Alexander was the younger brother of the successful Prussian diplomat and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835), the founder of Humboldt University. But he was not destined to live in his brother’s shadow. Born in Berlin to privileged aristocracy during Frederick the Great’s reign, Humboldt was nine when his father died, and the brothers were reared, according to biographers, in an emotional wasteland by a puritanical mother: work and achievement ruled over love and play. As a result, the boys became as close as twins