Geographers Biobibliographical Studies Volume 6 9781474230797, 9781474230810

Table of contents :
Cover
Half-title
Title
Copyright
Contents
Introduction
List of abbreviations
Peter Apianus 1495 or 1501-1552
Anton Friedrich Büsching 1724-1793
Charles Carlyle Colby 1884-1965
Nicholas Copernicus 1473-1543
Mihai David 1886-1954
Ludovic Drapeyron 1839-1901
Charles Bungay Fawcett 1883-1952
Robert Gradmann 1865-1950
Alfred Hettner 1859-1941
Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov 1711-1765
Takuji Ogawa 1870-1941
Nicolai Orghidan 1881-1967
Aleksei Petrovich Pavlov 1854-1929
Archibald Grenfell Price 1892-1977
Erwin Josephus Raisz 1893-1968
Gregor Reisch C.1470-1525
Rollin D Salisbury 1858-1922
Otto Schlüter 1872-1959
Jerzy Smolenski 1881-1940
Vasili Nikitich Tatishchev 1686-1750
Louis Vivien de Saint-Martin 1802-1896
Leo Heinrich Waibel 1888-1951
Index

Citation preview

GEOGRAPHERS Biobibliographical Studies VOLUME 6

GEOGRAPHERS BIOBIBLIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES This volume forms part of the series Studies in the History of Geography planned by the Working Group on the History of Geographical Thought of the International Geographical Union and the International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science. Chairman, Professor David Hooson, Department of Geography, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA. Secretary, Professor T.W. Freeman, 1 Thurston Close, Abingdon OX14 5RD, England. Ordinary Members: Professor Josef Babicz, Institut d'Histoire des Sciences et des Techniques, Polska Akademia Nauk, Nowy Swiat 72, Warsaw, Poland; Professor Manfred Büttner, 4630 Bochum, Kierfernweg 40, Federal Republic of Germany; Professor Geoffrey J. Martin, 82 Banks Road, Easton, Connecticut O6430, USA; Professor Philippe Pinchemel, Institut de Géographie, 191 rue St. Jacques, Paris 75005, France; Professor Keiichi Takeuchi, Faculty of Social Studies, Hitotsubashi University, Kunitachi, Tokyo, Japan. Honorary Members: Mr. Gerald Crone, 34 Cleveland Road, Ealing, London W13, England; Professor Clarence D. Glacken, Earth Sciences Building, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA; Professor Richard Haxtshorne, Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA; Professor Preston E. James, 379 Villa Drive South, Atlantis, Florida 33462, USA.

GEOGRAPHERS Biobibliographical Studies VOLUME 6 Edited by T. W. Freeman on behalf of the Working Group on the History of Geographical Thought of the International Geographical Union and the International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science

Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc LON DON • OX F O R D • N E W YO R K • N E W D E L H I • SY DN EY

Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square London WC1B 3DP UK

1385 Broadway New York NY 10018 USA

www.bloomsbury.com BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published in 1982 by Mansell Publishing Limited © International Geographical Union, 1982 T.W. Freeman has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Editor of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: ePDF: 978-1-4742-3081-0 ePub: 978-1-4742-3080-3    Geographers: biobibliographical studies. Vol. 6 1. Geographers – Biography - Periodicals 910’.92’2 G67 Series: Geographers: Biobibliographical Studies, volume 6

Contents Introduction

T. W. Freeman

List of abbreviations Peter Apianus lU95 or 1501-1552

Karl

Anton Friedrich Biisching 172^-1793

Manfred Buttner

Charles Carlyle Colby 188U-1965

Wesley Calef

Nicholas Copernicus 11+73-15^3

jbzef

1

Hoheisel and Reinhard

BabioZj Manfred BVLttneri Heribert

Mihai David 1886-195 *

Ion Gugiuman

Ludovic Drapeyron 1839-1901

Numa Broo

Charles Bungay Fawcett 1883-1952

T. W. Freeman

Robert Gradmann 1865-1950

Karl Heinz

Alfred Hettner 1859-19^1

Ernst Plewe

Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov 1711-1765

O.A.

Alexandrovskaya

Takuji Ogawa 1870-19^1

Usao

Tsujita

Nicolai Orghidan I88I-I967

Eugen Nedelau

Aleksei Petrovich Pavlov 185^-1929

Maria Mikhailovna Romanova

Archibald Grenfell Price 1892-1977

J.M.

Erwin Josephus Raisz 1893-1968

Leon Yaoher

Gregor Reisch C.1U7O-I525

Karl

Rollin D Salisbury 1858-1922

William D.

Otto Schluter 1872-1959

Manfred

Jerzy Smolenski 1881-19^0

StanisZaw

Vasili Nikitich Tatishchev 1686-1750

O.A.

Louis Vivien de Saint-Martin 1802-1896

Lucie Lagarde

Leo Heinrich Waibel 1888-1951

Gottfried

Index

Jakel

Schrdder

Powell

Hoheisel Pattison

Schick Leszczycki

Alexandrovskaya

P-Feifer

M. Nobis

Introduction

Once again it is a delight to offer studies of men (for on this occasion no studies of women have been written) who in their own time have spent their lives, or in some cases part of their lives, as geographers. As one of this year's contributors noted, some geographers have regarded history and geography as inseparable when dealing with landscapes. It is equally true when dealing with the writers of geography, for possibly to a greater extent than they realised they reflected in their work their own circumstances of time and place. The cruel death of Jerzy Smolenski (l88l-19^0) in the first days of 19^0 ended a life of singular quality and dedication to Poland, and to good causes such as the creation of national parks with environmental conservation while the irony that Leo Waibel (1888-1951) had a Jewish wife led to exile in America which academically was one of the most fruitful periods of his life. One tragedy was the removal of Alfred Hettner (1859-19^1) from the editorial chair of the Geographische Zei.teokfi.ft in 1935 after he had produced the journal for forty years with twelve numbers each year, all because his mother was half-Jewish. It is not surprising that at the IGU Congress of 1938 at Amsterdam the comment was made that the German delegation was more remarkable for the people who were not there than for those who were. Now there is another German academic outlook, appreciative of its scholars, better represented in this volume of Geographers than in some earlier issues, much to the satisfaction of its editor who would remind reviewers that he cannot publish what he does not receive. Heidelberg is free again and so is Cracow. On a visit in 1973 to the great Jagiellon University of

Cracow members of the IGU Commission on the History of Geographical Thought saw some of the models used by Copernicus (lUT3-15^3) when he was there more than four hundred years ago. Like his contemporaries he was eager to understand the world in relation to the universe and to proceed from observation to observation, indeed to provide a mathematically sound cartography. Spending much of his life as a solitary scientist he was imbued with concern for social issues. Revolutionary as his theories of the world were, he was fortunate enough to avoid ecclesiastical censure at a time when that could have serious consequences. Among his contemporaries, Gregor Reisch (c. 1U70-1525) spent much of his life in monastic seclusion though with access to the Emperor as a scientific adviser as well as a father confessor. He and Apianus (who died in 1552 but whose year of birth is uncertain) belonged to the old order rather than to the new thought of the Renaissance period, though Apianus had a wide range of enquiry as an astronomer and astrologer and was a pioneer cartographer, known also for his heart-shaped map projection. Three geographers working in the eighteenth century are discussed here. Of these Anton Friedrich Busching (1721+-1793) is undoubtedly the best known and it is not unusual to see him mentioned in various books and papers dealing with the current ferment of ideas in geography. and the two others of this period, both Russians, lived at a time when there was an upsurge of modernity throughout the heartland of the Old World, based on the old and new cities of European Russia but with the understanding that a vast area lay open to settlement and economic expansion. The Russians, like the

viii

Introduction

Americans, had no need to go overseas to acquire an empire. Vasili Nikitich Tatishchev (l6R6-1750), the earlier of the two, was an administrator who regarded cartography as a basic need of his time. Apparently it was he who defined the boundary between Europe and Asia that to the outside world seemed fictional long before Mackinder was writing on the heartland, but he advanced scientific reasons for his continental divide. As an administrator Tatishchev knew the use of boundaries, and to him also hydrographic survey seemed valuable. To him history and geography appeared to be inseparable, a view to be shared by so many geographers of a later time, and though empirical in his work he was looking for a philosophical approach. Perhaps the other great Russian discussed here, Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (1711-1765) w a s even more eager to share in the current modernization, which he thought could be aided by a thorough geographical survey. In his work there was a constant search for relationship, though he was emphatic on the need for observation as a basic scientific method. The opening up of the world during the eighteenth century, though a mere prelude to what was to occur in the nineteenth century, was an inspiration to many geographers. Anton Friedrich Biisching was a theologian and pedagogue, who became a geographer with a religious purpose. He too had the idea of relationship and was not alone in asking what should be included — and what should not — in a geographical description. In dealing with people he found a basic question was what man had made of his opportunities over the whole world. Covering all countries was to become for many generations an aim of education, and Busching — in this and in other ways — influenced the work of Carl Ritter and Alexander von Humboldt who are frequently regarded as inaugurators of the classical period of geography. Of the sixteen other geographers discussed here only two, both French, belong entirely to the nineteenth century, Louis Vivien de Saint-Martin (1802-1896) and Ludovic Drapeyron (1839-1901). Vivien de Saint-Martin lived so long that his death was hardly noticed and only the briefest comment was made in the rising new journal, the Annates de G&ographie. Possibly his service to geography, through his work for the Societe de Geographie, his editing of the Ann&e GZogvaphique, his atlas compilation, school text books and other activities has been undervalued for people who were encyclopaedists by temperament or circumstances are likely to be less favoured than those who provide inspiration. But he lived at a time when material of relevance to geography was flowing in a flood tide through the expansion of colonial powers, the penetration of the world by new means of transport and the apparently unlimited opportunities for trade. A new geography must be based on facts. With this outlook Ludovic Drapeyron was in general agreement, for he said that 'the earth would belong to those who knew it best1 and saw vividly the educational values of geography for people of his own and of later times. The advance of geography in the universities was perhaps impeded by a failure to present a clear methodology, though the development of world mapping in the nineteenth century opened new doors of opportunity for geographers. What could be more relevant to human experience than a study of the earth and man? The upsurge of

