KARL

RITTER (1779–1859)  , German geographer, was born at Quedlinburg on the 7th of August 1779, and died in Berlin on the 28th of September 1859 . His father, a physician, left his family in straitened circumstances, and Karl was received into the Schnepfenthal institution then just founded by Christian Gotthilf Salzmann (1744–1811) for the purpose of testing his educational theories . The Salzmann system was practically that of Rousseau; conformity to natural law and enlightenment were its watchwords; great attention was given to practical life; and the modern languages were carefully taught, to the complete exclusion of Latin and Greek . Ritter already showed geographical aptitude, and when his schooldays were drawing to a close his future course was determined by an introduction to Bethmann Hollweg, a banker in Frankfort . It was arranged that . Ritter should become tutor to Hollweg's children, but that in the meantime he should attend the university at his patron's expense . His duties as tutor in the Hollweg family began at Frankfort in 1798 and continued for fifteen years . The years 1814–19, which he spent at Gottingen in order still to watch over the welfare of his pupils, were those in which he began to devote him-self exclusively to geographical inquiries . He had already travelled extensively in Europe when in 1817-18 he brought out his first masterpiece, Die Erdkunde im Verhaltnis zur Natur and zur Geschichte des Menschen (Berlin, 2 vols., 1817–r818) . In 1819 he became professor of history at Frankfort, and in 182o professor extraordinarius of history at Berlin, where shortly afterwards he began also to lecture at the military college . He remained in this position till his death . The second edition of his Erdkunde (1822-58) was conceived on a much larger scale than the first, but he completed only the sections on Africa and the various countries of Asia .

The service rendered to

geography by Ritter was especially_ notable because he brought to his work a new conception of the subject . Geography was, to use his own expression, a kind of physiology and comparative anatomy of the earth: rivers, mountains, glaciers, &c., were so many distinct organs, each with its own appropriate functions; and, as his physical frame is the basis of the man, determinative to a large extent of his life, so the structure of each country is a leading element in the historic progress of the nation . Moreover, Ritter was a scientific compiler of the first rank . Among his minor works may be mentioned Vorhalle europdischer Volkergeschichten vor Herodot (Berlin, 1820); Die Stupas . . . an der indobaktrischen Konigsstrasse and die Kolosse von Bamiyan (1838).; Einleitung zur allgemeinen vergleichenden Geographee (Berlin, 1852) ; Bemerkungen uber Veranschaulichungsmittel raumlicher Verhaltnisse bei graphischen Darstellungen durch Form u . Zahl," in the Trans. of the Berlin Academy, 1828 . After his death selections from his lectures were published under the titles Geschichte der Erdkunde (1861), Allgemeine Erdkunde (1862), and Europa (1863) . Several of his works (e.g. the " Palestine " volumesof his Erdkunde) were translated into English . " Karl Ritter" foundations were established in his memory at Berlin and Leipzig, for the furtherance of geographical study . See G . Kramer, Karl Ritter, ein Lebensbild (Halle, 1864 and 187o; 2nd ed., 1875) ; W . L .

Gage, The Life of Karl Ritter (London, 1867) ; F . Marthe, ' Was bedeutet Karl Ritter fur die Geographie," in Zeitsch. der Ges. f . Erdk . (Berlin, 1879) . All Ritter's works mentioned above were published at Berlin .