Measuring the World

This article describes the novel by Daniel Kehlmann. A description of the film adaptation of the novel can be found under Measuring the World (film) .

Die Vermessung der Welt is a novel by Daniel Kehlmann that was published in German by Rowohlt Verlag in 2005 . The theme is the fictional double biography of the mathematician and geodesist Carl Friedrich Gauß (1777–1855) and the natural scientist Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859). The novel reached in Germany soon number 1 in the mirror - bestseller list and was available for 37 weeks in that position. It was also a great success internationally: on April 15, 2007 , the New York Times ranked it second among the world's best-selling books of 2006. By October 2012, 2.3 million copies had been sold in Germany alone. The worldwide circulation is around 6 million. The book was made into a film in 2012.

content

The novel begins in 1828 with a journey by Gauß, the “Prince of Mathematics ”, from Göttingen to Berlin to the historically guaranteed 17th conference of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Doctors , where Humboldt invited him. From this trip on, the two scientists are in correspondence with each other and exchange ideas about their projects.

The life stories of Gauß and Humboldt, alternately narrated chronologically, chapter by chapter, are integrated into this framework.

Carl Friedrich Gauß grew up in poor circumstances under the great care of his mother. Therefore, his image of women is very much shaped by his mother. Thanks to his good performance at school, Gauß received a scholarship from the Duke of Braunschweig. Since he can hardly get along with less intelligent people, he mostly spends his time alone. Due to his isolation, he dedicates himself to mathematics. His poor circumstances compel him to work as a surveyor. There he met his future wife Johanna. In addition, he completes his life's work, the Disquisitiones Arithmeticae . He also runs an observatory, which secures him financially. Completely absorbed in his work, he missed the birth of his first son. When his wife Johanna died in her third pregnancy, Gauß married Minna, Johanna's best friend, in order to give his children a mother.

He is now entrusted with the surveying of the Kingdom of Westphalia , with his son Eugen by his side. During the work he comes into conflict with Eugen again and again, whom he regards as completely limited uselessness.

Alexander von Humboldt, who grew up in a rich environment without his father, received intensive instruction in many subjects from an early age. It becomes clear early on that his great interest lies in research, to which he devotes himself completely after the death of his mother. He travels to France, where he meets Aimé Bonpland , with whom he undertakes a research trip to the Spanish colonies and Latin America. In search of the connecting channel between the Orinoco and the Amazon , they discover a cave in New Andalusia in which Humboldt's doubts about the theory of Neptunism are confirmed.

Throughout his life, Humboldt repeatedly made himself a test subject in order to verify his theories. By taking curare , for example, he shows that this poison is only fatal if it enters the bloodstream directly. In Ecuador, the two researchers climb the highest mountain in the world known at the time, the Chimborazo . The bad weather conditions prevent the last ascent to the summit. This failure is kept from the public, however, and so the two are considered world record holders. You travel on to Central America. There they visit the ruins of Teotihuacán , and Humboldt discovers that the layout of the city represents a huge calendar. The last station of the two describes the meeting with the American President Thomas Jefferson .

In the remaining chapters 11-16, the plot of the novel ties in with the first chapter. In Humboldt's estate, Gauß and Humboldt exchange their life experiences and views. In the process, Gauss learns that his attempt at suicide would have failed due to the poison curare. After repeated abuse from his father, Eugen escapes and is arrested by the police during a secret student meeting. Gauss, who is not used to such large groups, leaves the natural scientists' congress in Berlin prematurely and before he can be presented to the king. Then there was a dispute between him and Humboldt about the true nature of science, until one was interrupted by the news of Eugen's arrest. Humboldt tries to persuade the gendarmerie commandant Vogt to release Eugen, but fails due to Gauss' undiplomatic intervention. Eugen was later set free again through Humboldt's help, but had to leave the country and emigrated to America.

When the researchers parted ways, Humboldt accepted Russia's invitation to go on another research trip. He is in close correspondence with Gauss, who is now dealing with magnetism. Both men recognize that with increasing age their vital forces dwindle and they are being replaced by a new generation of scientists.

Narrative

The narrative rhythm is determined by the rapid succession of mathematical and geographical discoveries. A biography reconstructs dates, deeds, stays - this novel, on the other hand, almost completely dispenses with them, but narrates very clearly and purposefully: Sixteen chapters between eight and forty pages long have appropriate titles ( Die Reise , Das Meer , etc.) that reflect the gesture of Imitate the transparency of scientific papers.