the field sciences in the nineteenth century, the new opportunities of travel, the steady acquisition of data on continents little known before, all helped to make geography attractive. Three famous geographers born in the 1850s are studied here. Two of them, Aleksei Petrovich Pavlov (185^-1929) and Rollin D Salisbury (1858-1922), were initially geologists, drawn gradually through their studies in Russia and America to a study of landforms and — especially in the case of Pavlov — soils, on which so much has been achieved by Russian workers. Such study provided a firm basis for the regional approach that was to be not only crucial in geography but almost unquestioned until the post-19^5 years. Salisbury remained a geologist to the end of his life, though as chairman of the Geography Department in the University of Chicago he welcomed as permanent or visiting members of staff people of widely differing views on geography. Unlike Pavlov and Salisbury, Alfred Hettner (1859-19^1) was trained as a geographer. Long overseas travel was expected of a European geographer of his time but he is now remembered most as a philosopher among geographers, working out its possibilities, partly through the publication of papers in the Geographische Zeitschrift. In him, as in his great German predecessors Ritter and von Humboldt, there was the wish to know the whole world, and through his work regional geography became respected, even for a time dominant. This did not preclude other approaches, for Hettner himself wrote on political geography during and after the First World War. Slowly geography penetrated the universities of the world, though many envious glances were directed towards Germany from other countries. One advantage of a university is that through goodwill or perhaps inevitability of circumstances it tolerates the intellectual eccentricity of its members, at least to some extent. The eleven geographers still to be considered, from Gradmann born in 1865 to Raisz in 1893, all had a marked individuality expressed in their work, derived partly from their initial education. Of the three Germans, Robert Gradmann (1865-1950) was trained for the ministry of the Lutheran Church and became widely known for his botanical work, which led him in his thirties, with the encouragement of Hettner, to become a geographer. In his writings he showed a strong wish to discern origins, to reconstruct past landscapes, in short to chart the evolution of the man-made environment so that he became a regional geographer deeply imbued with an historical approach. Otto Schluter (18721959) was a student of geography as an undergraduate and adopted an historical regional approach with a special concern for human settlements. Leo Heinrich Waibel (1888-1951), a student of Hettner, turned apparent misfortunes to advantages, for he was a prisoner of war in Africa from 191^-19 and an exile in USA and South America from 1939 to a short time before his death in Germany. Thbough his regional studies in these areas, he developed a firmly-based economic geography of world resources that seems particularly relevant in 1982 to readers of the Brandt Report on world hunger and disparity of living standards. These three great German geographers were all basically regionalists but they went further, arguably with greater distinction because they had so firm a basis in fieldwork and observation.

Introduction French and German geographers had a wide influence on other countries by the early part of the twentieth century. This is seen, for example, in the work of two Romanian geographers briefly treated here, Nicolae Orghidan (I88I-I967) and Mihai David (1886-195M , both of whom studied geography as undergraduates. Implanted firmly in Romanian geography was the study of geomorphology as a basis for a regional treatment: as it happened David was a follower of Emmanuel de Martonne and W.M. Davis, and Orghidan of Penck. In Poland Jerzy Smolenski (l88l-19^0) was initially a geologist but made the transition — by no means unique — to geomorphology and then to a wider regional geography, particularly of Poland. But of all geographers Takuji Ogawa (1870-19^1) had perhaps the strangest path to the subject. Rooted in a scholarly family, he was given an education based on Chinese classics as a potential philosopher but on seeing the effects of an earthquake became a geologist and geographer, working in both for the rest of his life, and ranking as one of the founders of modern geography in Japan. All the four remaining geographers discussed in this volume were individualists, finding their own way of working. Erwin Josephus Raisz (1893-1968), Hungarian born but American by adoption, stands out as a cartographer of superb quality. Charles Carlyle Colby (188U-I965) is known mostly for a remarkable pioneer paper on urban geography but his range of research enquiry was wide and fruitful not only in the University of Chicago but also in various government enquiries. He was in effect an applied geographer, all the more effectively because he had so much geography to apply. Archibald Grenfell Price (1892-1977) was a devoted citizen of Australia, wisely recognizing that its population policy was the main challenge of the time and of the future. In an atmosphere charged with polemic and controversy he discussed such problems with sincerity of scholarship. In England, Charles Bungay Fawcett (1883-1952) is now best remembered for his work on conurbations and administrative units, derived in part from the regional emphasis given to the teaching in the early days of the Oxford School of Geography (and since), as well as in books and speeches by Sir Patrick Geddes, for his work on political geography now seems to belong to a past era that can never return. He was in many ways an applied geographer , much concerned with world food problems, pragmatically minded and practical rather than imaginative and visionary. Senior geographers may well reflect on occasion on the fallibility of judgement in their own writings. It is sad to remember that in an edition of a book on Ireland, one considered that peace had been achieved in Northern Ireland and that historic tensions had lessened. Oh that it were so! Everyone works at some time and in some place and biographical study may well reveal why people thought as they did at particular times. That geographers have in general been good citizens, eager to use their abilities for the general welfare of society, is clear whether one studies eighteenth century Russians who saw the significance of soil study or twentieth century Americans realizing that the frontier of challenge to achievement no longer lies in the ill-watered western interior but in the socially and economically deprived areas of the

continent's great cities,

T. W. Freeman Note: Intending authors are asked to write to Professor T. W. Freeman, 1 Thurston Close, Abingdon, 0X11+ 5RD, England, who will send information for authors of biobibliographical studies.

ix

List of abbreviations

Abbreviations have been adopted from British 4148: Part 23 1975, Word-abbreviation list. Actes

Standard

. . . Congr. Int. Hist. Sci. Actes du ... Congres International d'Histoire des Sciences Allg. Dtsoh. Biogr. Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie Am. Hist. Rev. American Historical Review Am. J. Sci. American Journal of Science An. Sti. Univ. Iasi Ananele §tiintifice de Universitafcii ... Ia§i Ann. Assoc. Am. Geogr. Annals of the Association of American Geographers Ann. G&ogr. Annales de Geographie Ann. Gtogr. Antropogeogr. Annales de Geographie et Antropogeographie Ann. New York Acad. Sci. Annals of the New York Academy of Science Annu. Hep. Brit. Assoc. Annual Report of the British Association Arch. Sozialwiss. Sozialpol. Archiv fur Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik Assoc. Am. Geogr. Association of American Geographers Aust. J. Sci. Australian Journal of Science Aust. Q. Australian Quarterly Australasian Assoc. Adv. Sci. Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science Ber. Dtsch. Landkd. Bericht zur Deutschen Landeskunde Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci. British Association for the Advancement of Science Bui. Soc. (R.) Rom. Geogr. Buletinul Societajii (regale) Romane de Geografie

Bull.

Acad. Sci. Cracovie, Classe Sci., Math. y Nat. Bulletin de l'Academie des Sciences, Cracovie, Classe des Sciences Mathematiques et Naturelles Bull. Am. Assoc. Petrol. Geol. Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bull. Geogr. Soc. Chicago Bulletin of the Geographic Society of Chicago Bull. Geol. Soc. Am. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America Bull. Moscow Soc. Nat. Sci. Bulletin of the Moscow Society of Natural Sciences Bull. Soc. Gtogr. Bulletin de la Societe de Geographie C.R. Congr. Int. Gtogr. Comptes rendu Congres Internationale de Geographie Congr. Int. Giogr. Congres Internationale de Geographie Congr. Int. Pop. Congres Internationale de la Population Czas. Geogr. Czasopismo Geograficzne Die Erde (Z. Gesell. Erdkd.) Die Erde (Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft fur Erdkunde) .diss. dissertation Dtsch. Arch. Landes-u.Volsforschg. Deutsche Archiv Landes- und- Volsforschung Dtsch. Rundsch. Geogr. (Stat.) Deutsche Rundschau fur Geographie (und Statistik) Econ. Geogr. Economic Geography Englers Bot. Jahrb. Englers Botanische Jahrbuch Erdkd. Erdkunde Festschr. ...Dtsch. Geogr. Festschrift ... Deutsche Geographentag Forsch. Dtsch. Landkd. Forschunger zur Deutschen Landeskunde

List Geogr. Geogr.

