The Culture of Science in Frederick the Great's Berlin

For another example of the complexity of contexts, relevant to this study, see Schaffer Simon , “Authorized prophets: Comets and astronomers after 1759”, Studies in eighteenth-century culture, xvii (1987), 45–74. For further methodological discussion, Shapin S. and Schaffer S. , Leviathan and the air pump (Princeton, 1985).

I do not address in any detail the relations (which were limited in this period) with the German community outside Berlin, particularly the universities. See Polonoff Irving , Force, cosmos, monads (Bonn, 1973); Holz Freidbert , Kant et l'Académie de Berlin (Frankfurt-am-Main, 1981); Clark William , “From the medieval Universitas Scholarium to the German research university: A sociogenesis of the Germanic academic” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1986).

D'Alembert also could be contrasted to Euler, though I do not develop this here. The two engaged in longstanding disputes in several areas of mathematics.

For the philosophes' view of themselves as healers of social ills, see Gay Peter , The Enlightenment: An interpretation, ii (New York, 1969), 12–23.

Rosenberg Hans , Bureaucracy, aristocracy and autocracy: The Prussian experience, 1660–1815 (Cambridge, 1958).

Frederick II , Testament politique (1752), in Walter G. (ed.), Le mémorial des siècles (XVIIIième siècle): Frédéric II roi de Prusse (Paris, 1967), 253–356, p. 303.

ibid., 351.

Dorn Walter , “Prussian bureaucracy in the eighteenth century”, in Paret P. (ed.), Frederick the Great: A profile (New York, 1972), 57–78. “Prussian administration in the eighteenth century was rooted in the fiction that the king knows everything, that he can do everything and does everything that is done”.

Frederick II , Testament politique (ref. 6), 303. Frederick had several of his essays on these subjects read to the academy. E.g., “Dissertation sur les raisons d'établir ou d'abroger les lois” (1750); “Discours de l'utilité des sciences et des arts dans un état” (1772); “Essai sur les formes de gouvernement et sur les devoirs des souverains” (1777).

Ibid., 295; Brunschwig Henri , Enlightenment and romanticism in eighteenth-century Prussia (Chicago, 1974), 61.

Ultimately, this context included all of Europe. The academy provided an important link between Prussia and the other centres of culture, which were also of course centres of political power.

Hahn Roger , The anatomy of a scientific institution: The Paris Academy of Sciences, 1666–1803 (Berkeley, 1971), 77.

For the early history of the Berlin Academy, Harnack Adolf , Geschichte der Königlich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, i (Berlin, 1900); Bartholmess Christian , Histoire philosophique de l'Académie de Prusse depuis Leibniz jusqu'à Schelling, i (Paris, 1850); McClellan James , Science reorganized: The scientific societies in the eighteenth century (New York, 1985).

Bartholmess , op. cit. (ref. 13), 41–43.

Harnack , Geschichte (ref. 13), ii, 248–9. Wolff had been exiled from Halle by Frederick William in 1723 for offending the theological establishment. Saine Thomas , “Who's afraid of Christian Wolff?”, in Kors A. C. and Korshin P. (eds), Anticipations of the Enlightenment (Philadelphia, 1987), 102–33.

Correspondence reproduced in Harnack, Geschichte (ref. 13), ii, 253–4.

Frederick II to Voltaire, 27 June 1740, in Preuss J. D. E. (ed.), Oeuvres de Frédéric le Grand (Berlin, 1846–57), xxii, 12.

Maupertuis to Johann II Bernoulli, 2 September 1740, manuscript collection L Ia 708 of Bernoulli-Edition, Universitätsbibliothek Basel (hereafter UBB). He reiterated this in November: “Cependant je ne compte point me fixer à Berlin. J'ay mesme refusé toute proposition d'éstablissement fix quelqu'avantageuse qu'elle eut pu etre, mais j'espere y demeurer quelque tems et y revenir quelque fois” (15 November 1740). In December, Maupertuis was still in Berlin, but refused Frederick's offer of a pension because he didn't want to sever his ties with France (17 December 1740).

