Carl Ritter (in German: Karl Ritter) (August 7, 1779, Quedlinburg – September 28, 1859, Berlin) was, along with his fellow German Alexander von Humboldt, one of the founders of modern geography (and of the Berlin Geographical Society ). From 1820 until his death, he occupied the first chair in geography at the University of Berlin.

Ritter was one of six children, son of a well-respected doctor, F.W. Ritter. At the age of two, Ritter's father would die, and he would be enrolled in the Schnepfenthal institution, a school focused on the study of nature (apparently influenced by Jean-Jacques Rousseau's writings on children's education). This experience would influence Ritter throughout his life, retaining an interest in new educational modes, including those of Johann Pestalozzi. Indeed, much of Ritter's writing was based on Pestalozzi's three stages in teaching: the acquisition of the material, the general comparison of material, and the establishment of a general system.

After completion of his schooling, Ritter was introduced to Bethmann Hollweg, a banker in Frankfort. It was arranged that Ritter should become tutor to Hollweg's children, but that in the meantime he should attend university at his patrons expense. His duties as tutor began in 1798 and continued for fifteen years. The years 1814-1819, which he spent at Gottingen in order still to watch over his pupils, were those in which he began to exclusively study geography.

In 1819 he became professor of history at Frankfort, and in 1820 professor extraordinarius of history at the University of Berlin. He would also lecture at a nearby military college.

Ritter's masterwork, the 19-volume Die Erdkunde im Verhältniss zur Natur und zur Geschichte des Menschen (The Science of the Earth in Relation to Nature and the History of Mankind), written 1817-1859, developed at prodigious length the theme of the influence of the physical environment on human activity. Despite its length, the work was left incomplete at the time of his death, covering only Asia and Africa.

Ritter's impact on geography was especially notable because he brought forth a new conception of the subject. In his view, "geography was a kind of physiology and comparative anatomy of the earth: rivers, mountains, glaciers, &c., were so many distinct organs, each with its own appropriate functions; and, as his physical frame is the basis of the man, determinative to a large extent of his life, so the structure of each country is a leading element in the historic progress of the nation."

Ritter's writings thus also had implications for political theory. His organic conception of the state was used to jusitiy the pursuit of lebensraum, even at the cost of another nation's existence, because conquest was seen as a biological necessity for a state’s growth. His ideas were adopted and expanded by the German geostrategist Friedrich Ratzel.

External links

• Matt Rosenberg on Ritter