Anz. Geografischer Anzieger Biobibl. Stud. Geographers: Biobibliographical Studies Geogr. J. Geographical Journal Geogr. Rev. Geographical Review Geogr. Rev. Japan Geographical Review of Japan Geogr. Sch. Geografische Schriften Geogr. Teach. Geographical Teacher Geogr. Z. Geographische Zeitschrift Heidelberger Geogr. Arb. Heidelberger Geographische Arbeiten Hisv. Am. Hist. Rev. Hispanic American Historical Review IGC International Geographical Congress IGU International Geographical Union Int. Kong. Svel. Internationaler Kongress fur Speleologie Izv. Akad. Nauk Ser. Geogr. Izvestiya Akademii Nauk Seriya Geografica J. Geogr. Journal of Geography J. Geol. Journal of Geology J. R. Aust. Hist. Soo. Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society Kartog. Naoh. Kartographische Nachrichten Leop. Dtsoh. Akad. Leopoldinischen Deutschen Akademie Med. J. Austi Medical Journal of Australia Meteorol. Z. Meteorologische Zeitschrift Mitt. Dtsoh. Sohutzgeb. Mitteilungen aus den Deutsche Schulzgebieten ... Mitt. Frank. Geogr. Gesell. Mitteilungen Frankischen Geographische Gesellschaft Mitt. Geogr. Gesell. Hamburg Mitteilungen der Geographischen Gesellschaft zu Hamburg Mitt. Sachs.Thilr. Ver. Erdkd. Mitteilungen des Sachsisch- Thuringischer Verein fur Erdkunde N DB Neue Deutsche Biographie n. s. new series Nach. K. Gesell. Wiss. G'dttingen Nachrichten von der Kongliche Gesellschaft der Gottingen Nauk. Pol. Nauka Polska Neue Z. Syst. Theologie und Religionsphilos. Neue Zeitschrift fur Systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie New Commonw. Q. New Commonwealth Quarterly New Jersey Geol. Surv. New Jersey Geological Survey Petermanns Geogr. Mitt. Petermanns Geographischen Mitteilungen Philos. Nat. Philosophia Naturalis Prace Inst. Geogr. Univ. Jagiellonskiego Prace Instytuta Geograficznego Universytetu Jagiellonskiego Prace Wydz. Prace Wydzia^u Proc. Austr. Acad. Humanities Proceedings of the Australian Academy of Humanities Proc. R. G. S. Australasia (S.A.) Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (South Australia) Przegl. Geogr. Przeglad Geograficzny Przegl. Kartog. Przeglad Kartograficzny R.G.S. Royal Geographical Society R.G.S. Australasia, S.A. Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, South Australia Reg. Cop. Regesta Copemicana Rep. Proc. IGC Report and Proceedings, International Geographical Congress

Rev. Rev. Rev. Rev. Rev. Rocz.

of Abbreviations

xi

Bras. Geogr. Revista Brasileira de Geografia Geogr. Revista Geografica G&ogr. Revue de Geographie G&ol. Geogr. Revue de Geologie et Geographie Roum. G&ogr. Revue Roumaine de Geographie Pol. Tow. Geol. Rocznik Polskiego Towarzystwa Geologicznego Rozpr. Wydz. Mat.-Przyr. Pol. Akad. Umi. Rozprawy Wydziatu Matematyczno-Przyrodniczego Polskiej Akademii Umiejet S.A. Pari. Pap. South Australia Parliamentary Papers Sci. Man. Scientific Monthly Scott. Geogr. Mag. Scottish Geographical Magazine ser., sir. series, serie Soc. Geogr. Paris Societe de Geographie, Paris Sociol. Rev. Sociological Review Stud. Cere. Geogr. Studii §i Cercetari de Geografie Stud. Gen. Studium Generale Stuttgart. Geogr. Stud. Stuttgarter Geographische Studien Sudeta. Z. Voru.Fruhgesch. Sudeta: Zeitschrift fur Voru. -und- Fruhgeschichte Trans. Geol. Comm. Transactions of the Geological Committee Trans. Inst. Br. Geogr. Publ. no. . . . Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Publication no. ... Trav. Inst. Sp&l. Em. Racoviia Travaux de l'Institut Spilogique Em. Racoviia U.S. Geol. Surv. Annu. Rep. United States Geological Survey, Annual Report U.S. Geol. Surv. Prof. Pap. United States Geological Survey, Professional Papers Verh. Dtsch. Gesell. Erdkd. Verhandlung Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Erdkunde Verh. Int. Geographenkongress Verhandlungen ... Internationale Geographenkongress Verh. (Wiss. Abh.) ... Dtsch. Geogr. Verhandlungen (Wissenschaft Abhandlung) ... des Deutschen Geo gr aphent age s Westdtsch. Z. Gesch. Kunst Westdeutsche Zeitschrift fur Geschichte und Kunst Wisconsin Geol. Nat. Hist. Stat. Bull. Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Statistical Bulletin Wisconsin Mag. Hist. Wisconsin Magazine of History Wurtt. Jahrb. Stat. Landkd. Wurttemburgerisches Jahrbuch fur Statistik und Landeskunde Z. Dtsch. Geol. Gesell. Zeitschrift der Deutsche Geologische Gesellschaft Z. Geopolitik Zeitschrift fur Geopolitik Z. Gesell. Erdkd. Berlin Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft fur Erdkunde Berlin Z. Math. Phys. Zeitschrift der Mathematik und Physik Z. Wurtt. Landesgesch. Zeitschrift der Wurttemburger Landesgeschichte

Peter Apianus 1495 or 1501-1552

KARL HOHEISEL Petrus Apianus gained renown equally as an astronomer, mathematician, cartographer and geographer. The Ptolemic view of the universe found in him its last notable representative. He was highly esteemed, especially because of his intricate devices and apparatuses for depicting the mechanics of the heavens, and was eventually raised into the nobility by the Emperor. Beyond this, his surprisingly accurate observations prepared the way for the modern study of comets. In the field of cartography the heart-shaped projection bearing his name remained the method best suited for the cartographic representation of the earth in its entirety, until it was replaced by the Mercator projection. Although his understanding of geography was firmly based in the Ptolemeic tradition, his Cosmographicus liber, mainly because of its great significance for navigation, became the most widely circulated text- and handbook throughout Europe in the sixteenth century.

1. EDUCATION, LIFE AND WORK Petrus Apianus belonged by descent to the old and respected family of Bienewitz (also spelled Bennewitz or Pennewitz). As he began his scholarly career in Leipzig, his name was given the Latin form 'Apianus', which derived, as had his German name as well, from the root meaning 'bee'. Nothing is known about his parents beyond their names: Martin and Gertrud. All that is known about his earliest childhood is that he was born in Leisnig, between Dresden and Leipzig in the

old Duchy of Saxony. Most sources list his year of birth as 1^95, but in the family history the year 1501 is given. Either date is conceivable; the later year, however, may well be a result of the family's desire to give the impression that Peter, later to attain such fame, had begun his university studies at the unusually early age of fifteen. His first schooling was in Rochlitz, near his birthplace, and in 15l6 he entered Leipzig university under the name of 'Petrus Pennewitz of Laysanigk'. At Leipzig, from its foundation in 1^09, the three year course was based on the seven liberal arts. Among Apianus's teachers were Petrus Mosellanus (1^93152U), who lectured in Greek; the theologian Wolfgan Schindler from Elbogen; the medical doctor Heinrich Auerbach; the astronomer Caspar Borner and a mathematician named Kolb of whom nothing is known. There is no clear evidence on the length of stay of Apianus at Leipzig, nor is it known if he took his degree. He left to continue his education in Vienna under Georg Tanstetter (lU8l-1530). Tanstetter, who bore the scholarly name Collimitius, had studied in Ingolstadt before he became personal physician to the Emperors Maximilian I and Ferdinand I. He also became famous as an astronomer and astrologer, and through his studies he acquired competence in cartography with mathematical and physical geography. Apianus stayed with his 'beloved teacher' in Vienna until 1523 and under his inspiration published large works on astronomy, the Isagoge