During this period, Maupertuis served as a director of the Paris Academy, published several treatises on geography and navigation, was elected to the Académie Française, and wrote several academic memoirs on the principle of least action.

Harnack , Geschichte (ref. 13), i, 262–8.

The departments of the old academy were: (1) Physics, medicine, chemistry; (2) Mathematics, astronomy, mechanics; (3) German language and history; and (4) Literature (“particularly oriental literature, which may be usefully employed for the spread of the Gospel among unbelievers”). Ibid., ii, 193.

“… etant actuellement occupé à des affaires sérieuses qui demandent toute mon attention, je serais bien aise si vous vouliez prendre patience sur la susdite jusqu'à ce que je serai de retour à Berlin, et que j'aurai assez de loisir pour y penser.” Frederick to d'Argens, 18 June 1743, Oeuvres, xiv, 10.

Cabinettsordre, 13 November 1743. In Formey J. H. S. , Histoire de l'Académie Royale des Sciences de Berlin (Berlin, 1750), 63–64 and Harnack , Geschichte (ref. 13), ii, 260–1. The commission included three government ministers, three honorary and two ordinary members of the Société Littéraire, and two members of the old academy.

Various versions of proposals and draft statutes and records of discussions attesting to the vigour with which the reorganization was pursued are preserved in the archives of the academy. Euler submitted one, noteworthy largely because it was not in fact adopted. Archives der Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin (hereafter AdW), I.I.5, f. 76–78v. Published in Euler L. , Opera omnia (Berlin etc., 1911-), 4A, vi, 306–8. Euler undertook this proposal, outside the regular channels established by the king's orders; there is no evidence of reaction to his proposal.

AdW I.I.5, f. 96–98.

“Règlement” (1744), in Formey, Histoire (ref. 23), 69.

The plan went to the king in December 1743. AdW I.I.5, f. 119–22 (German) and f. 125–7 (French). Final version of statutes published in Formey, Histoire (ref. 23), 65–74.

Maupertuis's marriage in 1746 to the daughter of a Prussian aristocrat gave him a place in local society.

Maupertuis to Frederick, 15 January 1746. In Koser R. (ed.), “Briefwechsel Friedrichs des Grossen mit Grumbkow und Maupertuis”, Publikationen aus den Königlich Preussischen Staatsarchiven, lxxii (Leipzig, 1898), 202 (hereafter “Briefwechsel”).

Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences et des Belles-lettres (Berlin), ii (1746), 3.

Winter Eduard , Die Registres der Berliner Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1746–1766 (Berlin, 1957), 97.

Ibid., 96–99; also Mémoires, ii (1746), 3–8; Formey , Histoire (ref. 23); Maupertuis , Oeuvres (Lyon, 1756), iii, 303–11.

Winter , Registres (ref. 31), 99. Maupertuis interpreted the king's adoption of this title as homage to himself: Frederick “never wanted to accept this title in the time of the curators”. Letter to Bernoulli, 21 November 1747 (UBB).

E.g., Süssmilch J. P. , who delivered thirty-two papers in the course of his academic career, only two of which were translated and published in the Mémoires. Aarsleff Hans , “The Berlin Academy under Frederick the Great”, History of the human sciences, ii (1989), 193–206, espec. pp. 196–7.

Winter , Registres (ref. 31), 9.

Mémoires, ii, 19.

Frederick II , “Discours de l'utilité des sciences et des arts dans un état”, Oeuvres , ix, 169–80, p. 179. Originally published in Mémoires (1772), 9–18.

Maupertuis , “Discours prononcé dans l'Académie … le jour de la naissance du roi”, Oeuvres, iii, 271–82, p. 276.

“Venez enter sur ce sauvageon la greffe des sciences, afin qu'il fleurisse.” Note the technical botanical language. Frederick to Maupertuis, [June] 1740, “Briefwechsel” (ref. 29), 185.

