The award-winning bestselling author, Andrea Wulf, will present the extraordinary life of Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) in the lecture hall of the Abbe Center Beutenberg —the visionary scientist and intrepid explorer after whom more plants, animals, and places are named than after anyone else. His restless life was packed with adventures and expeditions: he climbed the world’s highest volcanoes, explored the rainforests, and traveled through anthrax-infested Siberia. His descriptions of nature inspired both scientists and poets—such as Darwin and Goethe—as well as politicians like Jefferson and Bolívar. Humboldt described nature as a complex “web of life” and as a global force in which everything is interconnected—a concept that continues to shape our thinking today. He understood nature as a living organism that is vulnerable and warned as early as 1800 about human-caused climate change. Andrea Wulf sheds light not only on the universal genius but also on Alexander von Humboldt as a person, drawing parallels to the present day.
Andrea Wulf, born in India and raised in Germany, lives in London. As an author, she has been honored with numerous international awards, most notably for her international bestseller *Alexander von Humboldt and the Invention of Nature* (2016), which has been translated into 27 languages and has won, among others, the highly regarded Costa Biography Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Royal Society Science Book Prize, and, in Germany, the Bavarian Book Prize. Her latest book, “Fabulous Rebels: The Early Romantics and the Invention of the Self,” is also a Spiegel bestseller. She writes for publications including The New York Times, the Financial Times, The Atlantic, and The Guardian. She is a member of the PEN American Center and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Following the lecture, a book signing will take place starting at approximately 8:00 p.m. in the foyer of the Abbe-Zentrum Beutenberg.
