Carl Ritter: biography and contributions of this German geographer.

A summary of the life and development as a researcher of the geographer and naturalist Carl Ritter.

Carl Ritter was a German geographer, considered one of the main founders of modern geography along with Alexander von Humboldt. Thanks to them, geography was recognized as a science, being taught as an academic subject in universities.

For Ritter, geography made it possible to understand the interrelationships between living beings and the physical environment they inhabit, placing greater emphasis on the observation of historical processes and the life of human beings in different physical environments than on the mere observation of the physical phenomena of the environment in isolation.

In this biography of Carl Ritter we will take a look at his life and his main contributions to the field of Geography.

Brief biography of Carl Ritter

Karl or Carl Ritter was born in Quendlinburg (Germany) on August 7, 1779, in the bosom of a wealthy family.. His father, F. W. Ritter, was a prestigious physician who died when Carl was only 2 years old, leaving his wife widowed and in charge of 6 children, so the family went through a very hard period.

Youth and formative academic years

From his early years at school, Carl Ritter was always characterized as a diligent student with a great a diligent student with a keen interest in learning..

A well-known pedagogue, Christian G. Salzmann, founded the Schnepfenthal, a school specializing in natural science studies. He granted a scholarship to Carl Ritter and one of his brothers, Johannes, with Guths Muths, a German teacher who had become famous for his important role in the development of physical education as a school subject, as his tutor.

At the Schnepfenthal he studied for 11 years, and this period left an imprint on him for the rest of his life. Following his studies there, he retained a predilection for new teaching methods, including those of the German philosopher and theologian Johan Heinrich Pestalozzi. This was reflected in the fact that the majority of Ritter's writings most of Ritter's writings are based on the three stages of teaching devised by Pestalozzi (acquisition, comparison and establishment of a general system).

On the other hand, Ritter was also a follower of the educational fundamentals of the German theologian Johann Gottfried von Herder concerning the relationship between the human being and his environment.

After completing his training at the Schnepfenthal in 1878, Ritter met Bethmann Hollweg, a banker from Frankfurt, Germany. met Bethmann Hollweg, a banker from Frankfurt, with whom he made a pact to become the guardian of his children.with whom he made a pact to become the guardian of his children. In turn, Hollwerg paid for Ritter's studies at the University of Halle.

Main years of his professional career as a researcher

Carl Ritter had a long and brilliant professional career that he developed mainly as a professor of Geography at the university and with his work as a researcher and popularizer of the geography of the different continents. on the geography of the different continents.

Even after graduating from the University of Halle, Carl Ritter continued to tutor the Hollweg children for 15 years, during which time he accompanied the family on their travels throughout Europe (Savoy, France, Italy, Switzerland, etc.) and was also in charge of the children's education and care.

In 1814, Ritter went to live in Göttingen, where he began to devote himself to the exhaustive study of geography. and, during his years in that German city, he fell in love with Lili Kramer, a woman born in Duderstadt, whom he would later marry.

In 1819, Ritter began to work as a history teacher at the Lyceum of the city of Frankfurt, a school of education where he remained for only one year teaching.

Shortly thereafter, in 1820, he in 1820, he was awarded the first chair of geography at the University of Berlin, which he retained to this day.which he retained until the day of his death in 1859. At the same time, he began to teach at the Military School in the city.

However, even though he had a lot of work, he never stopped traveling during that time. So he continued to visit several countries in Europe, which helped him to collect valuable information for various written works on geography.

Subsequently, he went on to found the Berlin Society of Geography and Comparative Geography together with his colleague Humboldt, which led to the establishment of the Berlin Society of Geography.which triggered the validation of geography as a scientific subject that allowed to study and make known a series of relationships between the environment and the living beings that inhabit it.

Works and contributions to the science of Carl Ritter.

Among Carl Ritter's contributions to science, and especially to geography, the following are worth mentioning his most important work, entitled "Die Erdkunde im Verhältniss zur Natur und zur Geschichte des Menschen" ("The Earth Sciences in Relation to Nature and the History of Man"), in which he explains the impact of the environment on the activities of human beings.in which he explains the impact of the environment on the activities of human beings, with the aim of explaining the influence of the climatology of a country on the longevity of the people living in it, among other related factors.

This work was never finished; however, he wrote more than 20,000 pages, grouped in 19 volumes, which he developed from 1817 until his last days. The first volume focuses on the geography of Africa, whose work was recognized to such an extent that it earned him a teaching position at the University of Berlin. In 1822 he published a revised edition of this first volume. Between 1832 and 1859, the year of his death, he devoted himself to publishing new volumes of his work, mainly focused on the geography of Asia.

Other very important works, which are worth mentioning, are the following: between 1804 and 1807, he wrote his first works related to the geography of Europe.In 1820, he published "Die Vorhalle europaeischer Voelkergeschichte von Herodot"; finally, in 1838, "Die Stupas, oder die architektonischen Denkmale an der indobaktrischen Königstrasse un die kolosse von Bamyan".

A differential aspect between Alexander von Humboldt and Carl Ritter, is that von Humboldt was a great explorer of new geographical territories, whereas Ritter was more of a geographic scholar than an explorer, so he had an extensive knowledge of geography.. Therefore, Ritter is often recognized more as a historian of world geography than as a geographer-explorer, since he devoted much of his work to geographic interpretation throughout history.

That is why, after his death, he was criticized by some geographers who considered that in his work geography was interpreted as a secondary element to history. a secondary element to history..

Although there were some differences between the methods used in the work of von Humboldt and Ritter, it should be noted that thanks to the work of both, geography was consolidated as a modern science and, in addition, Ritter, who was 10 years younger, always considered von Humboldt as his teacher and that is why most of his works on geography follow the guidelines of von Humboldt's ideas.

Some sources consider Carl Ritter to be the discoverer of ultraviolet rays, which are part of the energy coming from the sun, reaching the Earth in the form of two groups of rays: UVA and UVB. However, there is a greater consensus that the discoverer of ultraviolet rays was the German physicist and chemist Johann Wilhelm Ritter in 1801. Since they have the same surname, it is understandable that this has led to confusion about the authorship of this discovery.

Acknowledgments to this geographer.

In the German cities of Leipzig and Berlin are located two foundations that were created in honor of Carl RitterThe Ritter memorials, which show the great importance of his contributions to geography, and in which its members are responsible for continuing the work of developing and consolidating geographic research and studies.

In Quendlinburg, the city where Ritter was born, a monument was built in his memory in 1864.

In addition, there is a crater on the moon that has been named after Carl Ritter, in recognition of his great scientific contributions.