“Je travaille à inoculer les arts sur une tige étrangère et sauvage, votre secours m'est necessaire.” Frederick to Maupertuis, 14 July 1740, ibid., 185.

Maupertuis , “Des devoirs de l'académicien”, Oeuvres, iii, 283–302, p. 285.

ibid., 284.

Sewell William , Work and revolution in France: The language of labor from the Old Regime to 1848 (Cambridge, 1980), 55. See also Sewell W. , “Etat, Corps, and Ordre: Some notes on the social vocabulary of the French Old Regime”, in Sozialgeschichte heute: Festschrift für Hans Rosenberg , ed. by Wehler Hans-Ulrich (Göttingen, 1974), 49–68. For further discussion of the corporate basis of academies, Terrall M. , Maupertuis and eighteenth-century scientific culture (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1987), 133–41.

Maupertuis , Oeuvres, iii, 287.

“Tout est permis au philosophe, pourvu qu'il traite tout avec l'esprit philosphique.” ibid., 295.

ibid., 288.

“… il y a une foule de subalternes, de véritables goujats, qui, voulant se mettre au ton de ceux qu'ils prennent pour leurs chefs & leurs modeles, barbouillent, salissent, infectent le papier, d'inutilités, d'indécences, d'horreurs. A la vue de ce bouleversement des loix, de cette dépravation des moeurs, qui déshonorent la République des Lettres, ne seroit-ce point le cas de dire comme un de ceux qui y ont figuré avec le plus d'éclat: Vive l'ignorance!” Formey J. H. S. , “Considérations sur ce qu'on peut regarder aujourd'hui comme le but principal des académies: Second discours”, Mémoires, xxiv (1768), 357–66, p. 363.

ibid., 364.

Formey J. H. S. , “Eloge de M. de Maupertuis”, Mémoires, xvi (1759), 464–512, p. 511.

Ibid.

Much of the Maupertuis-Formey correspondence concerns the production of the Mémoires. Letters from Maupertuis to Formey in manuscript collection of Biblioteka Jagiellonska, Crakow, Poland. Letters from Formey to Maupertuis in Staatsbibliothek Berlin (West), Stiftung für Preussische Kulturbesitz.

Maupertuis to Formey, 21 November 1747.

Maupertuis to Formey, 15 November 1747; Formey read the letter at the meeting of 16 November (Winter, Registres (ref. 31), 119).

Euler took pains to inform him that the mathematics class was in strict compliance. Euler to Maupertuis, 18 November and 25 November 1747. Opera omnia, 4A, vi, 90–92.

Winter , Registres (ref. 31) (30 October 1749), 143.

Maupertuis to Formey, 26 July 1749.

Reprinted in Harnack , Geschichte (ref. 13), ii, 274–5.

Maupertuis's own generous pension was paid by the king. In response to Maupertuis's letter of 23 February 1750, Frederick agreed to pay Mérian's pension until academy could afford it. “Briefwechsel”, 251.

The acquisition of Silesia was particularly profitable to the academy. (AdW, “Régistre général”, 59.141, 142.) The academy produced calendars for many different regions with information on markets and fairs; it also sold genealogical and address calendars, and calendars for the Huguenot and Jewish communities.

Proposals recorded in anonymous document from the period 1744–46 addressed to the king (AdW I.I.7, f. 10–11). While the old academy had been granted a limited privilege for censorship of historical works in 1708 (Harnack, Geschichte (ref. 13), ii, 182–3), little use had been made of it and by the 1740s it was no longer being applied.

Winter , Registres (ref. 31), 118. Maupertuis wrote to Bernoulli: “Je viens depuis quelques jours d'obtenir pour [l'Académie] de fort beaux privileges de Sa Majesté, qui m'ont fait autant de plaisir que si c'eust eté à moy quils fussent accordés.” 21 November 1747, UBB.

AdW, “Régistre général”, 145. Official documents pertaining to the privilege are: AdW I.IV.44, ff. 177–86.

