Definitions

Wilhelm

Wilhelm

[wil-helm; Ger. vil-helm]
Dilthey, Wilhelm, 1833-1911, German philosopher. He taught at the universities of Basel, Kiel, Breslau, and Berlin. He was one of the first to claim the independence of the human sciences as distinct from the natural sciences. Dilthey laid down a foundation of descriptive and analytic psychology on which to base a study of philosophy. One of his principal works is Einleitung in die Geisteswissenschaften [introduction to the human studies] (1883).

See his monograph, The Essence of Philosophy (tr. 1954); study by R. A. Makkreel (1975).

Liebknecht, Wilhelm, 1826-1900, German socialist leader and journalist. His participation in the revolution in Germany in 1848-49 forced him into exile, and he lived in England until 1862. While there he became associated with Karl Marx. Although greatly influenced by Marx, he disagreed with him on many fundamental principles of socialism. Upon his return to Germany, Liebknecht initially joined the socialist group founded by Ferdinand Lassalle. Shortly afterward he broke with the Lassalleans because of doctrinal differences, and in 1869 with his disciple August Bebel, he formed the Social Democratic Labor party. For several years the two groups conflicted, but in 1875 they merged as the Socialist Labor party. As a member of the North German Reichstag, Liebknecht, a confirmed pacifist, voted against extending war credits for the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71). He incurred the enmity of Otto von Bismarck, was convicted of treason, and with Bebel spent two years in prison (1872-74). Elected to the Reichstag in 1874, he was a member at his death. He wrote many books on historical and social topics and edited several socialist newspapers.
Lehmbruck, Wilhelm, 1881-1919, German sculptor. He studied at Düsseldorf and went to Paris in 1910. Influenced at first by Rodin, Brancusi, and Maillol, he later arrived at his own highly individual style. His large, elongated figures express a dramatic poignancy. Woman Kneeling (Mus. of Modern Art, New York City) is generally regarded as his best work. Lehmbruck committed suicide in Berlin at the age of 38.

See study by W. Hofmann (1958).

Leibl, Wilhelm, 1844-1900, German genre and portrait painter. He studied in Munich where numerous painters came under his influence; the "Leibl group" shared his predilection for the realistic perfection of the old masters. He left Munich to paint the rural people of Bavaria, owing much in his technique to an understanding of Holbein's works. His most famous picture, Three Women in Church (1878-81; Hamburg), marks the height of meticulous naturalism but is also a subtly composed study.
Hofmeister, Wilhelm, 1824-77, German botanist. Although self-taught, he made such valuable studies of the reproduction and development of plants that he was appointed professor, successively, at the universities of Heidelberg (1863) and Tübingen (1872). He demonstrated alternation of generations, especially in nonflowering plants, and described the behavior of the nucleus in cell formation.
Furtwängler, Wilhelm, 1886-1954, German conductor, b. Berlin; son of Adolf Furtwängler. One of the greatest orchestral conductors of the 20th cent., he studied music in Munich, where he grew up. He began his career conducting opera in Lübeck (1911-15) and Mannheim (1915-20). In 1922 he succeeded Arthur Nikisch as conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and shortly thereafter also became principal conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic. Furtwängler was a regular conductor of the New York Philharmonic from 1925 to 1927 and its permanent conductor in the season of 1937-38. In 1934 he resigned his important posts in Germany when the performance of Hindemith's music was prohibited. In 1935 he returned to conduct the Berlin orchestra.

Furtwängler remained in Germany during World War II and, while he was never a Nazi, his failure to break with the regime led to considerable criticism. After the war he was absolved of a charge of having collaborated with the Nazis. He continued to conduct in Vienna, revived (1951) the Bayreuth Festival, and retained the position of conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic until his death. He was succeeded in Berlin by Herbert von Karajan. Furtwängler was particularly renowned for his interpretations of the music of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Wagner, and Schumann. He was also a composer, following in the German romantic tradition.

See M. Tanner, ed., Notebooks 1924-1954 by Wilhelm Furtwängler (tr. 1989); biography by C. Riess (tr. 1955); P. Pirie, Furtwängler and the Art of Conducting (1980) and J. Hunt, The Furtwängler Sound (1985).

Reich, Wilhelm, 1897-1957, Austrian psychiatrist and biophysicist. For many years a chief associate at Freud's Psychoanalytic Polyclinic in Vienna, he later broke with Freud and the psychoanalytic movement. Forced to leave Nazi Germany, he resettled in New York City in 1939 to continue independent research in biophysics. He taught (1939-41) at the New School for Social Research, and in 1942 he founded the Orgone Institute. According to Reich's theories the universe is permeated by a primal, mass-free phenomenon that he called orgone energy; in the human organism the lack of repeated total discharge of this energy through natural sexual release is considered the genesis not only of all individual neurosis but also of irrational social movements and collective neurotic disorder. Reich invented the orgone box, a device that he claimed would restore energy but that was declared a fraud by the Food and Drug Administration. In 1956 he was tried for contempt of court and violation of the Food and Drug Act and sentenced to two years in a federal penitentiary, where he died.

