WILHELM von HUMBOLDT. - Politician and thinker, b. in Potsdam on 22 June 1767, d. at Tegel on 8 April 1835. Devoting himself to studies, he completed them with long travels in Austria, France, and Spain (1797–1801). Counsellor of embassy at the Holy See (1802), in 1809 he assumed the direction of affairs concerning worship and education in Prussia. Ambassador to Vienna and London, minister of corporations (1819), he aimed at the constitution of the German Confederation.
In his principal political writings (cf. especially Ideen über Staatsverfassung, durch die neue französische Konstitution veranlasst, and Ideen zu einem Versuch, die Grenzen der Wirksamkeit des Staates zu bestimmen, both from 1792) he opposed the abstract concept of the State to the historical concept of the nation. The study of comparative anthropology (cf. the Plan einer vergleichenden Anthropologie of 1795), intended as research into the character of nations, represented for H. the premise for understanding the spirit of humanity. He also devoted himself to linguistic studies, maintaining that language is the spontaneous and continuous creation of the spirit. H. opposed state interference in the religious consciences of citizens.