The laconic style of short sentences is the basis for phrases reminiscent of 19th century German and the dialogues, written exclusively in indirect speech , which signal more than just a historical distance between the author and his characters.

In the micro area of ​​the section change z. B. elliptical cross-fades for dynamics: "He [Humboldt] must absolutely tell Gauss that he now understands better." And without Gauss being able to be informed of this thought by post, he continues 1,800 kilometers further west in the directly following paragraph: " I know that you understand. "

In this fictional double biography, the résumés of the two main characters have no further points of contact apart from the only occasional references by Gauss, who stayed almost lifelong at home, to news of Humboldt's trip to America long before their acquaintance and later contact in the framework of the story. Their only selective interactions make them more representative of attitudes than carriers of a common action. What they have in common is their early scientific competence, mostly developing in different areas, which the novel only hints at in a sketchy way.

What they also have in common is the treatment of their lives by the authorial narrator , who speaks from a point of view close to his two main characters and describes Gauss more from within, Humboldt more from the outside. The narrator is only very rarely identified in the text, for example at the very beginning with the mention of the only year mentioned in the novel, 1828, through which the narrator dates the framework story. Otherwise, the narrative behavior is largely personal. The narrator knows the feelings of his main characters, but what he communicates about them is mostly reduced to their scientific projects. The figures therefore remain without depth: Humboldt and Gauss (who initially swore to marry his Siberian prostitute) seem to reduce themselves to a life dedicated to science . Gauss, for example, jumps out of bed on the wedding night because of a mathematical idea and later forgets the due date of his first son; for Humboldt, who crosses the continent, women remain terra incognita for life . In a dialogue with his brother, Humboldt's suspected homosexuality is portrayed as unexacted same-sex pedophilia .

The narrative tone is ironic throughout. The varied one-sidedness of the main characters is demonstrated with humor and many anecdotal events from their lives are comically transformed. Gauss already appears on the first pages like a big child, and when Humboldt sits with his brother Wilhelm (whose first name is not mentioned in the entire book) on the deathbed of his sister-in-law, both of them forget to "sit up straight and say classic things." The young Eugene Gauss has some difficulties in finding his way around Berlin in the evenings: “Always new streets, still an intersection, and the supply of people walking around seemed inexhaustible.” The ensuing arrest scene of the revolutionary, naive and tearful students intensifies firstly the distance to the characters conveyed by the narrative tone.

The comedy of the novel is created on the one hand by its contrasting configurations Gauß / Humboldt, Gauß / Eugen, Humboldt / Bonpland, and on the other hand mainly by the unworldly appearance of the two protagonists. Gauss seems inconsiderate, even inhumane, primarily through his intellectual arrogance, his choleric temperament and his undiplomatic directness. Humboldt, on the other hand, appears awkward due to his weird narrow-mindedness and overly scientific sobriety in interpersonal, everyday situations - for example when, after being asked by his South American expedition friends to entertain them, he translated Goethe's poem ( Wandrer's night song ) into Spanish for them: “Above all Mountain peaks are quiet, no wind can be felt in the trees, the birds are also quiet and soon you will be dead. Everyone looked at him. Done, said Humboldt. “In addition, Kehlmann uses a lot of exaggerations and extends some details into the ridiculous. The quick change from joke to serious also contributes to the situation-related comedy, which one z. B. clearly recognizes from the "teacher scene": Little Gauss is condemned by his teacher to study a book on "Higher Arithmetic". When Gauss tries to return the book to the teacher the next day, the latter does not believe him that he has read the book and accuses him of the fact that it is impossible for a little boy to read and understand such a difficult book in a very short time. However, Gauss confirms that he has read the book, whereupon his teacher suddenly becomes very "soft".