See his selected writings (1960); his autobiography, ed. by M. B. Higgins and R. Chester (tr. 1988); studies by C. Rycroft (1972) and D. Boadella (1974); biographies by W. E. Man and E. Hoffman (1983) and M. Saraf (1984).

Raabe, Wilhelm, 1831-1910, German novelist, whose pseudonym was Jakob Corvinus. At 23 he began to write novels and tales of village life; the charming idyll Die Chronik der Sperlingsgasse (1857) first brought him acclaim. Raabe's humor often serves to cover a more bitter irony. He later turned to the historical past and wrote such tales as the tragic "Des Reiches Krone" [the imperial crown] (1870). His novels include Der Hungerpastor (1864, tr. 1885) and Abu Telfan (1867; tr. Abu Telfan's Return from the Mountains of the Moon, 1881).

See studies by B. Fairley (1961), and I. S. Di Maio (1981).

Gesenius, Wilhelm, 1786-1842, German Orientalist, one of the greatest Hebrew and biblical scholars. He is principally known for his Hebrew Grammar, which has been reedited so many times that it differs widely from his original. Perhaps his finest work was his biblical commentary. He was, in this, a moderate rationalist, and he aroused bitter opposition. He was one of the first to open Semitic to scientific study, because of his point of view that Hebrew and its sister languages were not sacrosanct, as most contemporary Christians thought them to be.

See E. F. Miller, The Influence of Gesenius on Hebrew Lexicography (1927).

