How far was Ranke responsible for the proffesionaliation of History?

Question

How did he professionalise it? And how big was his part in it?

Answer 1

Leopold von Ranke led the way with his research methods relying on primary sources to write history as a narrative.
His forte was international politics. He felt that we should not judge history but rather try to write it "as it essentially was".
Current historians love primary sources but do tend to judge
or interpret history a bit more than Ranke may have liked.
Historical constructs can be useful, but they are prone to possible distortion by the inevitable bias of the interpreter.
Ranke led the German scientific history methodology of the 1800s. But history is not an exact science. It never can be like physics or calculus. There are too many shades of gray - - points that can never be proven definitively.