(Introduction)

in 1522 and the Cosmographicus

liber

2

Petrus

Apianus

in 152U. In the same year he published the Praotica teutsch, which gave prognostications based on astrological calculations. He followed Tanstetter in saying that the Stoffler prediction of a universal deluge on 2k February 152U was irresponsible (Geogr. Biobibl. Stud, vol 5 (1981), 123-8). At this time Apianus was living in Landshut but trying to find support for residence at the university of Ingolstadt. Between the autumn of 152U and the beginning of 1526 he was given three grants by the university to publish his books, amounting in all to little less than the 200 guilders for which he had applied. In 1527» through the support of Johannes Eck, he became an ordinarius for mathematics at Ingolstadt university, taking over the work of Johann Valtmillar (recently disciplined for his 'casual observance of the Catholic faith')» a negligible mathematician who however held a high regard for Apianus. Apianus received a salary of 100 guilders, more than his predecessor. Shortly before going to Ingolstadt he married Katerina Moser, by whom he had nine sons and four daughters, some of whom died in infancy. The second son, born in 1531, became well known as a cartographer and some of the others are known to have been lawyers in Speyer. Soon after his arrival at Ingolstadt, Apianus with his brother Georg established his own printing house, and eventually published h6 works, including 23 of his own and 16 by Johannes Eck. At first it was not markedly remunerative, though later it may have been one source of his increasing wealth. Apianus had the support of Prince Wilhelm IV and of the Emperor Karl V (1519-56), a patron of the arts and sciences with a special interest in mathematics. The Emperor had been greatly impressed by the Cosmographicus liber. Through his literary and publishing activities, with direct royal patronage, Apianus became first the owner of a spacious house in Ingolstadt and eventually a considerable landowner having at least five large estates in the lower Altmuhl valley and on the edge of the Fichtel mountains. On some of the lands he possessed hunting rights and powers of legal jurisdiction. Apianus was well aware of his good fortune and in 15^0 gave a fulsome dedication of his Astronomicum Caesareum to the Emperor and to his brother Ferdinand, who in 1531 had become King of Saxony. The Emperor provided the publication costs of this lavishly produced book, gave him 3,000 guilders (an enormous sum at that time) and appointed him to be imperial court mathematician (Hofmathematicus). Strangely it seems that the Emperor did not meet Apianus until 15^1. Further honours were to follow. On 20 July 15^1 Apianus along with his brothers Nikolaus, Georg and Gregor, all became knights of the hereditary Reichsritterstand. A month later Cardinal Contarini, acting for the Pope, made him Comes et Miles saori

Palatii

et Aulae Lateranensis,

which gave him the

privilege of appointing notaries and registrars, and of legitimizing children born out of wedlock. In a decree of 20th May 1 5 ^ the Emperor made him a count of the Palatine Court, empowered to award two doctorates annually as well as the lower degrees of licenciate and bachelor, with the honouring of poets. To the ruling princes of his native Saxony and his adopted Bavaria Apianus also gave service. Through-

out his life he remained devoted to Wilhelm IV of Bavaria, who had helped him financially in his early years, and there is also evidence that he carried out diplomatic missions for George, ruler of Saxony. Fortunately placed, he refused appointments at universities in Leipzig, where he began, and the even more famed centres of learning at Tubingen, Vienna, Padua and Ferrara. From 15^0 Apianus published nothing except new editions, translations and revisions of Astronomicum Caesareum. He appears to have been in touch with

G.J. Rheticus (Geogr. Biobibl.

Stud.,

vol k (1980),

21-6), whose Narratio prima of 15^0 introduced the concepts of Copernicus. Most of his time was spent at Ingolstadt, except for short visits on official business or to the imperial court, though he made a longer visit, financed by the devoted patron of the arts Raimund von Fugger, to southern Germany to collect Christian ecclesiastical inscriptions. Apparently his printing establishment remained profitable, especially through the publication of maps. Some of his time was given to the education of his sons, who were prepared for the universities or for positions in his own widespread enterprises. Research and teaching were his main tasks, covering mathematical and observational astronomy, cosmography, astrology and—not least— geography and cartography. He used simple devices derived from sheets of paper, circles, angles and strings to give a picture of the heavens, including eclipses or various constellations, and provided simple instruments for astronomical measurements, including an apparatus for determining distances between objects on the earth by using the moon. Of special interest is his calculation of the length of day, measured by his 'sun instrument' mentioned in the Cosmographious liber. This instrument was dedicated to Pastor Landsperger of Landshut, a mathematician, in the conviction that it would 'prove especially useful to those who interpret holy scripture' The times mentioned in the Bible were 'planetary hours' which varied according to the seasons of the year and differed from earth hours which were of constant length. In the Praotica for 1532 he commented that although a comet (he had in mind that of 1531) might indeed occur naturally, some were nevertheless created by God as a special warning, for God was at all times able to override natural law. Apianus remained faithful to Catholicism, though he avoided theological or ideological disputation. To him it was fortunate that Ptolemaic cosmography and geography were regarded as ideologically neutral. He also remained neutral on the work of Copernicus, to whom the Pope had adopted a friendly but cautious attitude in the mid-1530s. Apianus's university was the first to require an oath of allegiance to the papacy: through the long agitation of Eck for religious orthodoxy it had become a papal-clerical stronghold. Apianus was certainly well able to discuss and even contest the Copernician theories but he did not, and his orthodoxy remained certain, even when the Jesuits became influential at the university of Ingolstadt. A master of mathematics, astronomy, geodesy, astrology and geography, he represented both the high peak and the end of an epoch in earth sciences that had lasted for a thousand years. Before his death on 21 July 1552

Petrus Apianus

(presumably at the age of 57) his limitless energy declined rapidly. He was buried in the Franciscan Church at Ingolstadt, having been a professor for twenty five years and a figure of consequence in his time. Van Ortroy's bibliography has ll6 entries and though incomplete is of great value. Excluding numerous translations, new editions and minor revisions of works, over two dozen substantial publications remain. Among these are several popular handbooks, based on earlier published works dating from the thirteenth century, dealing with arithmetic, geometry, cosmography, geography, astrology, optics and mechanics. The only work not concerned with the natural sciences was a collection of inscriptions published in 1535 by Apianus and Bartholomews Amantius, then professor of poetry at Ingolstadt. The two authors enlisted various scholars in this work and made various journeys themselves in search of material: they classified inscriptions by area of origin and their work was regarded as far in advance of others, especially those published in Italy. The publications of Apianus include his Eeohenbuoh, on arithmetic, of 1527, one of the first such works in Germany. His interest in geometry was particularly on the the application of plane trigonometry to astronomical calculations: the works

included Folium populi (1533), Instrumentbuch (1533) and Sinusinstrument (153*0. His Kunstlich Instrument der Sonnen (152U), Quadrans Apiani Astvonomicus (1532),

Torquetum (1532) and Horoscopion Apiani (1533) all dealt with the application of geometry to the measurement of time, the earth and the heavens. On astronomy Apianus published a revised edition of Sacro Bosco's beginner's handbook, Sphaera (1526), G. Puerbach's advanced text Novae Theoricae Platetarwn (1528) and also revised Ibn Aflah's Einleitung [introduction) to astronomy in 1521*. On astrology, Apianus published wall calendars of which two, for the town in Ingolstadt in 1526 and 1538, still survive. He also wrote the so-called Practica, of which editions are known for the years 152U, 1525, 1526, 1532, 1539 and 15Ul. In his prognostications of the future he concentrated mainly on astronomical observations and studies, especially his research on the comet of 1532. His Astronomioum Caesareum of 15^0, in effect a summary of his lifework on astrology and astronomy, was richly designed with over forty illustrations, mostly in colour, and over twenty moveable discs. The book achieved a wider circulation when republished, on a leas lavish scale, in Latin and German editions. Of all his publications, the most widely read was the Cosmographicus liber of 152U, partly because of its significance for navigation. A random check has shown that in the various editions there was little deviation from the original text, though there are supplements in the French editions to the geographical section. The Cosmographiae introductio (1529) may be the work of Apianus but this is uncertain. He is known to have written an introduction to Ptolemy's text, published in 1533 and based on Johannes Werner's version of the 'First book of geography' in 151^» but the introduction deals only with mathematical astronomy. His other

works included the Deolaratio

et usus typi

oosmographioi

3

(1522) and Isagoge (152*0, both of which are explanations of his map of the universe and in 1551 he issed the Elementale cosmographicum, which in fact was written when he was only eighteen years old. Two other works using the terms 'geographia' or 'cosmographia' have disappeared and so too have several other writings. 2. SCIENTIFIC IDEAS AND GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT Apianus embellished his Cosmographicus liber with an insignia depicting a shield with a divided sphere, of which one half was filled with stars and the other with an earthly landscape. This aptly indicated his wish to express himself as an astronomer and a geographer.

a)

