The name of Kiel appears as early as the 10th century in the form Kyl (probably from the Anglo-Saxon Kille = a safe place for ships). Kiel is mentioned as a city in the next century; in 1242 it received the Lübeck rights; in the 14th century it acquired various trading privileges, having in 1284 entered the Hanseatic League. In recent times Kiel has been associated with the peace concluded in January 1814 between Great Britain, Denmark and Sweden, by which Norway was ceded to Sweden. In 1773 Kiel became part of Denmark, and in 1866 it passed with the rest of Schleswig-Holstein to Prussia. Since being made a great naval arsenal, Kiel has rapidly developed in prosperity and population.
See Prahl, Chronika der Stadt Kiel (Kiel, 1856); Erichsen, Topographie des Landkreises Kiel (Kiel, 1898); H. Eckardt, Alt-Kiel in Wort und Bild (Kiel, 1899); P. Hasse, Das Kieler Stadtbuch, 1264-1289 (Kiel, 1875); Das älteste Kieler Rentebuch 1300, 1487, edited by C. Reuter (Kiel, 1893); Das zweite Kieler Rentebuch 1487, 1586, edited by W. Stern (Kiel, 1904); and the Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Kieler Stadtgeschichte (Kiel, 1877, 1904).
KIELCE, a government in the south-west of Russian Poland, surrounded by the governments of Piotrkow and Radom and by Austrian Galicia. Area, 3896 sq. m. Its surface is an elevated plateau 800 to 1000 ft. in altitude, intersected in the north-east by a range of hills reaching 1350 ft. and deeply trenched in the south. It is drained by the Vistula on its south-east border, and by its tributaries, the Nida and the Pilica, which have a very rapid fall and give rise to inundations. Silurian and Devonian quartzites, dolomite, limestones and sandstones prevail in the north, and contain rich iron ores, lead and copper ores. Carboniferous deposits containing rich coal seams occur chiefly in the south, and extend into the government of Piotrkow. Permian limestones and sandstones exist in the south. The Triassic deposits contain very rich zinc ores of considerable thickness and lead. The Jurassic deposits consist of iron-clays and limestones, containing large caves. The Cretaceous deposits yield gypsum, chalk and sulphur. White and black marble are also extracted. The soil is of great variety and fertile in parts, but owing to the proximity of the Carpathians, the climate is more severe than might be expected. Rye, wheat, oats, barley and buckwheat are grown; modern intensive culture is spreading, and land fetches high prices, the more so as the peasants’ allotments were small at the outset and are steadily decreasing. Out of a total of 2,193,300 acres suitable for cultivation 53.4% are actually cultivated. Grain is exported. Gardening is a thriving industry in the south; beet is grown for sugar in the south-east. Industries are considerably developed: zinc ores are extracted, as well as some iron and a little sulphur. Tiles, metallic goods, leather, timber goods and flour are the chief products of the manufactures. Pop. (1897), 765,212, for the most part Poles, with 11% Jews; (1906, estimated), 910,900. By religion 88% of the people are Roman Catholics. Kielce is divided into seven districts, the chief towns of which, with populations in 1897, are Kielce (q.v.), Jedrzejow (Russ. Andreyev, 5010), Miechow (4156), Olkusz (3491), Pinczów (8095), Stopnica (4659) and Wloszczowa (23,065).
KIELCE, a town of Russian Poland, capital of the above government, 152 m. by rail S. of Warsaw, situated in a picturesque hilly country. Pop. (1890), 12,775; (1897), 23,189. It has a castle, built in 1638 and for some time inhabited by Charles XII.; it was renowned for its portrait gallery and the library of Zaluski, which was taken to St Petersburg. The squares and boulevards are lined with handsome modern buildings. The principal factories are hemp-spinning, cotton-printing and cement works. The town was founded in 1173 by a bishop of Cracow. In the 16th century it was famous for its copper mines, but they are no longer worked.
KIEPERT, HEINRICH (1818-1899), German geographer, was born at Berlin on the 31st of July 1818. He was educated at the university there, studying especially history, philology and geography. In 1840-1846, in collaboration with Karl Ritter, he issued his first work, Atlas von Hellas und den hellenischen Kolonien, which brought him at once into eminence in the sphere of ancient historical cartography. In 1848 his Historisch-geographischer Atlas der alten Welt appeared, and in 1854 the first edition of the Atlas antiquus, which has obtained very wide recognition, being issued in English, French, Russian, Dutch and Italian. In 1894 Kiepert produced the first part of a larger atlas of the ancient world under the title Formae orbis antiqui; his valuable maps in Corpus inscriptionum latinarum must also be mentioned. In 1877-1878 his Lehrbuch der alten Geographie was published, and in 1879 Leitfaden der alten Geographie, which was translated into English (A Manual of Ancient Geography, 1881) and into French. Among Kiepert’s general works one of the most important was the excellent Neuer Handatlas über alle Teile der Erde (1855 et seq.), and he also compiled a large number of special and educational maps. Asia Minor was an area in which he took particular interest. He visited it four times in 1841-1888; and his first map (1843-1846), together with his Karte des osmanischen Reiches in Asien (1844 and 1869), formed the highest authority for the geography of the region. Kiepert was professor of geography in the university of Berlin from 1854. He died at Berlin on the 21st of April 1899. He left unpublished considerable material in various departments of his work, and with the assistance of this his son Richard (b. 1846), who followed his father’s career, was enabled to issue a map of Asia Minor in 24 sheets, on a scale of 1 : 400,000 (1902 et seq.), and to carry on the issue of Formae orbis antiqui.
KIERKEGAARD, SÖREN AABY (1813-1855), Danish philosopher, the seventh child of a Jutland hosier, was born in Copenhagen on the 5th of May 1813. As a boy he was delicate, precocious and morbid in temperament. He studied theology at the university of Copenhagen, where he graduated in 1840 with a treatise On Irony. For two years he travelled in Germany, and in 1842 settled finally in Copenhagen, where he died on the 11th of November 1855. He had lived in studious retirement, subject to physical suffering and mental depression. His first volume, Papers of a Still Living Man (1838), a characterization of Hans Andersen, was a failure, and he was for some time unnoticed. In 1843 he published Euten—Eller (Either—or) (4th ed., 1878), the work on which his reputation mainly rests; it is a discussion of the ethical and aesthetic ideas of life. In his last years he carried on a feverish agitation against the theology and practice of the state church, on the ground that religion is for the individual soul, and is to be separated absolutely from the state and the world. In general his philosophy was a reaction against the speculative thinkers—Steffens (q.v.), Niels Treschow (1751-1833) and Frederik Christian Sibbern (1785-1872); it was based on the absolute dualism of Faith and Knowledge. His chief follower was Rasmus Nielsen (1809-1884) and he was opposed by Georg Brandes, who wrote a brilliant account of his life and works. As a dialectician he has been described as little inferior to Plato, and his influence on the literature of Denmark is considerable both in style and in matter. To him Ibsen owed his character Brand in the drama of that name.