HUMBOLDT. K:Ant. WILIIELNI. Baron von (1767-1835). An eminent German scholar, au thor, and statesman, elder brother of the preced ing, born at Potsdam, Prussia, June 22, 1767. He was educated at. the universities of Frankfort on-the-Odor and Gidtingen, where he was espe cially trained in jurisprudence. but also studied :esthetics, antiquities, and the Kant bin phi losophy, then newly propounded. After Conti nental travel, he spent some time in 1789 90 at Erfurt and at Weimar, where he met Schiller, then professor extraordinarius at :Jena. In 1790 lie became referendary in the Supreme Court of Judicature at 'Berlin, with the title of Prus sian Councilor of Legation, but in 1791 resigned his appointment. and in 1794-97 was it Jena. active in scientific and literary study. and one of the Schiller circle. His interesting correspond ence with Schiller, extending from 1792 to ISO:), was published by him in 1830 with a "Vorerin nerling" (2(1 ed.. by Vollmer, 1876; in the Cat ta'sche ltilliotliek,p(1. by 1893). From 1S01 to 1800 he was Prussian Resident Minister at the Papal Court. and in 1806-08 Minister Plenipotentiary. At ROMP 110 was a most littoral patron of artists. including Raueli and Thorwald sell, made philosophieal. :esthetic. philological and arehieological researches, and the elegy Rom? (1806), his most ambitious poem. In 1809 lie was appointed Privy Couneilor of Stale, in charge of public worship and educa tion. After a suceessfill administration, which introduced many reforms, and organized and ob tained endowment. for the Berlin University (de creed 1807, opened 1810), lie resigned the post in 1810, to accept that of Envoy Extraordinary and .\linister Plenipotentiary at Vienna. with rank of Minister of State. In the political affairs of the time he took a prominent part. Ile was present at the Peace Congress of Prague in 1513. in 1814 was at the Congress of Chritillon and signed, with Ilardenberg, the first Paris Treaty. and in 1814-15 attended the Vienna Con gress as Prussia's Second Plenipotentiary. boldt likewise took pilit in the negotiations at tending the conclusion of the second Paris Treaty. and was a member of the Territorial Commission at Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1816 17. As a State Councilor he st rongly disagreed with Chan cellor flardenberg on Pertain matters of tax re fo•m, and in consequence he was ordered to Lon don as Ambassador. Ile returned in 1818 to at tend the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, and in 1819 was appointed to the Ministry of the interior then divided into two branches) with the de partment of eommunal and municipal af fairs. llis liberal opinions soon i !IVO] veil him in
difficulties with I the Government. Ile demanded a new Prussian eonstitut ion which should com bine the autonomy of provinces and governmental districts with a Parliament chosen by direct election; and he attacked the Carlsbad decrees, Which, among various provisions, established a censorship of the press and contained measures hostile to the universities and sehools. Dis missed in 1819, he was not recalled to the Council of State until 1830. In the last years of his lifo Humboldt devoted much attention to art matters and to the organization of the Berlin Museum. lie died April 8, 1835, at 'l'egel.
As a statesman Willudin von Humboldt Vit1S en lightened and industrious, but perhaps hardly con structive. As a critical essayist he was of tran sient. influence. Of his poetical works, besides the Ron/ above mentioned, only the translation of the Agamemnon is now 11111011 read (1816, 2d ed. 1857; in the ('nirersalbibliothek of Iteelain). But as a pbilologist he marks an epoch. It WIIS 11C who first called the attention of scholars to the phe nomenon of the Basque language, particularly in the volume l'riifung der Untersuchungen aber the Urbeirohner Hispanicns remnittelst (ler bas kisehen Sprach(' (1821). II is chief publication, (*cher die Karrispmehe der I liSl (3 viols., 1836-40), with its noted introduction, "l'eber die Versehiedenheit des mensehliehen Sprachbalies" (separately printed 1835, 3d ed. of Pott's revision. 1880), was the first. on the sub ject. Important dissertations read before the Berlin Acmienty include those on the compara tive study of language. the province of the historian, and the origin of grammatical forms. was in these and other writings the first to associate the science of comparative phi lology trill philosophy, history, and other col lateral studies, and to give it a universal signifi cance. 11 is ldeen zu einem Versuch, die Orenzen der 1Virksainkei1 des Staates z.0 bestimmen (edited by ('auer 1851, in Reel:Ines Ilnirersal Libliothek). which Schiller vainly tried to get published. limits the authority of the State to the inferior t.isk of protecting the life and property of its citizens. The collected works appeared at Berlin (7 vols.) in 1841-52. Consult. also the study by Mayor (Berlin, 1850) ; Adler, Wi/hc/in run //mnbo/fit's Linauistical Studies (New York, 1866) ; Gephardt, Wilhelm inn Humboldt als Staatsmann (Stuttgart, 2 VON.. 1 S96 - 99) ; and Kitty], roll geschichtliehc Weltanschauung (Leipzig, 1901).