Apianus 's cosmography

Increasingly Apianus made astronomy his primary interest, though he used the term 'cosmography' instead of astronomy as a declaration of his faith in the geocentric model of Ptolemy. He followed the traditional Ptolemaic theory of an inhabited world of four quarters correlated with the four triangles recognized in the Zodiac, though he attributed the irregular procession of the equinoxes to the oscillating movement of the sphere of the fixed stars, an idea derived from Arab astronomers. The inhabited earth stands in the middle of the universe and is a mere dot in such vastness. Apianus followed contemporary teaching on the zones, circles of latitudes and climates, and on how to determine latitude and longitude in relation to the pole star, and also on the representation of the earth on a globe. Always faithful to the geocentric Aristotelian-Ptolemaic view of the universe, he makes no mention of Copernicus in his writings. In his Astronomioum Caesareum, an impressive book of selections from all his writings, he explains his wish to demonstrate something that no mathematician had achieved or even conceived. The whole mechanism of the heavens, the course of the planets, the occurrence of constellations, could be reconstructed or predicted by using simple instruments made from sheets of paper, circles and strings, so that complicated astronomical calculations and tables were unnecessary. Probably Regiomontanus had suggested the use of these instruments: Apianus discussed them in his Isagoge of 152U and developed them further so that in his Astronomioum Caesareum of 15^0 there were twenty one supposedly perfect examples. Apianus also improved existing instruments, such as the 'staff of Jacob' for determining distances between points on the earth on the basis of the distance of the moon from the planets and the fixed stars. Other instruments which he improved or in some cases perhaps invented included the •sun-instrument' which measured the length of day and night by the length of shadows, the moon compass, and the 'Quadrans astronomicus' which measured more accurately than before distances between stars, on land, or of altitude. His most famous device was the 'Torquetum' for astronomical observation, based on an Arab instrument. There were several others, used for astronomy and for geodetic measurements, and even for measuring time. Some were designed for astrological purposes, including prediction of the future. Astrology in the time of Apianus was regarded as

4

Petrus

Apianus

a basic natural science, linking the physical and the human aspects of the world. Dramatic phenomena such as comets challenged astrologers and Apianus studied them closely from 1530, describing his findings in the Practica of 1532 and the Astronomioum Caesareum of 1540. With the work of Regiomontanus it was deduced that the comet was a self-igniting vaporous emanation with the tail pointing away from the sun. Though some of Apianus's observations are of interest his theoretical explanations were inadequate.

b)

Apianus's

geography

Geography existed to study the earth in its entirety, with its 'mountains, seas, rivers and other peculiarities ' while chorography or topography had the more limited purpose of dealing with parts of the earth. Convinced that the heavenly bodies influenced the form of the earth, Apianus thought it impossible to provide a regional treatment covering the form of the earth and the influence of the heavenly bodies at one and the same time. Therefore he followed Ptolemy's interpretations of geography as essentially map drawing. This included studies such as the relation of islands, peninsulas, isthmuses and even continents to the water by which they were surrounded. In the Cosmographicus liber he gives a survey of the world beginning in western Europe and then to Asia, Africa and finally America. Rivers, lakes and mountains are mentioned though little is said of the ocean, and in general precedence is given to the listing of kingdoms, countries and provinces with their cities and peoples. Historical or ethnographical details are mentioned only sporadically, even in the case of North America for which fascinating new data was then available. Apianus did not follow Strabo's idea that regions were the arena of human life. Nevertheless his list of 1,417 places in the Cosmographicus liber is of interest, though in his Instrument der Sonne he gives a list of the altitude of the pole star for only 76 locations. The 0 meridian appeared to Apianus to run through the Canary Islands and Lisbon, and to end at 356 on the east coast of America. The latitudes for localities in Germany and central Europe are surprisingly accurate though those for Switzerland deviate by as much as 1 from their true location. Remoter areas are less precisely located, for Apianus had to depend entirely on written information. On longitudes the errors are far greater, even for places such as Paris and Leipzig. Even so, the list of places with latitude and longitude represents the first substantial progress since the work of Ptolemy and this explains the wide circulation of the otherwise conventional Cosmographicus liber.

c)

Apianus 's

cartography

Apianus's map collection in Ingolstadt was apparently well known and the sale of maps was one of his commercial enterprises. In 1520 he published a map of the world, of which the title, Typus orbis universalis

juxta Ptolem&i Cosmographici traditionem et Americi Vespucci aliorumque lustrationes indicated that it

included the new discoveries in the west. It was the first world map to appear after the discovery of America, and indeed to use the world 'America' on a map. The western land masses are shown as divided by

a channel of water. No copies are now known to exist of a 'Mappa Mundi' to which reference is made in the

Deplaratio et usus typi cosmographici (1522), revised and enlarged as Isagoge in typum cosmographicum seu

Mappam Mundi (1524). Several mistakes, especially on America, were removed from the map in Cosmographicus liber though new mistakes were made, especially on the latitude of the continents. The use of the heart-shaped projection continued after the time of Apianus, indeed until the famous network of Mercator acquired continuing fame. Regrettably, Apianus's hope of mapping Saxony came to nothing through political circumstances.

3. INFLUENCE AND SPREAD OF IDEAS Apianus in his own lifetime was regarded as a major exponent of the then conventional view of the universe. The Cosmographicus liber made his name known for a century, especially for the heart-shaped projection and the gazetteer of places with their co-ordinates. It seemed that mathematical geography would be taught to many generations of school pupils but in the Reformation period a broader and more humanistic geography gained strength. The work on astronomy and cosmography was soon outdated by the Copernican revolution, but the measurement of the movement of stars remained respected for several years. In I56O-I Wilhelm IV of Hesse had the paper discs from Apianus's instruments manufactured in copper and attached with a gear mechanism to 'Wilhelm's clock' in Cassel by Eberhard Baldeweis: the clock showed the orbits of the planets on the principles of Ptolemy. Apianus's work on comets attracted attention but in general the critics were waiting to pounce. G.J. Rheticus called the Astronomioum Caesareum 'a game of strings', and in the next generation Johannes Kepler wondered where one could find enough tears to weep in pity for the many engaging but fruitless efforts of Apianus 'to depict, by using spirals, loops, helixes, vortexes and a whole labyrinth of highly intricate convolutions, what was nothing more than an invention of man and in no way a true picture of nature itself. Reverence gave way to condescending smiles and once the publication of Cosmographicus liber ceased Apianus was forgotten until in 1878 his work was rediscovered by Siegmund Gunther.

Petrus

Bibliography and Sources 1. REFERENCES ON PETRUS APIANUS Schoner, Johannes, Luaoulentissima quaedam terrae totius desariptio . . . (General description of the whole earth), Norimbergae (1515), 130p. Opusculum geographioum (Geographical booklet . . . ) , Norimbergae (1553), n.p., 4lp. Varnhagen, Franz Adolf de, Jo. Schoner e P. Apianus (Benewitz): Influcenia de urn e outro e de varios de seus contemporaneos na adopcao do nome America: primeiros globos e primeiros mappas-mundi com este nome: globo de WalzeerrSXller, e plaquette acercado de Schdner (Joh. Schoner and P. Apianus: their and the influence of their contemporinfluence aries on the application of the name America . . . ) , Vienna (1872), 6lp. Prantl, Carl, Geschichte der Ludwig-Maximilians Universitat in Ingolstadt, Landshut, Munchen (A history of the Ludwig Maximilian University in Ingolstadt), vol 1, Miinchen (1872), esp. p.210 Giinther, Siegmund, Johann Werner aus Nurnberg und seine Beziehungen zur mathematischen und physischen Erdkunde (Johann Werner of Ntirriberg and his relationship to mathematical and physical geography), Halle a/S. (1878), (vol 5 of his Studies in the History of Mathematical and Physical Geography (Studien zur Geschichte der mathematischen und physikalischen Geographie)), 277-332 Peter und Philipp Apian, zwei deutsche Mathematiker und Kartographen. Ein Beitrag zur Gelehrtengeschichte des 16. Jahrhunderts (Peter and Philipp Apian: two German mathematicians and cartographers. A contribution to the history of scholarly studies in the 16th century), Prague (1882), 136p. (esp. 1-81 and the bibliography 129-36) Gallois, Lucien, Les Geographes allemands de la renaissance, Paris (1890), 97-101 Wagner, Hermann, 'Die dritte Weltkarte Peter Apians vom Jahre 1530 und die Pseudo-Apianische Weltkarte von 1551' ("Peter Apian*s third world map and the pseudo-Apian world map of 1551*), Nach. K. Gesell. Wiss. Gdttingen (Reports of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Gdttingen) (1882), 541-72 Schaff, Josef, Geschichte der Physik an der Universit'&t Ingolstadt (A history of physics at Ingolstadt University), Ph.D. diss., Erlangen (1912), 234p. Schottenloher, Karl, Die Landshuter Buchdrucker des 16. Jahrhunderts (The book printers of Landshut in the 16th century), Mainz (1930), 59-8U. (Publications of the Gutenberg Society, no. 21) Horn, Carl Egon, 'Petrus Apianus. Ein Lebensbild' ('Petrus Apianus. A Biography'), Astrologie, vol 16 (1935), 288-307, 317-23

Apianus

5

Zinner, Ernst, Geschichte und Bibliographie der astronomischen Literatur in Deutschland zur Zeit der Renaissance (A history and bibliography of German astronomical literature during the Reformation), Leipzig (l94l); see the register on p.420 (see also entry under 'Archival sources') Entstehung und Ausbreitung der Coppemicanischen Lehre (The birth and spread of Copernicus ' ideas), Erlangen (19^3), 86-534 pass. Hartner, Willy, 'Apian', NDB, vol 1, Berlin (1953), 325f Zinner, Ernst, Astronomische Instruments des 11-18. Jahrhunderts (Astronomical instruments from the 11th to the 18th centuries), Miinchen (1956), 35-625 pass. Wattehberg, Diederich, Peter Apianus and, his Astronomicum Caesareum, Leipzig (1967), two parts 'Apianus ... von und zu Ittlhofen' ('Apianus ... of and in Ittlhofen'), in J.C. Poggendorff, Biographisch-literarisches Handw'drterbuch der exakten Naturwissenschaften (A biographicalliterary dictionary of the exact sciences), vol Vila (Supplement), Berlin (1969), 32-5 2.

SELECTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS BY PETRUS APIANUS

Ortroy, Fernand van, 'Bibliographie de l'oeuvre de Pierre Apian', Le Bibliographie moderne, 5 (1901), 89-156, 284-333. Reprint Amsterdam 1936, 120p. 1522 152U

1526

1529

1531 1533

1540

Declaratio et usus typi cosmographici (Explanation and use of the world map), Ratisponae, l6p. Isagoge in Typum Cosmographicum seu Mappam Mundi (ut Vocant) . . . (Introduction to the so-called world map ...) , Landshut, 8p. Cosmographicus Liber Petri Apiani Mathematici studiose collectur (Cosmography textbook, carefully compiled by Peter Apianus), Landshut, lOUp. Sphaera Iani de Sacrobusto astronomiae et cosmographiae candidatis scitu apprime necessaria per P. Apianum accuratissimo diligenter denuo recognita ac emendata (The Sphaera of Johann de Sacrobusto), Ingolstadt, 56p. Cosmographiae introductio: cum quibusdam Geometriae ac Astronomiae principiis ad earn rem necessariis (Introduction to cosmography ...) Landshut, 64p. Practica for the year 1532, Landshut, 76p. Introductio geographica Petri Apiani in doctissimas Verneri Annotationes ... (Peter Apian's geographical introduction to Werner's scholarly comments (on PtolemSus) ...), Ingolstadt, 176p. Astronomicum Caesareum, Ingolstadt, 120p. (Facsimilie in Diederich Wattenberg, Peter Apianus and his Astronomicum Caesareum, Leipzig, 1967)

6

3.

Petrus

Apianus

ARCHIVAL SOURCES

Two handwritten manuscripts, of which Apianus is without question the author, are located in the National Library of Paris. These relate, respectively, to a 'Device for determining the planetary positions', and to a columnar clock. (Zinner, E., op.oit. , 19^1» 1337 and 133Tb) Lie. theol., Dr. phil. Karl Hoheisel is professor of comparative religion at the Universitat Bonn. The translation is by Mark Bassin, Department of Geography, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720

Chronology lU95

(Probably, but the year 1501 is also given) born in Leisnig on April 21

15l6

Entered University of Leipzig, and later went to Vienna

1523

Left Vienna to reside at Ingoldstadt

152U

Published his Cosmographicus Praotioa teutsoh

1527

Became an ordinarius for mathematics at Ingoldstadt University and opened his printing house

15U0

Dedicated his Astronomioum Caesareum to the Emperor Karl and his brother King Ferdinand of Saxony

151+1

Met the Emperor Karl who made him an Imperial Knight: also honoured in this year by the Pope

15UU

The Emperor made him a Count of the Palatine Court

1552

Died on July 21 and buried in the Franciscan Church at Ingoldstadt

liber

and

Anton Friedrich Busching 1724-1793

MANFRED BUTTNER AND REINHARD jAKEL By kind permission of the Niedersachsische Stoats- und Universitatsbibliothek, Gottingen. 1. EDUCATION, LIFE AND WORK Anton Friedrich Busching belonged to an established Westphalian family from the former Principality of Minden, which had risen around 1600 from peasant status to the middle class. It is believed that he was born on 27 September 172U in Stadhagen. The only survivor of nine children, he attended the municipal school from the age of six. He was primarily a selftaught man and accumulated a good knowledge of law by assisting his father in his practice. At the age of sixteen or seventeen, Busching left the basic Latin school. At that time, Eberhard David Hauber (1695-1765) was privately tutoring talented children free of charge including Busching, who felt this opportunity to be a sign of God's providence. Beside Greek, Chaldaean, Syrian and other languages, Hauber taught natural science, and public finance and administration: he showed his students the interrelationship between sciences, especially in geography. Busching, in his Eigene Lebensgeschiahte (Autobiography) of 1789» says that Hauber, ' ... when lecturing on history familiarized us with geography, and with history when lecturing on geography1 (p. 1*1). Those lectures were based on geographical works and genealogical tables by Johannes Hubner (1668-1731)

and Geschichte alter Zeiten un Vdlker (History of ancient times and peoples) by C. Rollins (l66l-17^l).

In addition Busching was tutored by Anton Ludwig Edler and A. J. Zell, both preachers. Of Zell, Busching says in his Autobiography that: ' ... the greatest advantage I gained was from his lecture he gave me on (Christian) Wolff's logic ... ' (p. hf).

Busching, together with his friend Leopold Friedrich August Dilthey, experienced something like a religious conversion (17^1) in the course of which he called himself a pietist. In 17^3 he broke with his father, left Stadhagen and went to Halle. There he attended the Latin school, founded by August Hermann Francke (1663-1727), for the period of one year in order to prepare for the university. He enrolled on 7 April Yjhh as a theology student at the University of Halle. Of the theology professors, he preferred Siegmund Jakob Baumgarten (1706-1757), who supported Wolff's theological theories. At the same time he attended lectures on logic and metaphysics given by Georg Friedrich Meier (1718-1777), and courses on mathematics and physics as taught by Johann Gottlob Kriiger. One of Busching's acquaintances was Johann Salomo Semler (1725-1791)» who was also one of Baumgarten's students, and who made himself a name by extending the exegesis through historical interpretation. Busching started early to make a living, mainly by doing translations and correcting his professors' works, by teaching at the grammar school of the local orphanage, and also by compiling bibliographies. One year after Busching acquired the Master's degree (27 September I7U7), Friederich Rochus, Count of Lynar, engaged him as his son's private tutor at Kostritz. When the Count, a Danish ambassador, was transferred to St. Petersburg, his son and Busching moved with him. On 1 December 17^9 they set forth, passing through Berlin, Stolp, Danzig, Konigsberg, the Kurisohe Nehrung, Tilsit, Riga, Dorpat and Narva, with Busching using the

8

Anton Friedrich

Bu'iahing

opportunity to call on some prominent scientists on the way. Finally, on 7 February 1750, they arrived in St. Petersburg but they returned in August of the same year by way of the Baltic Sea to reach Itzehoe in Holstein, later the official residence of the Count. This first journey to St. Petersburg had some influence on Biisching's later work, for he was stimulated to work out decisively his description of the earth and to begin the collection of geographical data. In his Autobiography he explained that through this experience he became aware of the inadequacy of Hiibner's and Hager's books (p. 173). From that time on geographical labours claimed more and more of Biisching's time; for a 'Trial', he published in 1752

the Kurzgefasste Staats-Besohreibung der Herzogthumer Holstein und Schleswig (Brief political description of the duchies of Holstein and Schleswig) on which his

more elaborate main work was to be based. At that time Hauber, who was then working in Copenhagen, offered Biisching the use of his library for research and writing. Biisching accepted Hauber's offer and arrived in Copenhagen on h October 1752. In Hauber's home, Biisching completed the first two volumes dealing with the Nordic lands, and also with Southern and Western Europe. Since the description of Germany was to follow, he chose to return to his homeland. On 20 April 175^ he travelled to Halle, where he announced a university lecture on the 'Constitution of the most Prominent States of Europe'. Meanwhile he received a call from the University of Gottingen to accept the position as a Professor

philosophiae

extraordinarius

(a reader's position in

the philosophical faculty) with the assurance that he could continue his work of the description of the earth, with the full support of the minister of Munchausen. Biisching accepted the appointment and remained in Gottingen from I75U to 176l. There he married Polxene Christiane Auguste, the sister of his friend Dilthey, on 21 March 1755. Biisching maintained good and even friendly relations with his colleagues in Gottingen including such men as Tobias Mayer (1723-1762), Johann Michael Franz (l700-176l), Johann Christoph Gatterer (17271799) and Gottfried Achenwall (1719-1772), the wellknown statistician. Eventually, there arose a dispute on account of his theology which 'drove him out' of Gottingen. Especially painful for Biisching in this disputation was the fact that Baumgarten, his mentor from Halle, was among his adversaries. Even though he received his doctorate of theology in 1757, Biisching hardly concerned himself with theological science in the course of his later studies. Besides publishing additional parts of the

Erdbeschreibung (Earth description) his work entitled Vorbereitung zur grVtndlichen und niitzlichen Kenntnis der geographischen Beschaffenheit und Staatsverfassung der europ'dischen Reiche und Republiken (Preparation for the thorough and useful understanding of the geographical realities and constitutions of the European empires and republics) appeared in 1758. The latter work originated from his lectures in Halle and became standard not only for geographers but also

for those engaged in Verbal-Statistik

(statistics)

which then connoted a coherent description on a statistical basis, without a great many tables.

