Leopold von Ranke, orig. Leopold Ranke, (born Dec. 21, 1795, Wiehe, Thuringia, Saxony—died May 23, 1886, Berlin), German historian. Ranke taught at the University of Berlin (1825–71). Inspired by the scientific method of historical study used by Barthold Georg Niebuhr, he championed objective writing based on philological and textual criticism of source materials. His scholarly technique and way of teaching (he was the first to establish a historical seminar) had great influence on Western historiography. His many works covering a wide variety of topics typically are subtle accounts of particular limited periods in European state and political history that, like his source materials, take comparatively little notice of social and economic forces.
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