Scherer, Wilhelm, 1841-86, German philologist, b. Austria. Scherer held professorships at the universities of Vienna, Strasbourg, and Berlin. His History of German Literature (1883, tr. 1886) and his history of the German language (1868) are his best-known works. Through his writings ran a strong sense of nationalism. Scherer was one of the first to maintain that the phonetic development of language follows set rules that do not admit of exception.
Schmidt, Wilhelm, 1868-1954, German linguist and anthropologist, a Roman Catholic priest. Educated at the universities of Berlin and Vienna, he entered the Society of the Divine Word in 1890. Residing mainly in Austria, he taught at the Univ. of Vienna, founded and directed an anthropological institute at Mödling, and, after 1938, was a professor at the Univ. of Freiburg. Schmidt devoted particular attention to the languages of S Asia, Australia, and Oceania. His books available in English translation are The Origin and Growth of Religion (1931), High Gods in North America (1933), The Culture Historical Method of Ethnology (1939), and Primitive Revelation (1939).
Canaris, Wilhelm, 1887-1945, German admiral. He occupied various positions in the German navy during and after World War I. In 1935 he was made chief of the Abwehr [military intelligence]. A conservative, Canaris at first welcomed Hitler, but Hitler's methods and the fear that a new war would destroy Germany drove him into the opposition. The Abwehr became a center of conspiracy against the regime. Under Canaris's protection, one of his subordinates, Hans Oster, helped organize opposition to the Nazi regime. In Apr., 1943, many of Oster's co-conspirators were arrested and the Abwehr was put under constant surveillance, but Canaris was not dismissed until Feb., 1944. He was arrested shortly after the attempt (July, 1944) on Hitler's life, though he was not directly involved in the plot. He was executed by the Gestapo in Apr., 1945.
Roscher, Wilhelm, 1817-94, German economist. A professor at the Univ. of Leipzig (1848-94), he was a founder of the German historical school of economics, which rejected the classical laissez-faire view. Roscher's work emphasized the developmental character of capitalism through detailed historical analyses of the cultures of ancient nations. His System der Volkswirtschaft (5 vol., 1854-94; tr. of 13th ed., Principles of Political Economy, 1878) was an influential textbook in the second half of the 19th cent. His most significant work is Geschichte der National-oekonomik in Deutschland (1874).
Roux, Wilhelm, 1850-1924, German anatomist, a founder of experimental embryology. He was a pupil of Ernst Haeckel and a professor (1895-1921) at the Univ. of Halle. In his studies of the relationship of embryology to evolution he developed specialized research techniques that he called "developmental mechanics," and in 1894 he founded as its organ the Archiv für Entwicklungsmechanik.
Heinse, Wilhelm, 1746-1803, German novelist. His principal novels, Ardinghello; or, An Artist's Rambles in Sicily (1787, tr. 1839) and Hildegard von Hohenthal (1795-96), typify elements of Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress).
Humboldt, Wilhelm, Freiherr von, 1767-1835, German statesman and philologist; brother of Alexander von Humboldt. As Prussian minister of education (1809-10) he thoroughly reformed the school system, largely on the basis of the ideas of Pestalozzi, and he sent Prussian teachers to study the methods of Pestalozzi's school in Switzerland. He was one of the founders of the Univ. of Berlin. Humboldt was one of the great liberal reformers of Prussia along with Stein and Hardenberg. He remained prominent in the government until 1819, when he retired because of his opposition to the prevailing spirit of reaction. Humboldt was a friend of Goethe and Schiller. His lengthy treatise on Kavi, the ancient language of Java, published posthumously (1836-40), is a work of precision, clarity, and scientific caution.
Cuno, Wilhelm, 1876-1933, German chancellor (Nov., 1922-Aug., 1923). A businessman, he headed a nonpartisan conservative ministry. His attempt to establish a moratorium on German reparations payments and his program of passive resistance to French occupation of the Ruhr both failed. During his term of office inflation reached huge proportions.
Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm, 1861-1936, Swiss philologist. Meyer-Lübke taught at the universities of Jena, Vienna, and Bonn. He was the author of many works on Romance languages, chief among them being a four-volume grammar of Romance languages (1890-1902) and an etymological dictionary (in 13 parts, 1911-20).
Filchner, Wilhelm, 1877-1957, German explorer, geophysicist, and travel writer. He led several expeditions to China and Tibet, where he established magnetic stations, and also led the second German Antarctic expedition (1910-12), which discovered Luitpold Land on the southeast coast of Weddell Sea.
Knyphausen, Wilhelm, Baron von, 1716-1800, German general in British service in the American Revolution. He served in the army of Frederick the Great before coming to America with the Hessian troops in 1776. Knyphausen distinguished himself in the battles at White Plains, Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. He commanded (1779-80) New York in the absence of Sir Henry Clinton.
Marx, Wilhelm, 1863-1946, German statesman. A Reichstag member, he was a leading figure of the Catholic Center party and was elected its president in 1921. As chancellor (1923-24) he secured the passage of the Dawes Plan. He was succeeded by Hans Luther, whom he followed again as chancellor (1926-28). In the presidential elections of 1925, Marx was the unsuccessful candidate of the Center and the Social Democratic parties against Paul von Hindenburg.
Busch, Wilhelm, 1832-1908, German cartoonist, painter, and poet. After studying at the academies of Antwerp, Düsseldorf, and Munich, he joined the staff of the Fliegende Blätter, to which he contributed highly popular humorous drawings from 1859 to 1871. His humorous, illustrated poems for children, such as Max and Moritz (1865; tr. by Christopher Morley, 1932), are simply drawn, yet highly spirited. Busch's delightful series of wordless pictures were highly influential in the development of the comic strip.
Oncken, Wilhelm, 1838-1905, German historian. He taught at the Univ. of Giessen after 1866. A typical national liberal of the 19th cent., Oncken regarded history as a means of national political education. His early field was Greek history, but he later concentrated on the history of the Prussian state and of German unification. He edited a cooperative history, the Allgemeine Geschichte in Einzeldarstellungen [general history in its special phases] (45 vol., 1876-93), which became a standard household fixture for the educated German family. Several of Oncken's own volumes were included in the collection.
Wien, Wilhelm, 1864-1928, German physicist. He was professor at the universities of Giessen (1899), Würzburg (1900-1920), and Munich (from 1920). He received the 1911 Nobel Prize in Physics for his studies on the radiation of heat from black objects. He is noted also for his work on hydrodynamics, X rays, and the radiation of light.
Wilhelm. For German rulers thus named, use William.
Steinitz, Wilhelm, 1836-1900, German chess player. In 1866 he won a match from Adolph Anderssen, the leading player after Paul Morphy's retirement, and became world champion, although the title did not officially exist. Until 1892, when he lost to Harry Nelson Pillsbury, he defeated all the leading players. In 1894 he lost the world championship to Emanuel Lasker. The closed position, characterized by fixed pawns on both sides and the establishment of lasting positional values, was Steinitz's forte. He edited (1885-91) the International Chess Magazine in New York City and wrote The Modern Chess Instructor (2 vol., 1889-95).
Ostwald, Wilhelm, 1853-1932, German physical chemist and natural philosopher, b. Riga, Latvia. He was professor of chemistry and director of the chemical laboratory (1886-1906) at the Univ. of Leipzig. He received the 1909 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on catalysis and his investigations into the fundamental principles governing equilibrium and rates of reaction. He also did outstanding work on color. He wrote Colour Science (1923, tr. 1931) and many textbooks. Ostwald originated the Ostwald process for preparing nitric acid. Ammonia mixed with air is heated and passed over a catalyst (platinum). It reacts with the oxygen to form nitric oxide, which is then oxidized to nitrogen dioxide; this in turn reacts with water to form nitric acid.
Pfeffer, Wilhelm, 1845-1920, German plant physiologist. He was professor of botany successively at the universities of Bonn, Basel, Tübingen, and Leipzig (from 1887). With Julius von Sachs, he was a leader in systematizing the fundamentals of plant physiology. Pfeffer's experiments in osmotic pressure were fundamental to modern physical chemistry. He wrote a standard work, Physiology of Plants (1881, tr. 1900-1906).
Müller, Wilhelm, 1794-1827, German lyric poet; father of Max Müller. His Lieder der Griechen (5 vol., 1821-24) was inspired by the Greek struggle for independence. Müller's love-song cycle Die schöne Müllerin (1823) was set to music by Franz Schubert.
Keitel, Wilhelm, 1882-1946, German general. A supporter of Hitler, he became (1938) chief of staff of the supreme command of the armed forces, a new post that marked the German army's subjection to Hitler. On May 8, 1945, Keitel ratified in Berlin the unconditional surrender of Germany. He was convicted at the Nuremberg war-crimes trial and hanged.