The parallels to Hermann Hesse's novel Narcissus and Goldmund are also not difficult to recognize : there, too, two characters who have a lot in common choose fundamentally different paths. In both works, one (Humboldt or Goldmund) decides to travel to get to know the world, while the other (Gauss and Narcissus) wants to achieve success solely through thinking. The similarity becomes particularly clear through Humboldt's last trip to Russia, where he cannot "enjoy" the trip and eventually falls ill. The contrast between a protagonist who travels a lot and one who only moves in narrow, domestic spheres can also be found in Wilhelm Raabe's novel Stopfkuchen .

interpretation

The ironic disenchantment of the history of the German intelligentsia is one of the immanent possible interpretations: Gauss fails grandly because of his human role, Humboldt's older brother fiercely defends himself against the idea that the successes of the Humboldt brothers can only be traced back to their rivalry: “Because you existed, I had to be a teacher State, because I existed, you had to become the explorer of a part of the world, anything else would not have been appropriate. "

Another meaning emerges from the answer to the question of the effects of science on the society that supports it. Gauss' politically reactionary attitude is also clear in the novel - he will not even have wished for an improvement in the situation of his master's subjects. Unlike the French friend Humboldt, who in the novel expresses doubts as to whether his American river voyage "brought welfare for the continent" and thus ties in with Diogenes of Sinope , who is said to have asked as early as the 4th century BC whether all discoveries and inventions were something would have changed the hardships of the majority.

The chapter that describes Humboldt's Russian expedition of 1829 reveals a third aspect. During the trip, the old and somewhat dumb explorer is surrounded by lackeys who, on behalf of the Tsar and the Prussian king, prevent Humboldt from seeing more than he should see. The researcher involuntarily becomes an embedded scientist and the world he has traveled to his “ Potemkin village ”. What can a scientist really see beyond the main roads of power? Did Humboldt really see more of the world than Gauss? In any case, Humboldt himself is ultimately no longer so sure that he “suddenly couldn't say which of them had gotten around and who always stayed at home.” The measurement of the world can therefore also be read as its measurement become.

Characterization of the main characters

All page numbers refer to the edition published by Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag.

Alexander von Humboldt

The novel covers a large part of the life of Alexander von Humboldt, who comes from a noble family and has been taught natural science studies from childhood. His brother Wilhelm always feels mentally superior to him. From this developed Alexander's ambition to surpass his brother: “From now on his grades got better. He worked with concentration and took on the habit of clenching his fists while thinking, as if he had to defeat an enemy. ”(P. 25) Another decisive experience in his life is the death of his mother, which is why he stopped working as a mining assessor turns to science.

Humboldt's patriotism is reflected in his clothing and behavior: "He is a Prussian, he cannot do service for another country" (p. 203). His personality is characterized by his lack of humor, straightforwardness and his purposeful behavior. He usually acts in a respectful and friendly manner. However, he can also become very direct and uncomfortable with people who do not share his views.

Together with his companion Aimé Bonpland, he spares no amount of strenuous effort to explore nature in all its manifestations. He hopes that this will gain fame and public recognition.

During his travels his tendency towards same-sex pedophilia is indicated several times, especially during a carriage ride with his brother: “Still the boys? Did you know? Always. ”(P. 264).

During his last expedition through Russia, his physical and mental limits became clear to him and he realized that he could not complete his life's work of completely measuring the world. Humboldt replied to the announcement that it was now time to break off the expedition and set off back with the words: “Back to where? First on the bank, said Rose, then to Moscow, then to Berlin. So this is the conclusion, said Humboldt, the apex, the final turning point? He won't get any further? Not in this life, said Rose. "(P. 288)

Carl Friedrich Gauss

Carl Friedrich Gauß, who comes from the working class of Braunschweig, works as a geodesist, astronomer and professor of mathematics. His talent brings him success, but affects his character insofar as he feels superior to people of lower mathematical intelligence and thus develops a pronounced arrogance.

Despite his disrespectful behavior towards authorities, he became acquainted with the nobility and other capacities of his time. But he is disappointed by the frail and senile Immanuel Kant . When meeting Alexander von Humboldt, however, he realizes that although they are on the same intellectual level, they are pursuing completely different goals. Gauss' intention is to gain knowledge, but not to enrich oneself with the fame it creates. “The next half an hour was a torture. […] [E] one hand after the other took hold of his and passed it on to the next, while Humboldt whispered a meaningless series of names in his ear. […] He doesn't feel well, said Gauss, he has to go to bed. ”(P. 240 f.) Unworldly, he shows himself disinterested in the concerns of society and is reluctant to leave his familiar surroundings.

