In 1831 the Prussian Government asked Ranke to start and edit the "Historisch-Politische Zeitschrift" journal. Ranke, who was conservative, sometimes used the journal to attack liberalism. In 1841 Ranke was made Royal Historiographer of the Prussian Court. In 1865 Ranke was made a noble, and in 1882 he was made a member of the Prussian Privy Council. In 1885 he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.