Humboldt 250
On the occasion of the celebration of Humboldt’s 250th anniversary, along the year 2019, I have participated in numerous events prepared on both sides of the Atlantic. Many of those activities were organized in the context of the initiative “Humboldt y las Américas”, launched by the German Federal Foreign Office, in order to strengthen the ties with Hispanoamerica.
Even over 200 years after his expedition through the Spanish possessions in America (1799-1804), Alexander von Humboldt is well remembered in Venezuela, Cuba, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico and the United States. This great appreciation of the Prussian explorer and naturalist also extends to those parts of the New World that he did not visit.
However, both Humboldt’s significance for the development of the sciences in the 19th century, and his inspiration for many key questions of our modern world, is not less important in 2020 and beyond.
Even over 200 years after his expedition through the Spanish possessions in America (1799-1804), Alexander von Humboldt is well remembered in Venezuela, Cuba, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico and the United States. This great appreciation of the Prussian explorer and naturalist also extends to those parts of the New World that he did not visit.
“Ideas can only be useful if they come alive in many minds”
Though much has been written about the Prussian explorer, the finding of unknown material over the last years, recent online access to important original sources and innovative research methodologies, show the importance to continue, update and correct research on Humboldt. This also includes new efforts that need to take his networks more into account and analyze his achievements in the context of the work of his predecessors, his collaborators, as well as other contemporaneous scholars.
In addition, it is important that the results of those efforts will be discussed not only within scholarly circles but that they also reach out to the broad society. Otherwise, we risk that a rather unidimensional, and sometimes hagiographic interpretation of Humboldt, which neglects his contexts and seeks to see him as an isolated genius, is communicated to the larger public. Scholarly research, in its various dimensions, should be made accessible, its outcome should be communicated to the society and have an impact on the general debate. The anniversary is an excellent occasion to take that postulate into practice and to make society aware of Humboldt’s significance within his times, much beyond the year of the official commemoration.
The key questions that arose in the context of the Humboldt 250 anniversary continue to be of importance also for the next generations:
«The idea of the colony itself is an immoral one, that idea of a country committed to duty to another»
—Diaries, Guayaquil (Ecuador), January 4th - February 17th, 1803—
How can we define Humboldt´s key achievements?
What is Humboldt's most important legacy in America?
How does his perception differ among nations?
What are the critical issues that have been raised regarding the Prussian explorer?
What can we still learn from him while facing the challenges of our world today?