,

After he had declined several honourable appointments he became, in 176l, the pastor of the influential Lutheran congregation of St. Peter's in St. Petersburg. There he suggested to the Empress, Catherine II, the establishment of a network of elementary schools throughout the Russian empire. The Empress even offered him membership of the prestigious Academy of Sciences and wanted to grant him unlimited postal privileges for his geographical and political correspondence throughout Europe. This offer Biisching declined, pointing to the burden of work for his congregation. But there were members in the congregation who begrudged his success and tried to obstruct his work to such an extent that he abruptly decided to leave St. Petersburg in the summer of 1765. Regardless of another generous offer to return to Gottingen, he transferred to Berlin (after a one year stay in Altona as a private tutor) in October 1766 and became senior consistorial counsel and director of the two senior high schools in Berlin, the 'Collnisches' and the 'Gray Monastery', which were united. He worked there with the greatest devotion to his office until he died on 28 May 1793Biisching, therefore, was in the course of his life a theologian, geographer and pedagogue. In more than 100 publications he covered a wide range of contemporary scientific knowledge, though he was known mainly as a geographer: in fact, he considered himself personally more attached to geography than anything else. He approached the Emperor Joseph II, in 1771, with the suggestion to appoint him as an 'Imperial Geographer': for such a position Biisching would have readily given up his office as a school teacher, but the intricate political and legal relations prevailing in the moribund 'Holy Roman Empire of German Nationality' made such a post inconceivable. The only outcome was a gold medal from the Emperor as a token of his favour. Management of the school did not leave time for continuous geographical work so Biisching had to confine his efforts to less time-consuming problems, including the revision and printing of his Erdbeschreibunq (Earth description), kept up to date throughout his lifetime. He was unable to deal with areas beyond the whole of Europe and a part of Asia (Asia Minor, Palestine and Arabia), but after his death the work was completed (Asia, by Sprengel and Wahl, 1802-1807; Africa, by Hartmann, 1799; America, by Ebeling, 1800-1803). Biisching's other geographical work was the publication of two journals. The Wdchentliche Nachrichten

von neuen Landcharten, geographischen3 statistischen und historischen Bilchem und Sachen (Weekly information on new maps and geographical statistical and historical

books and data) was published for fifteen years from 1773 to 1787. The journal contained brief and introductory essays on events that Biisching judged to be of interest and also a bibliography of geographical literature, especially new material. For this journal Biisching wrote most of the contributions himself. He also published another, larger journal by the name of

Magazin fttr die neue Historie und Geographie (Magazine of the New History and Geography), devoted mainly to voluminous scientific publications by his fellow scientists of previously unknown information. This journal was published for 22 years (1767-88).

Anton Friedrich

In addition, Busching published a series of occasional geographical works, such as the

BiXsohing

9

under the title of Besohreibung seiner Heise von Berlin uber Potsdam naoh Rekahn unweit Brandenburg (Description of a journey from Berlin through Potsdam to Rekahn in the Brandenburg hinterland) and Besohreibung seiner Reise von Berlin naoh Kyritz in der Prignitz (Description of a journey from Berlin to Kyritz in the Prignitz region ^northern part of Brandenburg Province^).

1755) had been making suggestions on geography to similar effect, there had been little response to the new ideas. Busching was now qualified, by the scientific standards gained from his study of theological problems, not only to appreciate the value of the suggestions of Hauber, Franz and others but also to put them to practical use in geography. Therefore he collected his data, evaluating them with the utmost critical accuracy by contacting scientists of the various regions of Europe (or at least local experts). He sent questionnaires, especially to German authorities, asking for information on size, position, natural characteristics and other matters, which resulted in a tremendously large correspondence.

Surprisingly, historians of geographical thought have up to now neglected Busching's geographical writings of the years spent in teaching. He wrote textbooks for the classes taught at the senior high

2. SCIENTIFIC IDEAS AND GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT Busching's main geographical work is the

Vollstandige Topographie der Mark Brandenburg (Complete topography of the Province of Brandenburg)

in 1775. He also wrote reports on minor trips in the vicinity of Berlin, which were later published

school level.

His Unterricht

in der

Naturgeschichte

(Teaching natural science) is hardly known, though it went through five editions between 1775 and 1787. It is concerned with physiography, physico-theologically oriented, and showed Busching's leanings toward Christian Wolff on this subject. Busching was greatly influenced by his sojourn as a pupil with Hauber whose Niltzlicher Discours von

dem gegenwdrtigen Zustand der Geographie besonders in Teutschland (Useful discourse on the present state of geography with special reference to Germany), published

in Ulm in 1727, is considered to be the. major work on geography in the first third of the eighteenth century. Hauber based his geographical lectures on the works of Johann and Johannes Hubner (father and son) but constantly urged, in accordance with his Discourse, independent empirical research and critical evaluation of the sources of information. Busching met the same approach in his theological studies at Halle. Indeed it was seen in the preaching of Zell at Stadhagen and in the theology of Baumgarten, who was attempting to demonstrate the 'provableness' and reasonability of the Protestant didactic by the rationalism of Wolff (the demonstrational method). All this was in accord with the teaching of Hauber, who urged his students to search for the origin and the reasons before accepting the doctrine or creed {Autobiography, p. 103), and to discern and consider every available source of information in this process. This was a time of general mental training with theological implications and Busching's geographical awakening came only during his travel to St. Petersburg, when he realised the inadequacy of the textbooks studied during his youth. The manuals written by Hubner and Johann Georg Hager (1709-1777) seemed to lack a firm basis of fact, however great their geographical insight, and therefore Busching wished to give geography a new and methodological foundation to raise its image as a science and to give it a practical purpose: his

Erdbeschreibung

(Earth description)

was intended to be

true and correct, empirically provable and really practicable during travels for accurate determination of the location of historical events or for economicpolitical decisions. Though Busching's teacher Hauber (but also the Horaann map shop in Niirnberg, especially under the directorship of Johann Michael Franz between 1730 and

Neue Erdbeschreibung

(New earth description),

of which

individual parts went through eight editions in Germany alone. The description of countries is preceded by a chapter in which Busching presents his main geographical conceptions. He displayed his religiously determined self-image also as a geographer under the heading 'Von dem Nutzen der Erdbeschreibung' ('On the usefulness of the earth description') and also discussed in his 'Introduction' to the Erdbeschreibung the essential problems of the 'mathematical' and the 'natural' or 'physical' description of the earth. In harmony with the physico-theologians (Wolff and others), Busching states that one of the most important tasks (among others) of geography was to open a way to God. The order of sequence applied in the following treatise on countries and states might be partially connected with Busching's travels. In the preface to

the Kurzgefassten Staats-Beschreibung ... (Brief political description ...) he stated that the reason

why he began with the countries surrounding Central Europe in the north, the east, and the southeast was that 'those countries had been almost disregarded by the geographers heretofore'. For example, he does not begin with Portugal proceeding toward the east, which had been the procedure since Ptolemy. The first part, which appeared in 175^, contains the description of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Prussian, Russia, Poland, Hungary, and the European part of Turkey. In the same year, the second part was published, treating Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, and Great Britain with Ireland. The third part, published in 1757, treats the regions of the German Empire after the reformation of the empire carried out by the Emperor Maximilian I between 1500 and 1512; the fourth part (1761) describes the United Netherlands, Switzerland, Silesia, and the The first part of the fifth section town of Glatz. (1768) includes the beginning of the description of Asia Minor, Palestine and Arabia. Here the strength of Busching's work is shown by quotations from one edition published in 2h volumes (from 1785 to 1787) in Troppau under the title of A. F. BUschings grosse

Erdbeschreibung

(A. F. BVlsching's comprehensive

earth

description). In general Busching saw the mission of geography (.apart from its theological purpose) as 'to give a complete account of the nature and political state of the known territory of the earth'.