(born March 24, 1897, Dobrzcynica, Galicia, Austria-Hungary—died Nov. 3, 1957, Lewisburg, Pa., U.S.) Austrian-U.S. psychologist. Trained at the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute, he joined the faculty of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute in 1924. In The Function of the Orgasm (1927), he argued that the failure to achieve orgasm could produce neurosis. An advocate of sexual education and freedom as well as of radical left-wing politics, he left Germany in 1933 and settled in the U.S. in 1939. After breaking with the psychoanalytic movement in 1934, he developed a pseudoscientific system called orgonomy. He conceived of mental illness and some physical illnesses as deficiency of cosmic energy (measured in units called “orgones”), which he treated by placing the patient in a cabinet with reflective inner surfaces known as the orgone box. Reich's views brought him into conflict with U.S. authorities in the early 1950s; he was convicted of contempt of court and died in prison.

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(born Sept. 2, 1853, Riga, Latvia—died April 4, 1932, near Leipzig, Ger.) Russian-German physical chemist. He moved to Germany in 1887. He wrote the influential Textbook of General Chemistry, 2 vol. (1885–87). With Jacobus H. van't Hoff in 1887 he founded the Zeitschrift für physikalische Chemie, which became for many years the most important journal in the field. His work at the University of Leipzig (1887–1906) established it as a great school of physical chemistry. In 1888 he discovered Ostwald's law of dilution of an electrolyte. He gave the first modern definition of a catalyst in 1894 and was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1909 for his work on catalysis. His process for the conversion of ammonia to nitric acid proved of great industrial importance. He is regarded as one of the founders of the field of physical chemistry.

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Wilhelm Liebknecht, c. 1890

(born March 29, 1826, Giessen, Hesse—died Aug. 7, 1900, Berlin, Ger.) German socialist, cofounder of the German Social Democratic Party. Imprisoned for participating in the Revolutions of 1848, he lived in exile in England (1849–62), working closely with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Prussia granted him amnesty in 1862, but Otto von Bismarck had him expelled again in 1865. In Leipzig he and August Bebel organized the Social Democratic Labour Party in 1869. He was imprisoned (1872–74) for his writings against the Franco-Prussian War. Bismarck's repression of the socialists brought about a merger with the followers of Ferdinand Lassalle in 1875. With the expiration of the Anti-Socialist Law (1878–90), this party became known as the German Social Democratic Party. Liebknecht continued as a leading spokesman, primarily as a writer for the party's newspaper, Vorwärts.

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(born Jan. 4, 1881, Meiderich, Ger.—died March 25, 1919, Berlin) German sculptor, painter, and printmaker. His youthful work was academically realistic, but he grew to admire the works of Auguste Rodin, and in 1910 he moved to Paris, where he produced paintings and lithographs as well as sculptures. He became one of the most important German Expressionist sculptors, best known for his elongated nudes, such as Kneeling Woman (1911), which suggests a resigned pessimism. He returned to Germany at the outbreak of World War I and tended wounded soldiers in a hospital. Seated Youth (1917) reveals his profound depression; he committed suicide two years later.

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(born Sept. 22, 1882, Helmscherode, Ger.—died Oct. 16, 1946, Nürnberg) German field marshal. After serving in World War I, he held administrative posts from 1918 to 1933, after which he became minister of war (1935) and head of the German armed forces high command (1938). Although one of Adolf Hitler's most trusted lieutenants, he was generally regarded as a weak officer and served chiefly as Hitler's lackey. He signed the act of Germany's military surrender in 1945. After the war he was convicted at the Nürnberg trials and executed as a war criminal.