His mother, with whom he has a very close relationship, is one of his close social circle: “He would die if something happened to her. It was like that when he was three years old and thirty years later it was no different. ”(P. 53) His first great love is Johanna. After her death, he can no longer enter into a new bond and marries Minna, whom he basically cannot stand, only out of self-interest in order to take care of himself and his children. The only person he has a personal connection with is the prostitute Nina, with whom he feels safe. The relationship with his third child Eugen , who emerged from his marriage to Minna, is determined by incomprehension, severity and disparaging remarks towards Eugen's intelligence. “Eugen gave him the (note: book) that he had just opened: Friedrich Jahn's German gymnastics. It was one of his favorite books. […] The guy was out of his mind, said Gauss, opened the window and threw the book out. ”(P. 8 f.) In contrast to Eugen's liberal political stance, Gauss is conservative, which is partly due to his strict principles and can be seen in his loyalty to Napoleon .

Leitmotifs

All page numbers refer to the edition published by Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag.

The change in science

In earlier times, the Church and the population viewed research as witchcraft and sorcery. The work of Humboldt and Gauß had a strong influence on modern science and had a decisive influence on it. Through their research, the image of scientists has been changed from the mythical to a respected profession in the population.

Humboldt shaped the principle of research by seeing and touching. This becomes clear when Humboldt plans to explore a cave with Bonpland (pp. 72–75). Locals refer to this cave as the "Realm of the Dead" and believe that there is something mystical about it. But Humboldt is not deterred by such theories. He goes into the cave without the superstitious inhabitants to get an idea for himself and to prove that nothing bad will happen to him. Another example of the urge to see and experience for oneself is the refutation of Neptunism (p. 29 f.). This theory was put forward by earlier scientists, but Humboldt does not want to comply with it, but always wants to experience, measure and research himself. Is it now colder inside the earth, as described by Neptunism, or is it getting warmer, as Humboldt suspects?

In comparison to Humboldt, Gauss is the extreme opposite: he invokes his theories and calculations to underpin his research. Scientific processes and considerations are always going on in his head. This leads to him becoming socially isolated and not being aware of what is going on around him. So z. B. an important thought on the wedding night (p. 150). The urge to put it on paper goes so far that it even interrupts the act of love. Gauss does not even notice that war has broken out in his homeland (p. 151). This confirms that he is only interested in and paying attention to science.

He believes that research is based more on theory than on practice. He holds strictly to the epistemology of Immanuel Kant firmly. In order to survive and get financial support from the state, the focus of his work shifts from mathematics to astronomy, since this turns out to be more lucrative (p. 143). This makes it clear that Gauss, like today's scientists, is dependent on donors and support and therefore researches in their interests.

Humboldt also depends on the help of the wealthy and is always in contact with the crown so that it stands behind his work.

Old age and death

Humboldt himself does not describe death "as the extinction and the seconds of transition", but as "the long lulling before it, that slackening that stretched over years [...] in which he [the human being], his greatness is long gone, can still pretend that it exists. ”(p. 263) Against this background, Humboldt's later career should also be viewed. His expedition to India failed, his methods are out of date, “as if you were in a history book” (p. 275), and during the trip to Russia he always had to “stay with the escort” (p. 284). Humboldt's scientific decline metaphorically anticipated his death, Humboldt regards his life's work as finished: “It occurred to him that Gauss had spoken of an absolute length, a straight line to which nothing could be added [...]. For a few seconds, between waking and sleeping, he had the feeling that this straight line had something to do with his life. ”(P. 280) The straight line, as an analogy to Humboldt's life, coincides with his resigned balance of life. When asked in which direction one has to go because one threatens to “never return” (p. 289), Humboldt wants to “simply disappear” (ibid.) “At the height of life” (ibid.) And deliberately points to it wrong direction (see p. 290).

The motif of death and aging occurs in several places and is always of central importance for the protagonists. Humboldt is only released after his mother's death (see p. 34 ff.), Can get ready for his journey and in this respect contrasts with Gauss, who loves his mother “unspeakably” (p. 53). Even he noticed early on the signs of old age, his “ability to concentrate waned” (p. 155), and the encounter with the senile Kant (cf. p. 96 f.) Leaves in Gauss the desire for one Attempted delimitation through suicide . Ultimately he also realizes that Martin Bartels , who was once inferior to him, “outstripped” him (p. 299), and so Gauss, like Humboldt, arrives at a resigned balance of life and longs for his death, because “death would come when a realization of unreality. Then he would understand […] ”(p. 282).

