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‘History seeks to show the past as it essentially happened’ Leopold von Ranke (1795-1886) 1. Enlightenment and History in Germany Specificity of German Aufklärung Religion continues to play an important role No challenges to political order 2. Restoration and History in Europe (and Germany) Questioning of `Enlightenment’/Aufklärung Romantisicm* `Discovery’ of nation as key force in history (e.g. Johann G. Fichte, 1762-1814) Attempts to give history a more rigorous character – influence of state 3. The relationship between professional scholarship and nationalism Celebration of Middle Ages as high point of German past (Monumenta Germaniae historica) Revolution from above – 1810 foundation of Berlin University – aims to combine teaching and research – influence on Ranke of Barthold Georg Niebuhr (1776-1831); and the historian of Rome August Böck (1785-1867) Ideologies underpinning history first half of 19C still engage with Enlightenment Enlightenment thought holds that historical development will lead to perpetual peace: a world confederation of republican governments. This belief gives way to nationalism Future no longer perceived in terms of peaceful coexistence between nations but marked by conflict in the form of war 4. * Major influences according to Ranke specialist Georg Iggers Lutheran background Classical humanist education On Ranke & Romanticism: Kasper Risbjerg Eskildsen, `Leopold Ranke’s Archival Turn: Location and Evidence in Modern Historiography’, Modern Intellectual History, 5:3 (2008), 454453; Christopher John Murray, Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era, 1760-1850, Vol. 3, New York, 2004, `Ranke, Leopold Von’; Peter Novick, That Noble Dream: the 'Objectivity' Question and the American Historical Profession, Cambridge,1988; Hayden , Metahistory, Baltimore MD, 1973 German Romanticism and idealistic philosophy dominated intellectual milieu Politics of the Restoration Philology Wilhelm von Humboldt (university/educational reform) - Alexander von Humboldt Two major influences on Ranke’s thinking at University of Berlin: a) Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831); b) German Historical School Historicism (Historismus): aims to study all civilizations in terms of their own values; refuses to apply universal norms in assessment of historical situations 5. Ranke’s Conception of History a) `The strict presentation of the facts, no matter how conditional and unattractive they might be is undoubtedly the supreme law’. (History of the Latin and German Peoples, 1494-1514, 1824) b) `History has had assigned to it the office of judging the past and of instructing the present to the benefit of future ages. To such high office the present work does not presume; it seeks to only show the past as it essentially happened’. (wie es eigentlich gewesen) (The Latin and German Peoples, 1824) c) `First of all philosophy reminds us of the claim of the Supreme Idea. History, on the other hand, reminds us of the conditions of existence’. (manuscript Idee der Universalhistorie, 1830) d) `The historians task ... is at once art and science. It has to fulfill all the demands of criticism and scholarship to the same degree as a philosophical work; but at the same time it is supposed to give the same pleasure to the educated mind as the most perfect literary creation.’ (Wissenschaft und Kunst) e) `It is not necessary for us to prove at length that the eternal dwells in the individual. This is the religious foundation on which our efforts rest. We believe that there is nothing without God, and nothing lives except through God.’ (On the Character of Historical Science) f) ‘It would be impossible not to have one’s own opinion in the midst of all the struggles of power and of ideas which bear within them decisions of the greatest magnitude. Even so, the essence of impartiality can be preserved. For this consists merely in recognizing the positions occupied by the acting forces and in respecting the unique relationships, which characterize each of them. One observes how these forces appear in their distinctive identity, confront and struggle with one another; the events and the fates, which dominate the world, take place in this opposition. Objectivity is also always impartiality’. (Die deutschen Maechte und der Fuerstenbund. Deutsche Geschichte von 1780-1790) g) ‘I would maintain ... that every epoch is immediate to God, and that its value in no way depends on what may have eventuated from it, but rather in it existence alone, its own unique particularity’. (Lectures delivered to King Maximilian of Bavaria, 1854) h) `World history does not present a chaotic tumult ... there were forces, and indeed life-giving, creative forces, and moral energies which reveal themselves to us in abstract terms; but one can behold them and observe them.’ (‘The Great Powers’, 1833) 6. Critics of Ranke have raised questions about ... the critical method itself – is historical knowledge possible without concepts? Is ‘divination’/`intuitive grasp’ objective? Eurocentrism – Ranke not as impartial as he claimed Rankean history is just political history - Great Men represent Spirit of an age Ranke’s influence dwarfed other kinds of contemporary history (e.g. cultural history) Ranke implied that war is ‘natural’ activity allowing states to grow and prosper Works: 1817 Luther Fragment 1824 Histories of the Latin and Germanic Nations: In Criticism of Modern Historians. A Supplement 1827 Princes and Nations of Southern Europe, vol.1 1829 The Serbian Revolution 1832-1836 ed., Historisch-Politische Zeitschrift 1834 Princes and Nations of Southern Europe, vol. II; History of the Popes, vol I 1852-61 History of France, Principally in the 16th and 17th Centuries 1859-66 History of England, Principally in the 16th and 17th Centuries 1854 ‘On the Epochs in Modern History’, lectures delivered before King Maximilian II of Bavaria 1867 Collected Works, vol.I 1868 On German History, From the Religious Peace to the Thirty Year War 1869 History of Wallenstein 1836 Princes and Nations of Southern Europe, vol. II, III 1871-1872 The German Powers and the Fürstenbund 1837 On the History of Italian Poetry 1875 Origin and Beginning of the Revolutionary Wars 1791 and 1792 1839-47 German History in the Era of Reformation 1844 On the Assembly of the French Notables in 1787 1847 -1848 Nine Books on Prussian History 1877 Hardenberg and the History of the Prussian State from 1793 to 1813 1886 World History: the Roman Republic and its World Rule, vols I, II