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(born Nov. 19, 1833, Biebrich, Nassau, Ger.—died Oct. 1, 1911, Seis am Schlern, South Tirol, Austria-Hungary) German philosopher of history. Opposed to contemporary efforts to transform the methodology of the humanities and the social sciences on the model of natural science, Dilthey tried to establish these fields as interpretive sciences in their own right. Their subject matter, according to him, is the human mind, not as it is enjoyed in immediate experience nor as it is analyzed in psychological theory, but as it manifests or “objectifies” itself in languages and literatures, actions, and institutions. Dilthey emphasized that the essence of human beings cannot be grasped by introspection but only from a knowledge of all of history; this understanding, however, can never be final because history itself never is. His major work is Introduction to Human Science (1883); two influential essays are “Ideas Concerning a Descriptive and Analytical Psychology” (1894) and “The Structure of the Historical World in the Human Sciences” (1910).

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(born May 22, 1813, Leipzig, Ger.—died Feb. 13, 1883, Venice, Italy) German composer. His childhood was divided between Dresden and Leipzig, where he had his first composition lessons; his teacher refused payment because of his talent. His first opera, The Fairies (1834), was followed by The Ban on Love (1836); the premiere performance was so unprepared that the event was a fiasco, and he henceforth determined not to settle for modest productions. The success of Rienzi (1840) led him to be more adventurous in The Flying Dutchman (1843) and even more so in Tannhäuser (1845). Caught up in the political turmoil of 1848, he was forced to flee Dresden for Zürich. During this enforced vacation, he wrote influential essays, asserting (following G.W.F. Hegel) that music had reached a limit after Ludwig van Beethoven and that the “artwork of the future” would unite music and theatre in a Gesamtkunstwerk (“total artwork”). In 1850 he saw Lohengrin produced. He had begun his most ambitious work, The Ring of the Nibelung, a four-opera cycle. The need for large-scale unity brought him to the concept of the leitmotiv. He ceased work on the Ring's third opera, Siegfried, in the throes of an adulterous love with Mathilde Wesendonk and wrote an opera of forbidden love, Tristan und Isolde (1859), which also seemed to break the bonds of tonality. He published the Ring librettos in 1863, with a plea for financial support, and Louis II of Bavaria responded, inviting Wagner to complete the work in Munich. From the late 1860s to the early 1880s, Wagner completed work on Die Meistersinger, Siegfried, Götterdämmerung, and the long-deferred Parsifal, as he also oversaw the building of the great festival theatre at Bayreuth (1872–76) that would be dedicated to his operas. His astonishing works made Wagner one of the most influential and consequential figures in the history of Western music and, indeed, of Western culture. In the late 20th century his undoubted musical stature was challenged somewhat by the strongly racist and anti-Semitic views expressed in his writings, and evidence of anti-Semitism in his operas was increasingly documented.

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(born Sept. 8, 1767, Hannover, Hanover—died May 12, 1845, Bonn) German scholar and critic. He worked as a tutor and wrote for Friedrich Schiller's short-lived periodical Die Horen before cofounding with his brother Friedrich von Schlegel the periodical Athenäum (1798–1800), which became the organ of German Romanticism. While a professor at the University of Jena, he undertook translations of the works of William Shakespeare (1797–1810) that became standard editions and are among the finest of all German literary translations. His Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature (1809–11) was widely translated and helped spread fundamental Romantic ideas throughout Europe. From 1818 until his death he taught at the University of Bonn.

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(born Jan. 27, 1775, Leonberg, Württemberg—died Aug. 20, 1854, Bad Ragaz, Switz.) German philosopher and educator. Inspired by Immanuel Kant, in his System of Transcendental Idealism (1800) he attempted to unite his concept of nature with the philosophy of Johann Gottlieb Fichte. He held that art mediates between the natural and physical spheres when the natural (or unconscious) and spiritual (or conscious) productions are united in artistic creation. His view that the Absolute expresses itself in all beings as the unity of the subjective and the objective was criticized by G.W.F. Hegel. In Of Human Freedom (1809), he declared that mankind's freedom is real only if it is freedom for both good and evil, a position that forms the basis of his later philosophy. A major figure of post-Kantian idealism, Schelling had an important influence on Romanticism. Seealso Immanuel Kant; Kantianism.

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or Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen.

(born March 27, 1845, Lennep, Prussia—died Feb. 10, 1923, Munich, Ger.) German physicist. He taught at the Universities of Giessen (1879–88), Würzburg (1888–1900), and Munich (1900–20). In 1895 he discovered rays that did not exhibit properties such as reflection or refraction and mistakenly thought they were unrelated to light. Because of their mysterious nature, he called them X-rays. He later produced the first X-ray photographs, showing the interiors of metal objects and the bones in his wife's hand. He also did important research in a wide variety of other fields. In 1901 he was awarded the first Nobel Prize for Physics.