On the deathbed of Humboldt's sister-in-law, the two brothers discuss their fears and feelings. Wilhelm alludes to Alexander's latent homosexual pedophilia (see p. 263 ff.). This conversation marks a new intimacy between the two brothers and a move away from the rivalries in adolescence towards an intimate, friendly relationship based on the recognition of the other.

No less important is Johanna's death (cf. p. 164), which for Gauss not only means "getting used to the idea that he had to marry again" (ibid.), But his already strong tendency to Melancholy worsened.

The question of authenticity

Soon after its publication, debates about content disagreements flared up around the book. In the novel there are numerous deviations from historical reality, which, however, were mostly intended by Kehlmann. He was guided by the fact that various German classics in biographical dramas were very free to deal with historical truth (e.g. Schiller in Die Jungfrau von Orléans , Goethe in Egmont or Kleist in Prince Friedrich von Homburg ). For this reason, for example, he built the daguerreotype into the plot in Measuring the World , although this did not yet exist at that time (1828). Although Goethe was already ennobled at the time, he is still referred to in the novel by his real name - a faux pas at the time. The Easter formula discovered by Gauß for calculating Easter is erroneously placed in the novel in his youth and published under a false name, a phenomenon that became known in literary criticism as the Brombacher effect after Humboldt's fictional encounter with a German in the South American jungle. The fact that such inventions are not identified has already led to Kehlmann's quotes being sometimes misunderstood as original Humboldt utterances. Even the Humboldt biographer Thomas Richter was misled by Kehlmann's inventions. In his Rororo monograph, published in 2009, Richter writes: "The historical events are precisely reproduced in this novel".

Even in one of his non-fictional texts, Kehlmann mixes fiction and reality by presenting one of his invented Humboldt quotes as real. In the introduction to Charles Darwin's diary Die Fahrt der Beagle , Kehlmann writes: “The second greatest insult to humans is slavery, Humboldt exclaimed, but the greatest one is the claim that it comes from apes.” The actual Humboldt quote is: “Without Doubt, slavery is the greatest of all evils that have plagued mankind. ”Humboldt, who actually met Darwin once but died before the publication of Darwin's The Origin of Species , could not know his theory of evolution (which Humboldt, according to the journalist Martin Rasper would probably have received more positively) nor the discussion about the descent of humans from apes, which only arose in the 1860s. His anti-slavery engagement, however, was so important to Humboldt that when an edition of his report on Cuba appeared in the USA without the chapter on slavery, he issued a sharp protest in both the USA and Germany (he insisted, so he wrote, "a far greater importance than the laborious work of astronomical location determinations, magnetic intensity experiments or statistical information"). For this reason too, Rasper Kehlmann accuses “not only an insult to Darwin and Humboldt, but also to the reader”.

The historian Frank Holl has examined the contradictions between the actual historical person and the character of Kehlmann in a novel . He draws the conclusion: “Alexander von Humboldt was not a small, robotic researcher in uniform and with a sword examining the jungle, pedophile, arrogant, humorless, almost always in a bad mood, chauvinistic researcher. Nor was he the positivist lice counter when Kehlmann put him down. ”Holl particularly criticizes the fact that the politically committed Humboldt, who campaigned for human rights throughout his life , does not get any attention in the novel. For him the book is "nothing more than meaningless historical joke". He comes to the conclusion "that anyone who wants to do something for their general education has come to the wrong address with Measuring the World ."

reception

Although the positive criticism outweighs the German-speaking reception, there are also occasional critical tones: For example, Hubert Winkels (Die Zeit, September 3, 2009) writes: "The literary intelligence has always had a hard time with mathematics and theoretical physics." Despite this problem, Daniel Kehlmann managed to write “a double biography in the form of a novel” that is “entertaining, clever and well done, from which you can also learn a lot”. Nevertheless, Winkels relativizes the fact that “he lacks literary courage, playfulness, inventiveness and relevance to the present”.

Martin Lüdke (Frankfurter Rundschau, September 28, 2005) expresses himself predominantly positively in the criticism “Double life, once different”. Kehlmann is “so confident about his material” that he “can hardly be denied that he has ingenious traits”. The novel "is not only a beautiful, gripping and exciting" work, but is also described by Lüdke with a wink as the "old work of a young writer". Martin Lüdke also praises the fact that it is an exciting adventure novel despite the "rather dry material [it]". Daniel Kehlmann always keeps an eye on the comedy of a situation.

