Johannes Ranke

Johannes Ranke (born August 23, 1836 in Thurnau near Kulmbach , † July 26, 1916 in Munich ) was a German physician, physiologist and anthropologist and founder of the Prehistoric Collection (now the State Archaeological Collection ) in Munich.

family

Johannes Ranke was born as the son of the Thuringian - Upper Franconian theologian Friedrich Heinrich Ranke (1798–1876) and his wife Selma, a daughter of the Saxon doctor and naturalist Gotthilf Heinrich von Schubert (1780–1860). Like his brother Heinrich von Ranke (1830–1909), who headed the Pediatric Polyclinic in Munich from 1866 , he was a nephew of the historian Leopold von Ranke (1795–1886). Johannes Ranke's son Karl Ernst Ranke (1870–1926) was an internist in Munich and emerged in tuberculosis research.

Life

After he medicine and natural sciences in Munich, Tübingen, Berlin and Paris - among others at Justus von Liebig and Rudolf Virchow - had studied, he was in 1861 in Munich to Dr med. PhD . In 1863 he completed his habilitation with a thesis on the "Galvanic resistance of living muscles" for the subject of physiology in the Medical Faculty of the University of Munich , where he taught anthropology and general natural history as an associate professor since 1869. In 1886 he was appointed to the first chair for anthropology in Germany on August 1st. Ranke researched a. a. in the field of tetanus and craniometry . He particularly examined the skull shapes in southern Germany and the question of "round skull". Ranke published numerous physiological specialist literature. His main work is the anthropological study Der Mensch , which appeared in two volumes in the Bibliographisches Institut in Leipzig in 1886 and 1887 .

Act

Ranke was an active founding member of the “Munich Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory”, which was launched in 1870. As part of his teaching activities, Johannes Ranke had put together a private teaching collection for demonstration purposes. In addition to original finds, it also included replicas of prehistoric objects - mostly from Bavaria - and was temporarily housed on the third floor of the Old Academy in Neuhauser Straße. In the spring of 1885 Ranke and like-minded people from the Munich Anthropological Society founded a museum association for prehistoric antiquities in Bavaria with the aim of working towards a prehistoric central museum in Bavaria. Supported by 30 other lenders, he organized an exhibition of prehistoric finds from Bavaria from March 11 to April 7, 1885 from his own financial resources. Ranke donated a large part of the exhibits to the Bavarian state. His request to accept this donation was officially answered on August 31, 1885:

" SM King Ludwig II. Has graciously taken note of the donation of your prehistoric collection to the state and has deigned to order that the highest recognition be given to you for the voluntary support of scientific interests seen in this donation."

On October 14, 1885, the Prehistoric Collection was founded as a department of the paleontological collection , of which Ranke was appointed honorary director. On February 7, 1889, the institute became an independent scientific museum as the Conservatory of the State's Prehistoric Collection . However, he was no longer to experience the unification of all prehistoric finds in a central Bavarian museum, for which Ranke worked for life. It did not take place until 1934 (see History of the State Archaeological Collection ).

Johannes Ranke was a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina . In 1895 he became an honorary member of the Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory .

Works

Carbon and nitrogen excretion from resting people . In: Archives for Anatomy, Physiology and Scientific Medicine . 1862, pp. 311–380 see also http://edocs.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/volltexte/2009/12157/ ( Memento from January 6, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
Tetanus. A physiological study . Engelmann, Leipzig 1865.
The living conditions of the nerves. According to investigations from the laboratory of the Reisingerianum in Munich as a continuation of the studies on tetanus . Engelmann, Leipzig 1868.
Basic features of human physiology with regard to health care and the practical needs of the doctor . Engelmann, Leipzig 1868.
Human nutrition . Oldenbourg, Munich 1876. (Natural forces, Volume 19)
The blood. A physiological sketch . Oldenbourg, Munich 1878. (Natural forces, Volume 28)
Beginnings of art. Anthropological contributions to the history of ornament . Habel, Berlin 1879. (Collection of generally understandable scientific lectures, series 14, issue 318)
Man . 2 volumes, Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig (among others)
- Volume 1: Development, Construction, and Life of the Human Body . 1886. "Der Mensch", Volume 1 (1890) by Biolib.
- Volume 2: The modern and prehistoric human races . 1887.
Diluvium and prehistoric man. Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1895 (Meyers Volksbücher, Volume 1101/1103)

literature

Hermann Dannheimer The foundation of the Prehistoric State Collection 100 years ago (= messages from the Friends of Bavarian Pre- and Early History 36, 1985). Munich 1985
Armin Geus : Johannes Ranke (1836-1916). Physiologist, anthropologist and prehistorian. Commemorative speech in Thurnau on November 28, 1986 as part of a festive evening . Basilisken-Presse, Marburg / Lahn 1987, ISBN 3-925347-01-1 .
Gerfried Ziegelmayer: Ranke, Johannes. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-11202-4 , pp. 142-144 ( digitized version ).
Gerfried Ziegelmayer: 100 years of anthropology in Munich. In: Würzburg medical historical research. Volume 5, 1987, pp. 245-269, here: pp. 245-253.
Uwe Hoßfeld : History of biological anthropology in Germany. From the beginning until the post-war period. Steiner, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-515-08563-7 .