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(born March 31, 1811, Göttingen, Westphalia—died Aug. 16, 1899, Heidelberg, Baden) German chemist. With Gustav Robert Kirchhoff, he observed (circa 1859) that each element emits light of a characteristic wavelength, opening the field of spectrochemical analysis. They discovered several new elements (including helium, cesium, and rubidium) by spectroscopy. His only book discussed methods of measuring volumes of gases. He invented the carbon-zinc battery, grease-spot photometer (see photometry), filter pump, ice calorimeter, and vapour calorimeter. Though often credited with inventing the Bunsen burner, he seems to have made only a minor contribution to its development.

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(born March 24, 1897, Dobrzcynica, Galicia, Austria-Hungary—died Nov. 3, 1957, Lewisburg, Pa., U.S.) Austrian-U.S. psychologist. Trained at the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute, he joined the faculty of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute in 1924. In The Function of the Orgasm (1927), he argued that the failure to achieve orgasm could produce neurosis. An advocate of sexual education and freedom as well as of radical left-wing politics, he left Germany in 1933 and settled in the U.S. in 1939. After breaking with the psychoanalytic movement in 1934, he developed a pseudoscientific system called orgonomy. He conceived of mental illness and some physical illnesses as deficiency of cosmic energy (measured in units called “orgones”), which he treated by placing the patient in a cabinet with reflective inner surfaces known as the orgone box. Reich's views brought him into conflict with U.S. authorities in the early 1950s; he was convicted of contempt of court and died in prison.

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Wilhelm Liebknecht, c. 1890

(born March 29, 1826, Giessen, Hesse—died Aug. 7, 1900, Berlin, Ger.) German socialist, cofounder of the German Social Democratic Party. Imprisoned for participating in the Revolutions of 1848, he lived in exile in England (1849–62), working closely with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Prussia granted him amnesty in 1862, but Otto von Bismarck had him expelled again in 1865. In Leipzig he and August Bebel organized the Social Democratic Labour Party in 1869. He was imprisoned (1872–74) for his writings against the Franco-Prussian War. Bismarck's repression of the socialists brought about a merger with the followers of Ferdinand Lassalle in 1875. With the expiration of the Anti-Socialist Law (1878–90), this party became known as the German Social Democratic Party. Liebknecht continued as a leading spokesman, primarily as a writer for the party's newspaper, Vorwärts.

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(born Jan. 4, 1881, Meiderich, Ger.—died March 25, 1919, Berlin) German sculptor, painter, and printmaker. His youthful work was academically realistic, but he grew to admire the works of Auguste Rodin, and in 1910 he moved to Paris, where he produced paintings and lithographs as well as sculptures. He became one of the most important German Expressionist sculptors, best known for his elongated nudes, such as Kneeling Woman (1911), which suggests a resigned pessimism. He returned to Germany at the outbreak of World War I and tended wounded soldiers in a hospital. Seated Youth (1917) reveals his profound depression; he committed suicide two years later.

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(born Oct. 18, 1777, Frankfurt an der Oder, Brandenburg—died Nov. 21, 1811, Wannsee, near Berlin) German writer. He served seven years in the Prussian army, and his work first attracted attention when he was in prison accused as a spy. The grim and intense drama Penthesilea (1808) contains some of his most powerful poetry, and The Broken Pitcher (1808) is a masterpiece of dramatic comedy; they were followed by Katherine of Heilbronn (1810), Die Hermannsschlacht (1821), and The Prince of Homburg (1821). In 1811 he published a collection of eight masterly novellas, including Michael Kohlhaas, The Earthquake in Chile, and The Marquise of O. Embittered by a lack of recognition, he ended his unhappy life in a joint suicide with a young woman at age 34. He is now considered the first of the great 19th-century German dramatists, and his disturbing and densely written fictions are widely admired by writers.

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(born Sept. 22, 1882, Helmscherode, Ger.—died Oct. 16, 1946, Nürnberg) German field marshal. After serving in World War I, he held administrative posts from 1918 to 1933, after which he became minister of war (1935) and head of the German armed forces high command (1938). Although one of Adolf Hitler's most trusted lieutenants, he was generally regarded as a weak officer and served chiefly as Hitler's lackey. He signed the act of Germany's military surrender in 1945. After the war he was convicted at the Nürnberg trials and executed as a war criminal.

