit of the people and their language. After all, language reflects the creative principle of each language, reflects the soul of the whole nation.
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 he did it unconditionally successfully. His work was highly valued by the emperor. He was a skilled diplomat.
After the end of his professional activity and with the advent of free time, he took up the study of languages, their classification, and the identification of common features and differences. He outlined his ideas in his writings, which were published. The depth of research was so serious that its concept formed the basis of a new science - linguistics. Some of his ideas anticipated his time by a hundred years and were confirmed decades later. Based on his findings, a separate science of sounds in linguistics - phonology - has developed.
His education reform helped move the effort to eradicate illiteracy among the population. It was under him that the school began to acquire familiar features. Prior to this, no school system existed.
Cultural heritage
The works of Wilhelm von Humboldt laid the foundation for a new science - linguistics, linguistics. He argued the theses that gave food to the mind to many philosophers and scientists. Until now, linguists discuss and debate about many of his conclusions, agree with something, and argue about something. But one thing is certain - it is impossible to study this science and not know the name of William Humboldt.
In addition to the scientific works that Wilhelm von Humboldt left to his descendants about language, another significant testament was the university he founded, in which thousands of young and gifted people received higher education.
Value for Contemporaries
Wilhelm von Humboldt's concept was a revolution in linguistics. Yes, according to the majority of theorists, scientific thought has advanced, and some of the provisions and ideas of the founder of this science are already outdated and become irrelevant. Nevertheless, it will be very useful for every scientist to learn and understand the course of von Humboldt's logical reasoning in the process of creating his works.
He spent a lot of time systematizing and classifying various languages according to language groups and general features or differences. Humboldt talked about the constancy and simultaneously variability of the language - how it changes over time, what affects these changes, which of them will remain forever, and which will also gradually disappear.
Monuments and Monuments
Dozens of monuments and monuments have been erected in the world in honor of Wilhelm von Humboldt, but one of the most outstanding was the crater on the visible side of the moon, which was named after the great scientist.
In Berlin, a monument was erected in honor of Humboldt on one of the main streets of the city - Unter den Linden.