La politique scientifique à Berlin

Abstract

In 1667 the Great Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg published a document announcing the foundation of an international university of Brandenburg for the arts and sciences. This project, however, was never realized. At that time there was a library in Berlin and the prince elector’s cabinet of rarities, but Berlin remained without a university until the beginning of the nineteenth century. The Great Elector’s son, the Elector Frederick III (who in 1701 became King Frederick I of Prussia) established the Brandenburg Society of Sciences in 1700, which changed its name several times, but that still exists today as the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences. Leibniz, who developed the articles of association, became its first president at the encouragement of the elector’s wife, Sophia Charlotte. Other Berlin scientific institutions emerged over the course of the eighteenth century: the Observatory (1709), the Anatomical Theatre (1713), the Medical-Surgical College (1724), the Botanic Garden (1744) and the chemical laboratory (1753). While the new Prussian king, Frederick William I disdained the Leibniz Academy, his son Frederick II – after having it restructured – named it the “Royal Academy of Sciences”, and it experienced a florescence during his government.

Keywords

• Brandebourg (Frédéric-Guillaume de)
• Leibniz (Gottfried Wilhelm)