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(born Aug. 27, 1770, Stuttgart, Württemberg—died Nov. 14, 1831, Berlin) German philosopher. After working as a tutor, he was headmaster of the gymnasium at Nürnberg (1808–16); he then taught principally at the University of Berlin (1818–31). His work, following on that of Immanuel Kant, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, and F.W. Schelling, marks the pinnacle of post-Kantian German idealism. Inspired by Christian insights and possessing a fantastic fund of concrete knowledge, Hegel found a place for everything—logical, natural, human, and divine—in a dialectical scheme that repeatedly swung from thesis to antithesis and back again to a higher and richer synthesis. His panoramic system engaged philosophy in the consideration of all the problems of history and culture, none of which could any longer be deemed foreign to its competence. At the same time, it deprived all the implicated elements and problems of their autonomy, reducing them to symbolic manifestations of the one process, that of the Absolute Spirit's quest for and conquest of its own self. His influence has been as fertile in the critical reactions he precipitated as in his positive impact. His principal works are Phenomenology of Mind (1807), Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences (1817), and Philosophy of Right (1821). He is regarded as the last of the great philosophical system builders. Seealso Hegelianism.

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(born March 17, 1834, Schorndorf, Württemberg—died March 6, 1900, Cannstatt) German automotive inventor. Trained as an engineer, he cofounded an engine–-building company in 1882. He patented one of the first successful internal-combustion engines in 1885 and was the first to use a gasoline engine to power a bicycle (see motorcycle). Further innovations culminated in 1889 in a commercially feasible four-wheeled automobile. In 1890 the Daimler company was founded at Cannstadt, and in 1899 it produced the first Mercedes car. In 1926 it merged with the company founded by Karl Benz. Seealso Daimler-Chrysler AG.

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(born Aug. 27, 1885, Raudnice, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary—died May 29, 1967, Vienna, Austria) German film director. He toured Europe as an actor from age 20 and was directing plays by 1912. He later directed films in Berlin, beginning with The Treasure (1923) and continuing with The Joyless Street (1925), Secrets of a Soul (1926), and The Love of Jeanne Ney (1927). His masterpieces, Pandora's Box (1929) and Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), both starred Louise Brooks. Later films include Kameradschaft (1931) and The Threepenny Opera (1931). He moved to France in 1933 and to Austria after World War II. His films were among the most artistically successful of the 1920s, marked by social and political concerns and deep psychological insight.

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(born Aug. 27, 1770, Stuttgart, Württemberg—died Nov. 14, 1831, Berlin) German philosopher. After working as a tutor, he was headmaster of the gymnasium at Nürnberg (1808–16); he then taught principally at the University of Berlin (1818–31). His work, following on that of Immanuel Kant, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, and F.W. Schelling, marks the pinnacle of post-Kantian German idealism. Inspired by Christian insights and possessing a fantastic fund of concrete knowledge, Hegel found a place for everything—logical, natural, human, and divine—in a dialectical scheme that repeatedly swung from thesis to antithesis and back again to a higher and richer synthesis. His panoramic system engaged philosophy in the consideration of all the problems of history and culture, none of which could any longer be deemed foreign to its competence. At the same time, it deprived all the implicated elements and problems of their autonomy, reducing them to symbolic manifestations of the one process, that of the Absolute Spirit's quest for and conquest of its own self. His influence has been as fertile in the critical reactions he precipitated as in his positive impact. His principal works are Phenomenology of Mind (1807), Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences (1817), and Philosophy of Right (1821). He is regarded as the last of the great philosophical system builders. Seealso Hegelianism.

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(born Jan. 27, 1775, Leonberg, Württemberg—died Aug. 20, 1854, Bad Ragaz, Switz.) German philosopher and educator. Inspired by Immanuel Kant, in his System of Transcendental Idealism (1800) he attempted to unite his concept of nature with the philosophy of Johann Gottlieb Fichte. He held that art mediates between the natural and physical spheres when the natural (or unconscious) and spiritual (or conscious) productions are united in artistic creation. His view that the Absolute expresses itself in all beings as the unity of the subjective and the objective was criticized by G.W.F. Hegel. In Of Human Freedom (1809), he declared that mankind's freedom is real only if it is freedom for both good and evil, a position that forms the basis of his later philosophy. A major figure of post-Kantian idealism, Schelling had an important influence on Romanticism. Seealso Immanuel Kant; Kantianism.

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Bessel, engraving by E. Mandel after a painting by Franz Wolf

(born July 22, 1784, Minden, Brandenburg—died March 17, 1846, Königsberg, Prussia) German astronomer. He was the first to measure (by means of parallax) the distance to a star other than the Sun. One of his major discoveries was that the bright stars Sirius and Procyon make tiny motions explainable only by the existence of invisible companions disturbing their motions. His observation of tiny irregularities in the orbit of Uranus, which he concluded were caused by an unknown planet beyond, led to the discovery of Neptune. His mathematical functions for studying planetary motions became widely used in solving a wide range of differential equations.

