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The Great Work

Carl Ritter’s 19 part (21 volume) masterwork, „Erdkunde im Verhältnis zur Natur und zur Geschichte des Menschen oder allgemeine, vergleichende Geographie, als sichere Grundlage des Studiums und Unterricts in physicalischen und historischen Wissenschaften“, is one of the most extensive works of geographical literature written by a single author. The first two volumes were published by G. Reimer in 1817 and 1818 respectively, after which the third would not be published until 1922. During this time, Ritter wrote and published “Vorhalle der europäischen Völkergeschichte vor Herodotus um den Kaukasus und um die Gestade des Pontus, eine Abhandlung zur Altertumskunde“, which marked Ritter’s interest in India. It was also to serve as a transition to a third volume of „Erdkunde“ that appeared first in 1835.

In total Ritter intended to write an all-encompassing geography spanning the entire globe. His work was to consist of three parts:

1. The solid form or the continents

2. The fluid form or the elements

3. The bodies of the three realms of nature

Part one was to undertake the continents of the globe beginning with the “Old World” and work to the “New World”. The dynamic of old and new proposed here does not correspond to contemporary notions, rather refers to the evolution of human activity on the planet as Ritter understood it. Consequently, as noted by Hanno Beck, “The most extreme parts of the world, in Ritter’s opinion, in the North, the South and the East are in practical terms as much a part of the New World as America”. Due to the colossal scale of his project, Ritter was never able to complete it, but the final section of the first part should have concluded by recapping each continent and its “main forms and its effects on nature and history: this was to be achieved in a brief form and used as a contribution to a survey of the “great whole”.

Part two was to deal with the fluid forms; by this was meant water, air, and fire. These elements correspond approximately to the studies of Hydrography, meteorology, climatology, as well as volcanology. This part, too, was to be examined within the framework of the whole system.

The final part of the proposed work was to be dedicated to the interrelationships of organic life with geography and history. Part and parcel of Ritter’s approach to geography was to identify the relationship between the variables at stake. He was particularly interested in the development of these relationships over time and how their constituent components (animals and the earth) contributed to this evolution. Borrowing the concept of the “organic unity” from Humboldt, Ritter went further saying a geography is simply not possible without it.

Methodology

The methodology employed by Ritter was an inductive one, consisting of compiling large sums of information and material, and creating theories from those texts. This style of research was much criticized by his contemporaries. A.W. Schlegel, in a letter to Johannes Schulze, bemoans how “It is in fact high time that the studies of Indian monuments be made serious. It is fashionable in Germany to have one’s say in it without knowing the language which leads to aberrations. We see a woeful example of this in the “Vorhalle” of otherwise estimable Ritter.” As Ritter prepared for his move into Asia the sources accumulated even further, thus compounding the problem raised by Schlegel.

A consequence of his inductive research methods, Ritter was increasingly interested in observing the planet as an organism composed of geographical individuals. In the introduction of to the “Geography” he states, “Thus the large continents represent the surveying view of so many more or less separate wholes, which we consider here as the big individuals of the earth in general.” First after identifying the individuals of the earth, and then describing them through extensive research, could Ritter conceive of a whole, whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Ritter elucidates the development of a geographical individual and strives to establish a natural geographical system. Comparing Geography to language theory or philosophy, he believed that it was necessary to understand each "Erdgegend" (area of the Earth) and its characteristic appearances and natural relationships without relying on the absolute work of pure description and classification. In partitioning the Earth into “Erdgegende” he has developed a theory of area, which he views as indispensable to geographical inquiry. Furthermore, Ritter believed that areas existed a priori and were formed by humans.

Constructing a geographical theory around the area allowed Ritter to make the comparative work would seek to do in the conclusion to his great work. Elevating the importance of the area, he then investigated the peculiarities of each of the localities, remembering of course, to reflect the impact of organic life, mainly humans, on that locality. Once completed, this process would allow the last component in the method of Ritter, the comparison.

Format of the Work At the time of his death, Ritter had produced an astonishing amount of geographical literature contained in his “Erdkunde” alone. It amounts to 21 volumes comprising 19 parts which can be roughly divided into 6 sections.

1. Africa (I) 1822

2 East Asia (II-VI) 1818-1836

3. West Asia (VII-XI) 1837-1844

4. Arabia (XII-XIII) 1846-1847

5. Sinai Peninsula (XIV-XVII) 1847-1848

6. Asia Minor (XVIII-XIX) 1850-1852