“Knowledge” is the central resource of international organizations for exercising power. For the first time, the book examines from a historical perspective how these organizations acquired their power resources. The Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine serves as a case study. It was the first international organization in the world to develop procedures for the transnational mobilization and genesis of knowledge that are still influential today. This history of knowledge of the Rhine thus makes an important contribution to understanding the 19th century as an age of internationalism.