Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859)

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Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt (14 September 1769 – 6 May 1859) was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the diplomat and philosopher Wilhelm von Humboldt.


Equinoctial Regions of America (1814-1829)

As translated by Thomasina Ross
Devoted from my earliest youth to the study of nature, feeling with enthusiasm the wild beauties of a country guarded by mountains and shaded by ancient forests, I experienced in my travels, enjoyments which have amply compensated for the privations inseparable from a laborious and often agitated life.
One of the noblest characteristics which distinguish modern civilization from that of remoter times is, that it has enlarged the mass of our conceptions, rendered us more capable of perceiving the connection between the physical and intellectual world, and thrown a more general interest over objects which heretofore occupied only a few scientific men, because those objects were contemplated separately, and from a narrower point of view.
The expression of vanity and self-love becomes less offensive, when it retains something of simplicity and frankness.
Our imagination is struck only by what is great; but the lover of natural philosophy should reflect equally on little things.
In order to ameliorate without commotion new institutions must be made, as it were, to rise out of those which the barbarism of centuries has consecrated. It will one day seem incredible that until the year 1826 there existed no law in the Great Antilles to prevent the sale of young infants and their separation from their parents, or to prohibit the degrading custom of marking the negroes with a hot iron, merely to enable these human cattle to be more easily recognized.

Kosmos (1845 - 1847)

The principal impulse by which I was directed was the earnest endeavor to comprehend the phenomena of physical objects in their general connection, and to represent nature as one great whole, moved and animated by internal forces. My intercourse with highly-gifted men early led me to discover that, without an earnest striving to attain to a knowledge of special branches of study, all attempts to give a grand and general view of the universe would be nothing more than a vain illusion. These special departments in the great domain of natural science are, moreover, capable of being reciprocally fructified by means of the appropriative forces by which they are endowed.

While we maintain the unity of the human species, we at the same time repel the depressing assumption of superior and inferior races of men. There are nations more susceptible of cultivation, more highly civilized, more enobled by mental cultivation than others, but none in themselves nobler than others. All are in like degree designed for freedom; a freedom which, in the ruder conditions of society, belongs only to the individual, but which, in social states enjoying political institutions, appertains as a right to the whole body of the community.

From the remotest nebulæ and from the revolving double stars, we have descended to the minutest organisms of animal creation, whether manifested in the depths of ocean or on the surface of our globe, and to the delicate vegetable germs which clothe the naked declivity of the ice-crowned mountain summit; and here we have been able to arrange these phenomena according to partially known laws; but other laws of a more mysterious nature rule the higher spheres of the organic world, in which is comprised the human species in all its varied conformation, its creative intellectual power, and the languages to which it has given existence. A physical delineation of nature terminates at the point where the sphere of intellect begins, and a new world of mind is opened to our view. It marks the limit, but does not pass it.

The most powerful influence exercised by the Arabs on general natural physics was that directed to the advances of chemistry; a science for which this race created a new era.(...) Besides making laudatory mention of that which we owe to the natural science of the Arabs in both the terrestrial and celestial spheres, we must likewise allude to their contributions in separate paths of intellectual development to the general mass of mathematical science. Cosmos, H.G. Bohn, 1860, v2, p.589,595

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Our Work

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation sponsors top-flight foreign scientists and scholars who come to Germany on research fellowships and research awards to spend longer periods of time working with German colleagues.

Humboldt Research Fellowships and Humboldt Research Awards are highly respected all over the world. It is something special to be a Humboldtian. That is why the Alexander von Foundation supports each and every Humboldtian individually and flexibly – to ensure that the fellows and their families feel at home in Germany and are able to concentrate on their work.

Once a Humboldtian, always a Humboldtian. Even after their time in Germany has come to an end, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation stays in close contact with its alumni, and operates numerous alumni sponsorship programmes for this purpose. The fellowships granted by the Foundation to enable junior German researchers to collaborate as guest scientists and scholars with Humboldtians abroad allow both the host Humboldtians and their German guests to benefit equally from the Foundation’s network.

Our Perspectives

Today more than ever, research is international and subject to fierce competition between research locations. The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation is therefore constantly improving its offers for globally sought-after researchers in order to attract the very best scientists and scholars and thereby strengthen research in Germany. To this end the Foundation collaborates with various partners in marketing Germany internationally as a location for research, and continues to expand its cooperation with the European Union as well as its research and mobility programmes. On the basis of its traditional strengths as well as new ideas and initiatives the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation contributes to making Germany a leading destination for the international academic elite.

Furthermore, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation supports international cultural dialogue as a long-term policy for peace and security by making use of its network of understanding. The Foundation’s responses to specific regional and political requirements include a programme tailored to the needs of researchers from threshold and developing countries, initiatives for Central and Eastern Europe and for European-Islamic cultural dialogue.

Both in its marketing research in Germany and in the political dimension of its work the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation makes use of its greatest capital: the worldwide network of Humboldtians with its many representatives who hold not only important scientific posts but also leading and influential political positions.

Our Roots

Mutual understanding coupled with academic freedom and excellence have remained the organisation’s guiding principles to this day. With Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) as a model, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation maintains an international network of academic cooperation and trust connecting more than 25,000 Humboldtians throughout the world, among them 48 Nobel Laureates.

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation is funded by the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, and a number of national and international partners. The Foundation’s annual budget in recent years has ranged from 90 to 100 million euros.

Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and India

Since 1953, the Foundation has granted research fellowships to 1,727 scholars and scientists from India, and 22 research awards.

78.4% of these researchers are natural scientists; a further 16.5% of Indian Humboldtians conduct research in the engineering sciences, while 5.2% are humanities scholars or social scientists. The Indian alumni network is one of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation’s largest and currently comprises approximately 1,200 Humboldtians who live in India, many of whom are active in self-founded alumni associations. There are today over 100 Humboldt Associations in approximately 70 countries; India alone is home to 16 Humboldt Associations. All of them are actively involved in the development of the Humboldt Alumni network of academic excellence.

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation maintains a long-term presence and holds various events in India, among them the “Indo-German Frontiers of Engineering” symposia organised in cooperation with the Department of Science. The aim of these multi-day specialist conferences is to bring together young researchers from both countries at highest academic levels. The conferences are held alternately in Germany and India.

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation’s Ambassador Scientists disseminate information about Germany as a research location at universities and research institutions in Germany and abroad, focusing particularly on the Foundation’s sponsorship programmes and international network. In India, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation is represented by two Ambassador Scientists, i.e. Professor Dr. Rekha Vaidya Rajan (Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi) and Dr. Amol A. Kulkarni (National Chemical Laboratory, Pune).

[KALKI]

Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) who spent fifty years doing research on Ancient America, said:

"It is surprising to find, toward the end of the fifteenth century, in a world that we call "New" the ancient institutions, the religious ideas, the forms of edifices which, in Asia appear to belong to the first dawn of civilization."

Those Indian ships that carried Fahien, the Chinese historian and scholar through stormy China waters could without difficulty proceed all the way to Mexico and other countries. A thousand years before the birth of Columbus Indian ships could carry hundreds of passengers.

Maya-Hindu connection