HUMBOLDT, Karl Wilhelm, BARON vox, German statesman and philologist, brother of the preceding: b. Potsdam, 22 June 1767; d. Tegel near Spandau, 8 April 1835. He studied law at Berlin, at Frankfort-on-the-Oder and at GOttingen, and at the same time devoted equal attention to antiquities, esthetics and the phi losophy of Kant. In 1789-90 he lived in Erfurt and Weimar, where a friendship commenced with Schiller continued without interruption till the poet's death. A valuable memorial of his friendship with Schiller is the correspond ence between them (< Briefwechsel zwischen Schiller und Wilhelm von Humboldt,' 1830) In 1790 he became Prussian Councillor of Lega tion at Berlin, resigning in the following year. From 1794-97 he was one of the Schiller circle at Jena. In 1801, at the request of the Prus sian government, he accepted the situation of ministerial resident at Rome. From 1806-08 he was here Minister Plenipotentiary, but, having been called from Rome to fill the office of Minister of the Interior in connection with ecclesiastical and educational matters, had a most important share in the educational progress which Prussia has since made; more especially is the erection of the Berlin University to lie ascribed to him. In 1809 he was appointed Privy Councillor of State, and in this office was in charge of public worship and education. He exchanged this situation in 1810 for that of Extraordinary Ambassador and Minister Plenipotentiary to Vienna. He took an active part during the armistice of 1813 in the peace congress at Prague; in 1814 at the Congress of Chatillon, and the conclusion of the first Paris peace; in 1815 at the Congress of Vienna; and in 1816 at Frankfort-on-the-Main, in all mat ters connected with the German Diet. He was
afterward appointed Ambassador to London, and in 1818 attended the Congress of Aix la-Chapelle. In 1819 he was an active member of the Prussian Ministry of the Interior, but sent in his resignation the same year, in favor of a freer and more constitutional system. It was not until 1830 that Humboldt was recalled to the Council of State. His publications in clude the elegiac poem 'Rom' (1808) ; the im portant work in philological research in the Basque language (Priifung der Untersuchungen Ober die Urbewohner Hispaniens vermittelst der baskischen Sprache (1821) ; also (Uber die Kawisprache auf der Insel Java' (3 vols., 1836-40) ; (Ideen zu einem Versuch, die Gren zen der Wirksamkeit des Staates zu bestimmen' (ed. by Cauer in Reclam's 1851). Humboldt's philological studies were the first in this field to be based on history, philos ophy and the various anthropological sciences. His collected works appeared in seven volumes (Berlin 1841-52). Consult Haym, R., 'Wilhelm von Humboldt, Lebensbild and Charakteristik' (Berlin 1856) ; Gebhardt, 'Wilhelm von Hum boldt als Staatsmann' (2 vols., Stuttgart 1896 99) ; and Kittel, 'Wilhelm von Humboldts geschichtliche Weltanschauung' (Leipzig 1901).