Biographical
Index to Documentation and Information Science History.
Wilhelm Ostwald and The Bridge
*New* 威廉·奥斯持瓦尔德（Wilhelm Ostwald 1853-1932）和 《桥梁》,
Chinese translation by Matthew Ma of Ecigator, Nov 2022.
Wilhelm
Ostwald et Le Pont, French translation by Mathilde Guibert, Oct 2019.
*New* 빌헬름 오스트발트(Wilhelm Ostwald )와 브릿지, Korean translation by PlayerAuctions, Dec 2022.
Wilhelm Ostwald was born in Riga in 1853, studied Chemistry at the University
of Dorpat, and taught at the University of Dorpat, 1875-1881,
Riga Polytechnic 1881-1887, and at the University of Leipzig, 1887- 1906.
In 1909 he received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
(Emanuel Goldberg graduated from
Ostwald's institute in 1906).
Ostwald discussed problems of information management with
Paul Otlet, co-founder of the
International Institute for Bibliography
in Brussels, in 1910.
He
used most of his Nobel Prize money to finance a similar
organization,
Die Bruecke ("The Bridge"), an "international institute for the organizing
of intellectual work," which he founded in Munich with
Karl Wilhelm Buehrer and Adolf Saager in June 1911.
The manifesto of the The Bridge, entitled, the "The Organizing of
Intellectual Work" was published in German and in Esperanto
("everybody's second language") in 1911.
They advocated "the monographic principle" (hypertext), technical
standards, the use of the
Universal Decimal Classification, and the idea of a
World Brain.
The Bridge ended in 1913 after publishing numerous pamphlets.
Ostwald died in 1932.
One lasting legacy of his work is the international
standard for paper sizes (A4 etc.).
Sources:
- T. Hapke.
Wilhelm Ostwald, the "Bruecke" (Bridge), and
connections to other bibliographic activities at the
beginning of the 20th century".
Illustrated
lecture notes in English.
- Hapke, T. (1997). Wilhelm Ostwald und seine Initiativen
zur Organisation und Standardisierung naturwissenschaftlicher
Publizistik : Enzyklopädismus, Internationalismus und Taylorismus
am Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts [Wilhelm Ostwald and his initiatives
for the organization and standardization of scientific journals:
Encyclopedism, internationalism and Taylorism at the beginning of the
20th century]. In Meinel, C. (Ed.). Fachschrifttum, Bibliothek und
Naturwissenschaft im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert (pp. 157-174).
Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
- Lewandrowski, Peter. 1979. Der Kampf Wilhelm Ostwalds um die Schaffung
eines einheitlichen Informations- und Dokumentationssystems der
Wissenschaft -- "Die Bruecke."
- [William Ostwald's campaign to provide a unified information and
documentation system for science]. In: Internationales Symposium
anlaesslich des 125. Geburtstages von Wilhelm Ostwald.
(Sitzungsberichte der Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR. Jg. 1979,
Nr 13/N) Berlin: Akademie-Verlag. Pp.149-156.
- Sachsse, Rolf. 1998.
Das Gehirn der Welt: 1912: Die Organisation der Organisationen durch
die Bruecke: Ein vergessenes Kapitel mediengeschichte.
[The World Brain: 1912: The Organization of Organizations through The Bridge:
A Forgotten Chapter of Media History]. Telepolis
[e-journal. Dated 19 Nov 1998.].
- Satoh, Takashi. The Bridge Movement in Munich and Ostwald's
treatise on the organization of knowledge. Libri 37 (1987): 1-24.
Go to
Biographical Index.