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title: "Knowledge is power"
chunk: 2/2
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_is_power"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:27:01.253718+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

=== Wissen ist Macht in Germany ===
After the 1871 unification of Germany, "Wissen ist Macht, geographisches Wissen ist Weltmacht" (Knowledge is power, geographical knowledge is world power) was often used in German geopolitics and the public discussion to support efforts for a German colonial empire after 1880. Julius Perthes, for example, used the motto for his publishing house. However, this installation of geographical research followed popular requests and was not imposed by the government. In particular, Count Bismarck was not much interested in German colonial adventures; his envoy Gustav Nachtigal started with the first protectorates, but was more interested in ethnological aspects.
After World War I, German geopolitics tried to contribute to efforts to regain world power. Scholars like Karl Haushofer, a former general, and his son Albrecht Haushofer (both in close contact with Rudolf Hess) got worldwide attention with their concept of geopolitics. Associations of German geographers and schoolteachers welcomed the Machtergreifung and hoped to get further influence in the new regime.
Germany's postwar geopolitics was much more cautious; concepts of political geography and projection of power had not been widespread scholarly topics in Germany until 1989.
Geographical knowledge is however still of importance in Germany. Germans tend to mock US politicians' and celebrities' comparable lack of interest in the topic. A Sponti (Außerparlamentarische Opposition) version of the slogan is "Wissen ist Macht, nichts wissen macht auch nichts", a pun about the previous motto meaning "Knowledge is power, knowing nothing is no problem, either."
The German Bundeswehr Bataillon Elektronische Kampfführung 932, an electronic warfare unit based in Frankenberg (Eder), still uses the Latin version Scientia potentia est as its motto.

== Theories ==
In the modern and contemporary inquiries of the proposition, Stephen Gill furthered Robert Cox's deconstructive statement on the ontology of knowledge, with an objective epistemological statement that "any theory of knowledge production needs to have a power dimension".

== See also ==
Information warfare
Intelligence (information gathering)
List of Latin phrases
Power-knowledge
Rationality and power
Sapiens dominabitur astris

== References ==

== Bibliography ==
Thomas Hobbes, Opera philosophica, quae latine scripsit, omnia in unum corpus nunc primum collecta studio et labore Gulielmi Molesworth, Bart. (London: Bohn, 1839–45).
Thomas Hobbes, The English Works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury; Now First Collected and Edited by Sir William Molesworth, Bart. (London: Bohn, 1839–45). 11 vols.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Society and Solitude. Twelve Chapters, Boston, The Riverside Press, 1892.

== Further reading ==
Haas, Ernst B. When Knowledge is Power: Three Models of Change in International Organizations. University of California, 1990. ISBN 0-520-06646-4.
Higdon, Lee. "Knowledge is power." University Business, September 2005.
Higdon argues that because the U.S. economy is a knowledge economy the decline in enrollment of non-U.S. students in U.S. universities "has serious long-term implications for the United States."
"Knowledge is power (But only if you know how to acquire it)." The Economist, May 8, 2003.
A report on corporate knowledge management.
Peterson, Ryan. "Michel Foucault: Power/Knowledge." Colorado State University Resource Centre for Communications Studies.
An exploration of what Peterson terms Foucault's "new model of the relations of power and knowledge" that contradicts Bacon.
Powers, Rod. "Knowledge is power in the military." U.S. Military: The Orderly Room. Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine

== External links ==
 The dictionary definition of knowledge is power at Wiktionary
Scientiaestex Archived 2022-10-05 at the Wayback Machine