GEOGRAPHER

Alexander von Humboldt

1769 - 1859

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Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 1769 – 6 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher, and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835). Humboldt's quantitative work on botanical geography laid the foundation for the field of biogeography, while his advocacy of long-term systematic geophysical measurement pioneered modern geomagnetic and meteorological monitoring. Humboldt and Carl Ritter are both regarded as the founders of modern geography as they established it as an independent scientific discipline. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Alexander von Humboldt is the 3rd most popular geographer, the 52nd most popular biography from Germany (down from 43rd in 2019) and the most popular German Geographer.

Alexander von Humboldt is most famous for his contributions to the sciences of geography, geology, and botany.

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Among GEOGRAPHERS

Among geographers, Alexander von Humboldt ranks 3 out of 86. Before him are Eratosthenes, and Strabo. After him are Gerardus Mercator, Muhammad al-Idrisi, Piri Reis, Pausanias, Abraham Ortelius, Martin Waldseemüller, Carl Ritter, David Harvey, and Ferdinand von Richthofen.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1769, Alexander von Humboldt ranks 2. Before him is Napoleon. After him are Muhammad Ali of Egypt, Georges Cuvier, Michel Ney, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Jean-de-Dieu Soult, Jean Lannes, Ivan Krylov, Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany, André-Jacques Garnerin, and Ivan Kotliarevsky. Among people deceased in 1859, Alexander von Humboldt ranks 1. After him are Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet, Klemens von Metternich, Alexis de Tocqueville, Oscar I of Sweden, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Wilhelm Grimm, Carl Ritter, Thomas De Quincey, John Vianney, Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies, and Josip Jelačić.

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In Germany

Among people born in Germany, Alexander von Humboldt ranks 52 out of 7,253. Before him are Franz Beckenbauer (1945), Felix Mendelssohn (1809), Werner Heisenberg (1901), Christian IX of Denmark (1818), Robert Koch (1843), and Marlene Dietrich (1901). After him are Thomas Mann (1875), Gerd Müller (1945), William I, German Emperor (1797), Adolf Eichmann (1906), Georg Ohm (1789), and Hildegard of Bingen (1098).

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Among GEOGRAPHERS In Germany

Among geographers born in Germany, Alexander von Humboldt ranks 1. After him are Martin Waldseemüller (1470), Carl Ritter (1779), Sebastian Münster (1488), Johann Georg Gmelin (1709), Albrecht Penck (1858), Alfred Hettner (1859), Hans Meyer (1858), August Heinrich Petermann (1822), Adolf Stieler (1775), Anton Friedrich Büsching (1724), and Richard Andree (1835).

German born Geographers

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