Der Spiegel (39/2005) appreciatively assesses the story of the two researchers Carl Friedrich Gauß and Alexander von Humboldt as "completely splendid" and told with "legendary simplicity". To this end, Kehlmann used ironic stylistic devices, foregoing "big historical punchlines - and using small poetic ones", which was received positively in the criticism. One problem with the conception, however, is that it "gets stuck in the casualness where the crescendo is needed".

The English-language press is also dedicated to Kehlmann's novel: Tom LeClaire (New York Times, November 5, 2006) praises the basic intention of Kehlmann's work, but criticizes that its historical elaboration is only imprecise: “The novel is like one of Humboldt's maps or Gauss's formulas, the work of a probable prodigy but not prodigious, large-minded but not as large as its materials required. "

In a review that appeared in the journal of the American Mathematical Society in July 2008, the mathematician Frans Oort criticized the numerous historical errors on Humboldt and Gauss. Kehlmann reduced "these two extremely interesting figures to rather superficial and easy-to-see characters". The characters of the main protagonists are "misrepresented in a most offensive manner " and the impression the book gives of Gauss' personality is "highly unjust and biased" ( ... the impression the book gives of Gauss' personality is highly unjust and biased ). Also, the historical characters in the book would hardly have spoken in such a crude language as the author sometimes puts into their mouths. Overall, the most worrying thing about the book is that it leaves the wrong impression of a well-researched historical narrative and thus gives a broad audience a false image of the personalities of Gauss and Humboldt. The author probably did not take a favorite Gauss phrase to heart: pauca sed matura (“Little, but mature”).

Audio book

In September 2005 the novel was published as an audio book on 5 CDs (approx. 345 minutes), read by Ulrich Matthes .

radio play

The book was produced in 2007 by Norddeutscher Rundfunk as a radio play (approx. 172 minutes) and is also available in stores on 3 CDs.

Editing and direction: Alexander Schuhmacher .

Music: Claudio Puntin .

Actors: Michael Rotschopf (Humboldt) , Udo Schenk (Gauß) , Jens Wawrczeck (Bonpland) , Patrick Güldenberg (Eugen) a . v. a.

play

The Braunschweig State Theater has premiered a stage version of this literary work in a production by Dirk Engler on 26 September, 2008. Gauss himself worked in Braunschweig for many years , and a school in the city was named after him.

The play celebrated its premiere on October 19, 2010 in Freiberg. The Senate Hall of the TU Bergakademie provided the backdrop for the play of the Central Saxon Theater. Humboldt himself had received his diploma and the mountain uniform at the location of this performance.

In 2014 the play was performed in the Stadttheater Fürth.

On October 3, 2014, the play had its Austrian premiere at the Salzburger Landestheater .

Movie

The film adaptation of the novel Die Vermessung der Welt , directed by Detlev Buck and starring Florian David Fitz and Albrecht Schuch , opened in German cinemas on October 25, 2012. Kehlmann himself lends his voice to the narrator and, like Buck, has a cameo .

See also : The ascent of Chimborazo

expenditure

• Daniel Kehlmann : Measuring the world . Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2005, ISBN 3-498-03528-2 . (Hardcover) (37 weeks in 2006 and 2007 at number 1 on the Spiegel bestseller list )
• Daniel Kehlmann : Measuring the world . Universal Music, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-8291-1540-7 . (Audio book 5 CDs)
• Daniel Kehlmann : Measuring the world . Universal Music, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-8291-2270-5 . (Audio book 1 mp3 CD)
• Daniel Kehlmann : Measuring the world . Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek near Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-499-24100-0 . (Paperback)
• Daniel Kehlmann : Measuring the world . Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek near Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-499-25303-4 . (Hardcover special edition)

