Editing Alexander von Humboldt (section)

==Early life, family and education==
Alexander von Humboldt was born in Berlin in [[Prussia]] on 14 September 1769.<ref name="Klencke-1853">{{cite book |first1=Hermann |last1=Klencke |first2=Gustav |last2=Schlesier |title=Lives of the brothers Humboldt, Alexander and William |location=New York |year=1853 |page=13}}</ref> He was baptized as a baby in the Lutheran faith, with the [[Charles I, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel|Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel]] serving as godfather.{{sfn|de Terra|1955|p=3}}

His father, Alexander Georg von Humboldt (1720-1779), belonged to a prominent [[German nobility|German noble family]] from [[Pomerania]]. Although not one of the titled gentry, he was a major in the [[Prussian Army]], who had served with the [[Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick|Duke of Brunswick]].{{sfn|de Terra|1955|pp=4–5}} At age 42, Alexander Georg was rewarded for his services in the [[Seven Years' War]] with the post of royal [[Chamberlain (office)|chamberlain]].<ref name="EB1911">{{cite EB1911| wstitle=Humboldt, Friedrich Heinrich Alexander von |volume=13 |pages= 873–875 |first=Agnes Mary |last=Clerke |author-link=Agnes Mary Clerke}}</ref> He profited from the contract to lease state lotteries and tobacco sales.{{sfn|de Terra|1955|p=5}} 

Alexander's grandfather was Johann Paul von Humboldt (1684-1740), who married Sophia Dorothea von Schweder (1688-1749), daughter of Prussian General Adjutant Michael von Schweder (1663-1729).<ref name="Klencke-1853"/><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.von-humboldt.de/michael-von-schweder.html | title=Michael von Schweder (10) und Elisabeth Blomenfelt, gen. Persdotter (11) - von-Humboldt_de }}</ref> In 1766, his father, Alexander Georg married [[Marie-Elisabeth von Humboldt|Maria Elisabeth Colomb]], a well-educated woman and widow of Baron Friedrich Ernst von Holwede (1723-1765), with whom she had a son Heinrich Friedrich Ludwig (1762-1817). Alexander Georg and Maria Elisabeth had four children: two daughters, Karoline and Gabriele, who died young, and then two sons, Wilhelm and Alexander. Her first-born son, Wilhelm and Alexander's half-brother, [[Rittmaster]] in the [[Gendarme (historical)|Gendarme regiment]] was something of a ne'er do well, not often mentioned in the family history.{{sfn|de Terra|1955|pp=6–7}}

Alexander Georg died in 1779, leaving the brothers Humboldt in the care of their emotionally distant mother. She had high ambitions for Alexander and his older brother Wilhelm, hiring excellent tutors, who were [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] thinkers, including Kantian physician [[Marcus Herz]] and botanist [[Carl Ludwig Willdenow]], who became one of the most important botanists in Germany.{{sfn|Nicolson|Wilson|1995|p=xvi}} Humboldt's mother expected them to become civil servants of the Prussian state.{{sfn|Wulf|2015|pp=13, 17}} The money left to Alexander's mother by Baron Holwede became instrumental in funding Alexander's explorations after her death; contributing more than 70% of his private income.{{clarify|date=January 2016}}

[[File:Schloss Tegel1.JPG|thumb|263px|[[Schloss Tegel]], Berlin, where Alexander and his brother [[Wilhelm von Humboldt|Wilhelm]] lived for several years]]
Due to his youthful penchant for collecting and labeling plants, shells, and insects, Alexander received the playful title of "the little apothecary".<ref name="EB1911"/> Marked for a political career, Alexander studied [[finance]] for six months in 1787 at the [[Viadrina European University|University of Frankfurt (Oder)]], which his mother might have chosen less for its academic excellence than its closeness to their home in Berlin.{{sfn|Wulf|2015|p=17}} On 25 April 1789, he matriculated at the [[University of Göttingen]], then known for the lectures of [[Christian Gottlob Heyne|C. G. Heyne]] and anatomist [[Johann Friedrich Blumenbach|J. F. Blumenbach]].{{sfn|Nicolson|Wilson|1995|p=xvi}} His brother Wilhelm was already a student at Göttingen, but they did not interact much, since their intellectual interests were quite different.{{sfn|Wulf|2015|p=18}} His vast and varied interests were by this time fully developed.<ref name="EB1911"/>

At the University of Göttingen, Humboldt met Steven Jan van Geuns, a Dutch medical student, with whom he travelled to the [[Rhine]] in the fall of 1789. In Mainz, they met [[Georg Forster]], a naturalist who had been with Captain [[James Cook]] on his second voyage.{{sfn|Nicolson|Wilson|1995|pp=xvi–xv}} Humboldt's scientific excursion resulted in his 1790 treatise ''Mineralogische Beobachtungen über einige Basalte am Rhein'' (Brunswick, 1790) (''Mineralogic Observations on Several Basalts on the River Rhine'').{{sfn|Daum|2024a|pages=19–22}} The following year, 1790, Humboldt returned to Mainz to embark with Forster on a journey to England, Humboldt's first sea voyage, the Netherlands, and France.{{sfn|Wulf|2015|p=18}}{{sfn|Nicolson|Wilson|1995|p=xv}} In England, he met Sir [[Joseph Banks]], president of the [[Royal Society]], who had travelled with Captain Cook; Banks showed Humboldt his huge herbarium, with specimens of the South Sea tropics.{{sfn|Nicolson|Wilson|1995|p=xv}} The scientific friendship between Banks and Humboldt lasted until Banks's death in 1820, and the two shared botanical specimens for study. Banks also mobilized his scientific contacts in later years to aid Humboldt's work.{{sfn|Wulf|2015|pp=76, 136}} In Paris, Humboldt and Forster witnessed the preparations for the [[Fête de la Fédération|Festival of the Federation]]. Yet, Humboldt's take on the French Revolution remained ambivalent.{{sfn |Daum |2025 |p= }}{{page needed |date=June 2025}}

Humboldt's passion for travel was of long standing. He devoted to prepare himself as a scientific explorer. With this emphasis, he studied commerce and foreign languages at [[Hamburg]], geology at [[Freiberg University of Mining and Technology|Freiberg School of Mines]] in 1791 under [[Abraham Gottlob Werner|A.G. Werner]], leader of the [[Neptunist]] school of geology;{{sfn|Nicolson|Wilson|1995|p=lxvii}} from anatomy at [[University of Jena|Jena]] under [[Justus Christian Loder|J.C. Loder]]; and astronomy and the use of scientific instruments under [[Franz Xaver von Zach|F.X. von Zach]] and [[Johann Gottfried Koehler|J.G. Köhler]].<ref name="EB1911"/> At Freiberg, he met a number of men who were to prove important to him in his later career, including Spaniard Manuel del Río, who became director of the School of Mines the crown established in Mexico; [[Christian Leopold von Buch]], who became a regional geologist; and, most importantly, {{ill|Johann Carl Freiesleben|de|lt=Carl Freiesleben}}, who became Humboldt's tutor and close friend. During this period, his brother Wilhelm married, but Alexander did not attend the nuptials.{{sfn|de Terra|1955|p=51}}