Ludwig Woltmann (born 18 February 1871 in

Solingen Solingen (; li, Solich) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located some 25 km east of Düsseldorf along the northern edge of the region called Bergisches Land, south of the Ruhr area, and, with a 2009 population of 161,366, ...

; died 30 January 1907) was a German

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

and

neo-Kantian In late modern continental philosophy, neo-Kantianism (german: Neukantianismus) was a revival of the 18th-century philosophy of Immanuel Kant. The Neo-Kantians sought to develop and clarify Kant's theories, particularly his concept of the "thin ...

. He studied medicine and philosophy, and obtained doctorates in the two fields from the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially german: Uni Freiburg), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (german: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisg ...

in 1896. Ludwig Woltmann falls in the spiritual and ideological history of the 20th century with the racial theorists

Arthur de Gobineau Joseph Arthur de Gobineau (; 14 July 1816 – 13 October 1882) was a French aristocrat who is best known for helping to legitimise racism by the use of scientific racist theory and "racial demography", and for developing the theory of the Ary ...

and

Houston Stewart Chamberlain Houston Stewart Chamberlain (; 9 September 1855 – 9 January 1927) was a British-German philosopher who wrote works about political philosophy and natural science. His writing promoted German ethnonationalism, antisemitism, and scientific ra ...

, in particular in terms of his racial theoretical thought. In his book ''Die Germanen und die Renaissance in Italien'' (1905), he argued that the emergence of the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

in Italy was led not by the descendants of the

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

, but by the Germanic tribes who had subdued Italy during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

. His ideas were mainly published by the journal '' Political-Anthropological Review'' (1902–1907) and in the book ''Political Anthropology'' written in 1903. This and two other of his books were published in a 1936

Otto Reche Otto Carl Reche (24 May 1879 – 23 March 1966) was a German anthropologist and professor from Kłodzko, Glatz (Kłodzko), Province of Silesia, Prussian Silesia. He was active in researching whether there was a correlation between blood types and R ...

anthology.

Publications

* 1898: ''System of moral consciousness, with a special presentation of the ratio of the critical philosophy to Darwinism and Socialism'' * 1899: ''The Darwinian theory and socialism. A contribution to the natural history of human society'' * 1900: ''Historical materialism. Presentation and critique of the Marxist world outlook'' * 1900: ''Pilgrimage. Sketches from Palestine'' * 1901: ''The position of social democracy to religion'' * 1903: ''Political Anthropology. A study on the influence of the theory of evolution on the doctrine of the political development of peoples'' * 1903: ''Are the Goths under assumed in Italy?'' * 1904: ''Racial psychology and cultural history'' * 1904: ''The physical type of Immanuel Kant'' * 1905: ''The Germans and the Renaissance in Italy'' * 1905: ''Marxism and race theory'' * 1905: ''Recent literature on racial theory'' * 1906 : ''For the German question in the Italian Renaissance'' * 1906: ''The Germans in Spain'' * 1907: ''The Germans in France. A study on the influence of the Germanic race on the history and culture of France'' * 1908: ''Klemm and Gobineau'' * 1924: ''Youth poems''

Literature

* Wolfhard Hammer, ''The Life and Work of the Physician and Social Anthropologist Ludwig Woltmann''. Univ. Diss, Mainz 1979. * Jürgen Mixing, ''The Political Philosophy of Ludwig Woltmann. In the Field of Tension between Kantianism's Historical Materialism and Social Darwinism'', Bonn 1975 * Sebastian Pella, ''The Social Darwinism-bred Theoretical Thinking in Ludwig Woltmann's Artwork'', Political Anthropology, Bottrop 2009.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Woltmann, Ludwig 1871 births 1907 deaths 19th-century anthropologists 20th-century anthropologists German anthropologists German Marxists German socialists 19th-century German zoologists People from Solingen Proponents of scientific racism University of Freiburg alumni