Ranke, LEOPOLD VON, the greatest of German historians, was born on 21st December 1795, at Wiehe, about half-way between Gotha and Halle. Although he studied theology and philology at Halle and Berlin, and in 1818 began to teach at the gymnasium of Frankfurt-on-Oder, his chiefest thoughts were given to the study of history, to which they were directed principally by his Luther studies and the reading of Scott's romances. The two works, Geschichte der romanischen und germanischen Völker von 1494 bis 1535 (1824) and Zur Kritik neuerer Geschichtsschreiber (1824), procured him a call to Berlin as professor of History in 1825. The latter of these works, and Analecta to his subsequent books, expound his views of the functions of history, and the methods of the ideal historian. History is the record of facts. It should know nothing of the political party, or church politics, or subjective views of the writer. It should be based upon sound documentary evidence, critically examined and sifted. In 1827 he was sent by the Prussian government to consult the archives of Vienna, Venice, Rome, and Florence; four years he spent in this work, and returned with a mass of the most valuable historical materials. The results of his labours were seen in Fürsten und Völker von Süd-Europa im 16 und 17 Jahrhundert (1827) and other books dealing with Servia, Turkey, and Venice; and Die römischen Päpste im 16 und 17 Jahrhundert (1834-37; 9th ed. 1889), perhaps the most finished of his books, certainly one of his great masterpieces of historical writing. Then he turned his attention to central and northern Europe, and wrote in quick succession Deutsche Geschichte im Zeitalter der Reformation (1839-47); Zwölf Bücher preussischer Geschichte (1847-48; new ed. 1871-74); Französische Geschichte (1852-61); Englische Geschichte (1859-67; 4th ed. 9 vols. 1877-79), the last two treating chiefly of the same two centuries as the books on south Europe; and Zur deutschen Geschichte, vom Religionsfrieden bis zum Dreissigjährigen Krieg (1869). Later periods and special periods of German history are treated of in books on the Origin of the Seven Years' War (2d ed. 1874), the German Powers and the Confederation (1871), Zur Geschichte von Oesterreich und Preussen zwischen den Friedensschlüssen zu Aachen und Hubertsburg (1876); the history of Germany and France in the 19th century (1887), and monographs on Wallenstein (1869), Hardenberg (5 vols. 1877-78), and Frederick the Great and Frederick William IV. (1878). To the above must be added a book on the revolutionary wars of 1791 and 1792 (1875), another on Venetian History (1878), and Die Weltgeschichte, of whose nine volumes (1881-88) he lived to see only seven published. This last work, which is the copestone of Ranke's historical labours, was begun when he was an old man of eighty-two; yet at that great age he kept two schooled historical assistants busy, studied critically the Greek and other sources, dictated and worked eight to ten hours a day, and published one volume a year regularly, until he died, on 23d May 1886, having rested from his beloved work only a few short days. Even his long life—he was over ninety when he died—would hardly have sufficed for the thorough works he accomplished had he not been a man of unwearied industry, with a marvellous memory, and a swift and intuitive judgment as to the value of historical material. His style is not brilliant, yet sufficiently clear and interesting. He always wrote from the standpoint of one who had the whole history of the world before his mind's eye. This and his skill in the portraiture of historical personages often lend the deepest interest to his narratives. His point of view was, however, that of the statesman; and he fails to give due prominence to the social and popular sides of national development. Ranke married an Irish lady in 1843, and was ennobled in 1865. He continued to lecture until 1872. His lectures exercised a great influence upon those who sat at his feet to learn, as is seen in the works of the great school of historical writers, Waitz, Von Sybel, Giesebrecht, and others. A collected edition of his Werke was published at Leipzig in 47 vols. in 1868; several of them have been translated into English.
See his autobiographical Zur eigenen Lebensgeschichte (ed. by A. Dove, 1890) and monographs by Winckler (1885) and Von Giesebrecht (1887).