Prussian historian Leopold von Ranke is generally regarded as the founder of modern historiography. While the 20th century has produced a substantial number of German historians who are also interesting as essayists, there was a paucity of such in Ranke’s day. The great or near-great can, indeed, be counted on one hand: Mommsen, Friedrich Christoph Dahlman, Heinrich von Treitschke, and Alfred Dove, as well as Ranke himself.
Though he apparently never wrote consciously as an essayist—even though the genre had established itself as such by the mid-19th century in Germany, with such writers as Herman Grimm and Karl Hillebrand, and fellow historians Georg G.Gervinus, Otto Gildemeister, and Theodor Mommsen—Ranke did write a number of shorter works that could well qualify as essays. These were often in the form of dialogues, intended as prefaces to his major works, or were otherwise relatively informal and briefer works without the usual formidable scholarly apparatus characteristic of Ranke’s major writings.
Ranke’s essayistic writings, though by definition not displaying the meticulous and distanced craftsman, are nonetheless perfectly consistent with the tenor, predispositions, and general style of his most famous scholarship, Die Römischen Päpste (1834–36; The History of the Popes), Deutsche Geschichte im Zeitalter der Reformation (1839–47; History of the Reformation in Germany), and other works. Notably, there are no significant changes in the style, tenor, or general purport of Ranke’s essays over the course of an extensive stretch of time.
Essayistic compositions sometimes occur as parts of longer works, such as the oftexcerpted pieces from the Vorträge (lectures) for the benefit of King Maximilian II of Bavaria—for instance, “Wie der Begriff Fortschritt in der Geschichte aufzufassen sei” (1854; How the concept of progress in history should be understood) and “Was von den sogenannten leitenden Ideen in der Geschichte zu halten sei” (1854; What should one think of the so-called leading ideas in history); such contributions show the best side of Ranke as essayist. Two even briefer pieces from the same series, “Die nordamerikanische Revolution” (1854; The North American revolution) and “Die französische Revolution” (1854; The French Revolution), though displaying the careful historian reluctant to make easy generalizations unsupported by mountains of data and detail, yet reveal the more relaxed and expansive essayist who implicitly assumes an understanding between himself and his reader that the author is not writing for archival record.
While Ranke edited and wrote most of the contributions for a journal he founded, the Historische-politische Zeitschrift (Historical-political journal), this work is hardly a mine for those exploring Ranke as essayist: its primary purpose was to function as an organ for the policies of the Prussian government. The journal did, however, contain his two most important contributions to the essay: “Das politische Gespräch” (1836; “A Dialogue on Politics”) and “Die grossen Mächte” (1832; “The Great Powers”).
their contribution to some notion of progress. This form of historicism, while certainly intended in part to refute such politically engaged historians as Gustav Droysen and Heinrich von Sybel, surely had the dominant political thought of Hegel as its primary target. Moreover, unlike some of his fellow historians (e.g. Friedrich Christoph Schlosser, Karl von Rotteck, Gervinus, and Thomas Babington Macaulay), Ranke felt that the historian should be a technician rather than a moralizing judge “distributing praise and blame” (Pieter Geyl, 1958).
Written consistently in the tone of a broadminded and freewheeling discussion, the dialogue is lively, realistic, and often compelling, never stepping out of its guise and degenerating into a dissertational style. It comes as no surprise that Ranke regards drama as the most effective literary means for gaining insight into the human heart. Peter Gay (1974) comments on this: “In Ranke, the shaping hand of the literary artist is never far from the constructive effort of the historian.” Frequent use is made of the rhetorical question and what Gay calls the “counterfactual alternative.” Lyricism, smoothness, and breadth are characteristic, but—perhaps surprisingly, given the frequent use of irony— there is little genuine humor.
The second of Ranke’s most important essays, “The Great Powers,” is a wide-ranging survey of those European powers—England, France, Austria, Prussia, and Russia— among whom a political and cultural, seemingly perpetual, competition serves to keep the balance of power (and thus the civilization) of Europe in a healthy condition. Everything, Ranke asserts, is secondary to the authority of the state, while foreign policy is the state’s most important function. Although not as lively a piece as “A Dialogue on Politics,” this earlier work must be regarded as one of the most perceptive and instructive contributions to the subject during the author’s lifetime.
Ranke’s letters, diaries (Tagebücher), and notebooks also contain much that can be classified as essayistic in nature. Unfortunately, little scholarly attention has been paid to these sources as contributions to the genre. In them can be found occasional statements of belief, attitude, and feeling—ruminations and speculations rather than tightly reasoned arguments, e.g. on the nature of history, its place among other academic disciplines, the primacy of political history (almost to the exclusion of everything else), and the importance of the great historical figure (the “Great Man” theory of history).
Beyond the considerations of theme and content in Ranke’s essays, there is always the compelling excellence of his style and form. It seems that Ranke took the preceding century’s Buffon to heart (“le style est l’homme même” [style is the man himself]) and believed that it was only through style that a writer—especially the historian—could rise above the prosaic role of reporter and recorder (Gay). He took obvious pleasure in his role as a historical commentator and speculator, a disposition eminently appropriate for the accomplished essayist.
Born 21 December 1795 in Wiehe, Kursachen. Studied at the Schulpforta, near Naumburg; University of Leipzig, 1816–17, doctoral degree, 1817. Taught history at the gymnasium in Frankfurt-on-Oder, 1818–24; chair of history, University of Berlin, 1825– 71, where he taught Jacob Christoph Burckhardt. Traveled and studied in Italy, 1828– 31. Editor, Historische-politische Zeitschrift, 1832–36. Ennobled, 1865.
Died in Berlin, 25 May 1886.
Other writings: many volumes on history, particularly on the 16th and 17th centuries, as well as an unfinished history of the world (Weltgeschichte, 16 vols., 1881–88) and a history of the popes (1834–36), diaries, and correspondence.
Gesamtausgabe (German Academy Edition), edited by Erich Marcks and others, 1925– (in progress).