Web links

Wikisource: Johannes Ranke - Sources and full texts

Literature by and about Johannes Ranke in the catalog of the German National Library
Works by and about Johannes Ranke in the German Digital Library

Remarks

↑ Gerfried Ziegelmayer: Ranke, Johannes. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-11202-4 , pp. 142-144 ( digitized version ).
↑ The skull shape research , which the skull measurements (Latin. Craniometry ) served, in the 19th and early 20th centuries played an important role in anthropology and ethnology. A serious medical, forensic or archaeological interest was often overlaid by racist , imperialist and patriarchal ideologies. The phrenology , a special form of this research was to persistently represented pseudo-scientific doctrine. The craniometry is still in archeology and paleoanthropology applied to analyze skull finds.
↑ In the Wilhelminum on Neuhauser Straße, the so-called Old Academy (see Bavarian Academy of Sciences ), in addition to the zoological collection , the paleontological collection and the geological collection, there was also an “ethnographic cabinet” in the middle of the 19th century . Under the direction of Moritz Wagner (1813–1887) it moved to the Hofgartengalerie building at the end of 1867 and took over part of the holdings of the dissolved United Museum of Ludwig I. The Royal Ethnographic Museum had numerous prehistoric objects. In the fall of 1885, Wagner gave Ranke these exhibits on prehistory and early history for his new special museum . (see: Michael Kamp: The Museum as a Place of Politics. Munich Museums in the 19th Century (PDF file; 1.2 MB), dissertation, Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, 2002)
^ Hermann Dannheimer The establishment of the Prehistoric State Collection 100 years ago (= communications from the Friends of Bavarian Pre- and Early History 36, 1985). Munich 1985.
↑ Bavarian Academy of Sciences: Prof. Dr. Johannes Ranke , members of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, quoted from: Ulrich Thürauf and Monika Stoermer: Complete directory of the members of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences 1759–1984. (Geist und Gestalt, Volume 4.1) Beck, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-406-30261-0 .

personal data
SURNAME	Ranke, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German anthropologist and physician
DATE OF BIRTH	August 23, 1836
PLACE OF BIRTH	Thurnau , Kulmbach
DATE OF DEATH	July 26, 1916
Place of death	Munich

[NDB-1] Gerfried Ziegelmayer: Ranke, Johannes. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-11202-4 , pp. 142-144 ( digitized version ).

[2] The skull shape research , which the skull measurements (Latin. Craniometry ) served, in the 19th and early 20th centuries played an important role in anthropology and ethnology. A serious medical, forensic or archaeological interest was often overlaid by racist , imperialist and patriarchal ideologies. The phrenology , a special form of this research was to persistently represented pseudo-scientific doctrine. The craniometry is still in archeology and paleoanthropology applied to analyze skull finds.

[3] In the Wilhelminum on Neuhauser Straße, the so-called Old Academy (see Bavarian Academy of Sciences ), in addition to the zoological collection , the paleontological collection and the geological collection, there was also an “ethnographic cabinet” in the middle of the 19th century . Under the direction of Moritz Wagner (1813–1887) it moved to the Hofgartengalerie building at the end of 1867 and took over part of the holdings of the dissolved United Museum of Ludwig I. The Royal Ethnographic Museum had numerous prehistoric objects. In the fall of 1885, Wagner gave Ranke these exhibits on prehistory and early history for his new special museum . (see: Michael Kamp: The Museum as a Place of Politics. Munich Museums in the 19th Century (PDF file; 1.2 MB), dissertation, Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, 2002)

[4] Hermann Dannheimer The establishment of the Prehistoric State Collection 100 years ago (= communications from the Friends of Bavarian Pre- and Early History 36, 1985). Munich 1985.

[5] Bavarian Academy of Sciences: Prof. Dr. Johannes Ranke , members of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, quoted from: Ulrich Thürauf and Monika Stoermer: Complete directory of the members of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences 1759–1984. (Geist und Gestalt, Volume 4.1) Beck, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-406-30261-0 .