literature

• Wolfgang Pütz: Daniel Kehlmann - The measurement of the world . Oldenbourg Interpretations, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-486-00110-5 .
• Wolfgang Pütz: "Measuring the World" - A "stroke of genius" in contemporary literature as a subject . In: German magazine . No. 1 . Oldenbourg, 2008, ISSN  1613-0693 , p. 53-58 .
• Gunther Nickel (Ed.): Daniel Kehlmanns "Measuring the World". Materials, documents, interpretations . Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek 2008, ISBN 978-3-499-24725-5 .
• Johannes Diekhans (ed.): Daniel Kehlmann: The measurement of the world. Teaching model . Schöningh Schulbuchverlag, Paderborn 2007, ISBN 978-3-14-022392-8 .
• Gerhard Kaiser : On Daniel Kehlmann's novel “Measuring the World” . In: Sense and Form . No. 62 . Academy of Arts, 2010, ISSN  0037-5756 , p. 122-134 .
• Boris Hoge: "not just measured, but invented": The relativization of 'Russian expanse' in Daniel Kehlmann's "Measuring the World". In: Ders .: Writing about Russia. The construction of space, history and cultural identity in German narrative texts since 1989. Heidelberg: Winter 2012, pp. 105–120.
• Boris Hoge-Benteler: Daniel Kehlmann: The measurement of the world. Novel. In: Bönnighausen, Marion; Vogt, Jochen (Hrsg.): Literature for the school. A work dictionary for German lessons. Paderborn: W. Fink 2014, pp. 447–448.
• Wolf Dieter Hellberg: Reading Key. Daniel Kehlmann: Measuring the world. Reclam, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-15-015435-9 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Two geniuses explore the world - in 3D! , bild.de.
2. ↑ THE MEASUREMENT OF THE WORLD ( Memento of the original from July 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , kulturexpress.de.  
3. ↑ Science you can touch. ( Memento of the original from November 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ Johannes Diekhans (ed.): Daniel Kehlmann: Die Vermessung der Welt. Teaching model. Schöningh Schulbuchverlag, Paderborn 2007, pp. 44–59.
5. ↑ Wolfgang Pütz: Daniel Kehlmanns "Die Vermessung der Welt" (= Oldenbourg interpretations).
6. ↑ Gunther Nickel: Daniel Kehlmann's "Measuring the World". Materials, documents, interpretations. With contributions by Stephanie Catani, Ulrich Fröschle , Manfred Geier, Ijoma Mangold, Hubert Mania, Friedhelm Marx , Marius Meller, Uwe Wittstock, Klaus Zeyringer and others. a. Reinbek near Hamburg 2008.
7. ↑ 'Measuring the World' materials, documents, interpretations on scienceblogs.de from June 23, 2008.
8. ^ Thomas Richter: Alexander von Humboldt. Reinbek near Hamburg: Rowohlt 2009, p. 126.
9. ↑ Daniel Kehlmann: The finches and the wild ones. Introduction. In: Charles Darwin: The Ride of the Beagle. Journal of explorations of the natural history and geology of the countries visited on the voyage of HMS Beagle under the command of Captain Fitz Roy, RN. Hamburg: marebuchverlag 2006, p. 15.
10. ↑ Alexander von Humboldt: Essai politique sur l'île de Cuba (Political attempt on the island of Cuba), quoted in. after the German translation: Alexander von Humboldt: Cuba-Werk. Edited by Hanno Beck. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgemeinschaft 1992, p. 156.
11. ↑ Martin Rasper: Churchill never said "No Sports". The book of false quotes. Ecowin, Salzburg / Munich 2017, pp. 42–48
12. ↑ Frank Holl: "Slavery is the second greatest insult to man ..." Daniel Kehlmann's newly invented Alexander von Humboldt. In HiN - Humboldt on the net. International Journal for Humboldt Studies XIII, 25 (2012), p. 61, http://www.uni-potsdam.de/u/romanistik/humboldt/hin/hin25/holl.htm
13. ↑ Ibid. P. 61.
14. ↑ Ibid. P. 46.
15. ↑ Hubert Winkels: Daniel Kehlmann: When the ghosts got tired . In: The time . No. 42/2005 ( online ).
16. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20140221162750/http://www.fr-online.de/literatur/doppelleben--einmal-anders,1472266,3209018.html
17. ↑ LITERATURE: Giants among themselves . In: Der Spiegel . No. 39 , 2005 ( online ).
18. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/05/books/review/LeClair.t.html
19. ^ Book Review: Measuring the World. Reviewed by Frans Oort. In: Notices of the AMS. Volume 55, Number 6 pdf
20. ↑ Press release of the TU Bergakademie .
21. ↑ Stadttheater Fürth ( Memento of the original from April 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .  
22. ↑ Official website of the film “Die Vermessung der Welt”  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .  

Web links

• Interview with Daniel Kehlmann about the novel: I wanted to write like a historian gone mad. FAZ . February 9, 2006, with photo