Encyclopaedia Britannica: Leopold von Ranke - Historian, Objectivity, Sources
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Leopold von Ranke
Leopold von Ranke was a German historian and a founder of modern source-based history. He was able to implement the seminar teaching method in his classroom and focused on archival research and the analysis of historical documents. Building on the methods of the Göttingen school of history, he was the first to establish a historical seminar. Ranke set the standards for much of later historical wri…
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culture · German historian (1795–1886) · historian · university teacher · writer · also Leopold von Ranke, Ranke
Born 21 December 1795 · Died 23 May 1886 · Q77184
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2026· 2 entries
Goethe: Leopold von Ranke und Clarissa Graves
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2024· 1 entry
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: Rückschläge der Leopold von Ranke-Forschung in München und Berlin
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2023· 1 entry
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: Heinz Duchhardts Aktenforschung zu Leopold von Ranke
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1886· 3 entries
Died 1886-05-23.
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At the age of 90, Ranke had reached only the 12th century, but his assistants later used his notes to take the series up to 1453
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“You are in the first place a Christian: I am in the first place a historian. There is a gulf between us.”
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1885· 1 entry
Was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society
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1884· 1 entry
Was appointed the first honorary member of the American Historical Association
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1880· 1 entry
Ranke began a huge six-volume work on world history which began with ancient Egypt and the Israelites
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1871· 2 entries
Ranke became half-blind, depending on assistants to read to him
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Ranke continued to write on a variety of subjects relating to German history such as the French Revolutionary Wars, Albrecht von Wallenstein, Karl August von Hardenberg, and King Frederick William IV of Prussia
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1865· 2 entries
Appointed a Prussian Privy Councillor in 1882 and given an honorary citizenship of Berlin in 1885
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With the addition of a "von" to his name
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1855· 1 entry
Awarded Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts order (1855).
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1854· 1 entry
Ranke argued that "every age is next to God", by which he meant that every period of history is unique and must be understood in its own context
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1853· 1 entry
Awarded Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art (1853).
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1845· 1 entry
Became a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
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1841· 2 entries
His fame in its ascendancy, Ranke was appointed Historiographer Royal to the Prussian court
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Career landmark: Historiographer of the Prussian state (1841).
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1824· 1 entry
Ranke launched his career with the book Geschichten der romanischen und germanischen Völker von 1494 bis 1514 (Histories of the Latin and Teutonic Peoples from 1494 to 1514) in which he used an unusually wide variety of
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1818· 1 entry
Studied at Leipzig University (1814–1818).
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1814· 1 entry
Ranke entered Leipzig University, where his subjects were classics and Lutheran theology
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1795· 1 entry
Born 1795-12-21.
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