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(born Nov. 19, 1833, Biebrich, Nassau, Ger.—died Oct. 1, 1911, Seis am Schlern, South Tirol, Austria-Hungary) German philosopher of history. Opposed to contemporary efforts to transform the methodology of the humanities and the social sciences on the model of natural science, Dilthey tried to establish these fields as interpretive sciences in their own right. Their subject matter, according to him, is the human mind, not as it is enjoyed in immediate experience nor as it is analyzed in psychological theory, but as it manifests or “objectifies” itself in languages and literatures, actions, and institutions. Dilthey emphasized that the essence of human beings cannot be grasped by introspection but only from a knowledge of all of history; this understanding, however, can never be final because history itself never is. His major work is Introduction to Human Science (1883); two influential essays are “Ideas Concerning a Descriptive and Analytical Psychology” (1894) and “The Structure of the Historical World in the Human Sciences” (1910).

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(born March 17, 1834, Schorndorf, Württemberg—died March 6, 1900, Cannstatt) German automotive inventor. Trained as an engineer, he cofounded an engine–-building company in 1882. He patented one of the first successful internal-combustion engines in 1885 and was the first to use a gasoline engine to power a bicycle (see motorcycle). Further innovations culminated in 1889 in a commercially feasible four-wheeled automobile. In 1890 the Daimler company was founded at Cannstadt, and in 1899 it produced the first Mercedes car. In 1926 it merged with the company founded by Karl Benz. Seealso Daimler-Chrysler AG.

Learn more about Daimler, Gottlieb (Wilhelm) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born March 31, 1811, Göttingen, Westphalia—died Aug. 16, 1899, Heidelberg, Baden) German chemist. With Gustav Robert Kirchhoff, he observed (circa 1859) that each element emits light of a characteristic wavelength, opening the field of spectrochemical analysis. They discovered several new elements (including helium, cesium, and rubidium) by spectroscopy. His only book discussed methods of measuring volumes of gases. He invented the carbon-zinc battery, grease-spot photometer (see photometry), filter pump, ice calorimeter, and vapour calorimeter. Though often credited with inventing the Bunsen burner, he seems to have made only a minor contribution to its development.

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Bessel, engraving by E. Mandel after a painting by Franz Wolf

(born July 22, 1784, Minden, Brandenburg—died March 17, 1846, Königsberg, Prussia) German astronomer. He was the first to measure (by means of parallax) the distance to a star other than the Sun. One of his major discoveries was that the bright stars Sirius and Procyon make tiny motions explainable only by the existence of invisible companions disturbing their motions. His observation of tiny irregularities in the orbit of Uranus, which he concluded were caused by an unknown planet beyond, led to the discovery of Neptune. His mathematical functions for studying planetary motions became widely used in solving a wide range of differential equations.

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Baeyer, 1905

(born Oct. 31, 1835, Berlin, Prussia—died Aug. 20, 1917, Starnberg, near Munich, Ger.) German research chemist. He synthesized indigo and formulated its structure, discovered the phthalein dyes, and investigated such chemical families as the polyacetylenes, oxonium salts, and uric-acid derivatives (discovering barbituric acid, parent compound of the barbiturates). He also made contributions to theoretical chemistry. He received the Nobel Prize in 1905.

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(born Sept. 8, 1767, Hannover, Hanover—died May 12, 1845, Bonn) German scholar and critic. He worked as a tutor and wrote for Friedrich Schiller's short-lived periodical Die Horen before cofounding with his brother Friedrich von Schlegel the periodical Athenäum (1798–1800), which became the organ of German Romanticism. While a professor at the University of Jena, he undertook translations of the works of William Shakespeare (1797–1810) that became standard editions and are among the finest of all German literary translations. His Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature (1809–11) was widely translated and helped spread fundamental Romantic ideas throughout Europe. From 1818 until his death he taught at the University of Bonn.

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Count Friedrich Wilhelm Alexander Ferdinand of Württemberg, 1st Duke of Urach (July 6 1810 - July 17 1869), was the son of Duke Wilhelm of Württemberg (1761-1830) and his morganatic wife, Baroness Wilhelmine von Tunderfeldt-Rhodis (1777-1822). He was created Duke of Urach on March 28 1857, with the style of Serene Highness.

On February 8, 1841, Duke Wilhelm married Princess Theodelinda de Beauharnais (1814-1857), the daughter of Eugène de Beauharnais, Duke of Leuchtenberg. Four daughters were born from this marriage:

On February 15, 1863, he married Princess Florestine of Monaco (22 October 1833 France - 4 April 1897 Stuttgart) , daughter of Florestan I, Prince of Monaco, and they had two sons:

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