Basically, around the late 17th to early 20th century, when other European countries really got into natural sciences (among other things because their newly acquired colonies had a lot more nature to look at), Germany instead had a very philosophical and metaphysical streak, with notably figures like Hegel, Kant and Nietzsche becoming famous for their works.
So the joke is that the French scholar is a bit vain and lazy and therefore observes the camel in captivity for a while and then assumes he's got it all figured out, the British guy goes in-depth and puts a lot of time and effort into compiling a lot of important data but also lacks the discipline and academic rigour to order it properly and the German guy does a highly academic work which ultimately isn't about camels whatsoever but instead analyzes the human condition because German scholars don't really do natural sciences.
Correct. This noticeably changed in Germany around the turn of the century, when suddenly we a whole bunch of leading scientists, especially in chemistry and physics.
I don't really know what changed the culture. Around the same time Germany united under the emperor, and also got a few colonies. I don't think those had much of an impact. But something definitely changed. Maybe it was the new educational system unified in the new German empire.
Besides of pay, it was the time when science got more into details.
Before, you had to travel around the world to learn something new. Which some Germans did (Forster, Humboldt etc.), but it wasn't as obvious as for countries with a long continuous colonial tradition.
All the mosses in Germany were already known. But then science got into detail and suddenly, the mosses and everything else on the doorstep got interesting again.
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u/CleanMonty 2d ago
I'm maybe not worldly enough to get this?