"Ungeheure Tiefe des Denkens, unerreichbarer Scharfblick und die seltenste Schnelligkeit der Kombination" : zur Wahl Alexander von Humboldts in die Académie Royale des Sciences et Belles-Lettres zu Berlin ; mit der Antrittsrede Alexander von Humboldts, gehalten am 21. November 1805 bei seiner Einführung in die Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin
- On July 17, 1800 Alexander von Humboldt was elected as an extraordinary member of the Académie royale des sciences et belles-lettres at Berlin. The paper first deals with Humboldt’s scientific activities before his election and then goes into detail as far as his integration into the work of the Academy is concerned. Humboldt was elected as a chimiste célèbre, but as a member of the Academy he did not work as a chemist. When Humboldt proposed in 1837 to classify the members of each class in special fields, he chose for himself the field of “mineralogy-geology”. Three sidelights, partly based on newly found archival material, illustrate Humboldt’s activities at the Berlin Academy of Sciences.