Maupertuis to Formey, 15 November 1747.

Maupertuis to Formey, 27 November 1747.

The academy was left with its old privileges for calendars and almanacs, as well as for the printing and import of maps. AdW I.IV.44, ff.223–6.

Frederick to Maupertuis , 10 March 1748, “Briefwechsel”, 227. For the academy's problems with the General Directory, S. Schmettau to Maupertuis, 22 March 1748, Archives de l'Académie des Sciences (Paris).

Maupertuis to Frederick , [October 1750], “Briefwechsel”, 258. The Economc Commission of the academy had discussed the Directory's actions on 8 September (Winter, Registres (ref. 31), 154).

“Briefwechsel”, 258–60.

AdW, “Régistre générale”, 409.

ibid., 511.

AdW, I.IX.2 (11 Dec. 1747).

AdW, “Régistre générale”, 7 July 1753. Additional documents pertaining to this dispute in AdW, I.VIII.247.

“Préface”, Mémoires, i (1745), n.p.

Ibid.

Maupertuis , “Des devoirs de l'académicien” (ref. 41), 293.

AdW I.I.5, f. 125.

Maupertuis to Bernoulli, 6 September 1749 (UBB).

Maupertuis to Bernoulli, 18 September 1747 (UBB).

Ibid.

In its published form, the title was changed to “Les lois du mouvement et du repos déduites d'un principe métaphysique”, Mémoires, ii (1746), 267–94. The last section of the paper was published as “Recherche des lois du mouvement” in Oeuvres , iv, 29–42. All Maupertuis's papers on least action reprinted in Euler, Opera omnia, 2, v.

“Accord de différentes lois de la nature, qui avoient jusqu'ici paru incompatibles”, Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences (Paris), 1744, 417–26. Reprinted in Maupertuis, Oeuvres, iv, 1–28.

For the genesis of the principle of least action, see Terrall , op. cit. (ref. 43), chap. 1.

Euler Leonhard , “Recherches sur les plus grands et les plus petits qui se trouvent dans les actions des forces”, Mémoires, iv (1748), 149–88; idem, “Réflexions sur quelques loix générales de la nature qui s'observent dans les effets des forces quelconques”, Mémoires, iv (1748), 189–218; idem, “Harmonie entre les principes généraux de repos et de mouvement de M. de Maupertuis”, Mémoires, vii (1751), 169–98; idem, “Sur le principe de la moindre action”, Mémoires, vii (1751), 199–218. All papers reprinted in Euler, Opera omnia 2, v. Detailed discussion in Terrall, op. cit. (ref. 43), chap. 2.

Maupertuis , Oeuvres , iv, 21. On the relation of Maupertuis's formulation to Leibnizian metaphysics, see Terrall , op. cit. (ref. 43), chap. 1.

Ibid., 22.

Asprey Robert , Frederick the Great: The magnificent enigma (New York, 1986), 358–9.

Frederick II , Testament politique (ref. 6), 300.

D'Alembert , Traité de dynamique (2nd edn, 1758), reprinted in Oeuvres de d'Alembert, i (Paris, 1821), 397. On d'Alembert Thomas Hankins , Jean d'Alembert: Science and the Enlightenment (Oxford, 1970).

ibid., 398.

ibid., 404.

D'Alembert , “Cosmologie”, in Diderot and d'Alembert (eds), Encyclopédie, iv (Paris, 1754).

D'Alembert , Traité de dynamique (ref. 88), 404.

For the role of the balance in the Enlightenment, see Wise M. N. , “Work and waste: Political economy and natural philosophy in nineteenth century Britain (I)”, History of science, xxvii (1989), 263–301.

Published in 1753. D'Alembert , Oeuvres, iv, 337–73.

ibid., 367–68.

Maupertuis , Oeuvres, iii, 286.

D'Alembert , “Essai” (ref. 94), 369.

ibid., 353.

ibid., 345.