10

Anton Friedrich

BiXsching

The known territory of the earth must be studied with regard to its physical and also its political shape. Its physical shape includes mathematical studies on its characteristics as a celestial body, comparing its appearance, volume, and position with relation to other celestial bodies, and related studies; on the other hand, it includes the knowledge of everything that is above and below the surface of the earth, be it mobile or immobile; these studies then can be called the real physical description of the earth. When looking at the political division of the earth, one notes numerous and various states; it will not be sufficient merely to contemplate their condition to gain an impression of their size, power, infra-structure, government, and inhabitants; it will be necessary to deal with their specific constitutions and their religions, their cities, fortifications, castles, settlements and noteworthy towns, and institutions (vol. I, 1785, 19-21). Reaching out far beyond Hauber, who dealt with natural phenomena under his 'historical' geographical conception, Busching distinguished the three main subjects of general geography; these are the mathematical, the physical, and the human (or cultural), as shown below

Hauber:

Busching:

Useful discourse

...,

1727

Earth U5h

description^

mathematical

mathematical geography

(Geographia

natural description of the earth

generalis)

physical

geography Ccosmography1

historical or 4 universal geography

geography Ccosmography1

->

civil description of the earth

However, the third aspect (human or cultural) is treated only in conjunction with the 'general' geography (the 'Introduction' to the Earth description) as a certain physiological anthropogeography; otherwise it is understood under the concept of 'political configuration', which is the special geography of the regional main part, for which again the terms 'mathematical' and 'physical' in particular are supposed to provide a preliminary conception. The physical geography is assigned a special auxiliary function. Whereas Hager's 'general introduction' merely furnished explanations of terms and definitions of concepts, Biisching's introduction shows a conception of purpose. The 'knowledge of countries' shows — indeed illuminates — the individual political states; this introduction, on the other hand, puts emphasis on understanding the physical (natural) shape of the entire structure of the earth surface by an overall classification covering general concepts that apply everywhere. Otherwise, the 'knowledge of countries' when defined as 'political configuration', is limited to certain characteristics only. Its subject is not the individuality (in the modern sense) of each regional area, which may be given by a descriptive and explanatory analysis of all the components and their synthesis as well (since, say, the physical conditions are gathered 'piecemeal') but more — man's cultural diversities . The order of presentation of data should not be predetermined but in accordance with the 'condition of the countries, the position (configuration) of their individual parts and settlements, in order to help the reader to understand such countries', meaning that this order should be chosen as required by the specific situation of each country or in accordance with their individuality. The determining factor for this perspective is the general and specific political condition and constitution. To reveal essentials is the object of geographical description. The length and scope of the information furnished will depend on the particular intention of the author and 'worthless details', including any kind of non-scientific opinionated statements, should not be included. To guarantee optimum reliability (the only means of grasping the real essence of a particular region) it was necessary to discontinue the known procedure of enumerating miscellaneous data (regardless of their informational value for a given specific geographical problem) and of using without critical evaluation informational sources of extremely divergent qualities. In close connection with the previously mentioned ideas, Busching recognizes the problem of the way of presentation. In accordance with the objective of geography to 'give an accurate and complete account of all things to point out the essentials, geography must be more than cartography and therefore must be more than merely a list of objects ...'. Hubner's geographical works in many ways gave only a narrative map, but criticism of Hubner had to be followed by consideration of the meaning and effectiveness of cartographical work. For Busching, maps were an important and indispensable means of portraying the earth, being the 'plan view' of a terrain. Where Hauber had shown an indifferent (or at least vague) attitude Busching, by understanding the map as an implement, paved the way for a deeper and systematic-

Anton Friedrich

methodical conception, which eventually could lead tovard a qualitative reorientation. Cartography derives its mathematical foundation from mathematical/ astronomical observations. The content of maps is derived from painstaking geographical research on regions. But the map shows the shape and essence of geographical data only as objects to he treated in a narrative, with maps as a crucial aid, especially in teaching. Study of methods of learning was favoured in Halle around 1700. Busching had received an early training in pedagogy and recommended that the political configuration and connections of individual countries or states and groups of states could he indentified through the use of different colours. In this he followed Hubner, Hauber, and Johann Jakob Schatz (1691-1760), and not least Johann Michael Franz. In work on physical geography, Busching does not isolate geographical facts and elements but rather deals with their functional interconnections and the resultant phenomena. For example, he not only derives the climatic conditions of a place from its geographical latitude but also explains the actually prevailing climate from the existing physical shape of the terrain, where the incoming winds, modified by topography and conditions (including mountain ranges, forests, cities, etc.) in conjunction with the type of landscape may give two different places on the same latitude quite contrary climates. Even though not employing these terms, he nevertheless differentiates quite clearly between the moderate oceanic and the more extreme continental climate, and draws on his general knowledge of climatic conditions on the earth to explain specific climatic conditions in particular areas, as in his •introduction' to the description of Asia: The reason for the extreme cold prevailing on the northern half of this continent during the winter is not only a result of its location in the northerly latitudes but must also be attributed to the uninterrupted continuity of the land masses, which are nowhere broken up by oceans and in their central areas are far from the sea. (vol 23 (1787), 12). Continuing, Busching divides the atmosphere into three regions of different properties and individual phenomena; he draws attention to the importance of altimetry by means of the mercury barometer. He separates low mountain ranges from high mountain ranges and discovers traces of a system in the seemingly orderless arrangement of the mountains on the earth's surface, since in Asia and Africa the main direction of mountain ranges is from east to west, whereas in America the mountain ranges run in a northsouth direction. He also discerns a natural law in the phenomenon that volcanic activity is confined to coastal areas and islands. His comparison of various types of deserts on the earth is noteworthy. Regions called 'desert' in Africa, are represented in the northern part of Asia mostly by the steppe, which again bears a certain resemblance to the so-called 'heath' found in some European countries.

BUsching

11

His discovery of such physiognomic similarities originated from personal observations made on his first travel to St. Petersburg, where he had compared the kurische Nehrung east of Danzig with the sandy deserts of Africa. In the chapter on water, Busching describes the cycle between evaporation and condensation, periodical and sporadic flow of springs and rivers; he explains the rate of flow as dependent on the slope of the terrain and type and condition of the riverbed; finally he offers the outlines of oceanography. He also had the view that a wave had its own movement above and below itself as an entity, so that a single wave remains in existence. Special geography is treated by Busching in accordance with a uniform scheme. All individual descriptions of states are preceded by introductions of varying length giving essential criteria needed for the ensuing description of the respective country, under the aspects of understanding the contents and structure of a state as an entity of historical growth and of present function (especially with regard to administration and economy). In particular, all introductions contain a critical review of the maps, comments on the origin of names, geographical location and boundaries, natural conditions (those are mostly reviewed under economic aspects); also the settlement processes and the resulting population density; they also contain information about language, religious and intellectual life, handicraft, industrial development and commercial connections, a brief history, mostly with regard to the ever-changing territorial configuration; the political state and the administrational jurisdiction, the state's budgets and also information concerning army forces and the navy, when applicable. In essence Busching does not regard a state as an abstraction but deals with its geographical characteristics. Naturally the treatment by countries worked best in Europe: for Asia Busching deals with classical and modern descriptions and then with phenomena of natural topography. This method, for areas on which political and historical data were lacking (such as Arabia), was alone possible and did not indicate any deviation from his general methodological aspirations. In all his work Busching was conscious of the relation of man and nature, though he never mentions this point specifically. On general geography this led to the (inherent) differentiation of geography (of human geography in particular) into a physical and cultural part; in regional geography it raised the question as to how man has established and accommodated himself in his environment (or, to use Busching's words his 'status' on the earth). On the basis of work of Johann Peter Sussmilch (1707-1767), ideas are developed in the physio-geographical part (of demographic-geographical nature) for the correlation of birth and death statistics with their dependence on essentially environmentally-determined factors, such as diseases, crop failure, or also with the factors of human relationship (war, celibacy, migration between rural areas and cities). An estimate on the carrying capacity of the earth (put at three billion people) is followed by ideas on racial differences — which Busching attributes to the differing

12

Anton Friedrioh

Busching

properties and furnishings of the Hinmelsstriohe (latitudinal zones). To this point, man is portrayed mainly according to his status as a natural being, i.e., as an entity that belongs, on account of his biological-physical state, to the natural furnishings of firrna terra. The dependence of his existence on the condition of the environment points to the premise of environmental determinism raised by Busching. But (as Busching sees it) 'man's dependence on nature does not rigidly control him but leaves him nevertheless greater or lesser opportunities for training and improvement of his spiritual forces ...' (vol I, 103). The Himmelsstrioh (in the sense of a natural potential) is given its real importance by the cultural level only, which however must orientate itself to the physical conditions, if it is to develop. In the work on regional geography, the human aspect is central. In the conflict between natural preconditioning and human actions, man's freedom of decision becomes predominant; this is, however, a freedom based on specifically religious-theological characteristics. For Busching, Europe is the most important continent by its exemplary utilization of natural conditions: 'there is no continent with a better infra-structure. The Europeans, by means of sea travels, journeys and commerce have made connections with other continents, thus compensating for their own shortages with the abundance of other continents, and vice-versa' (vol I, 1 5 M • Therefore, Europe's superiority is primarily founded on cultural achievements and economic developments. Thus it is not only interesting to know about natural conditions, but even more interesting to learn what mankind has made of those conditions everywhere on the earth; how he has established and accommodated himself. Quite clearly the state, as a spatial institution or organization, is within the focus of geography. In the state (as a political organization) one can determine (by the standards of Europe), not only the most advanced level of cultural development but also the most clear and easily representable criteria of order of the earth's surface, theoretically based on the scientific thought of the l8th century. Busching indirectly conceded the possibility that this perspective might become gradually incorrect and would need revision when other continents with other standards and different categories came into focus (see his treatise on Asia). Although Busching superseded Hiibner and Hager, neither theoretically nor practically did he say that a mainly new treatment of countries would be the consequence of scientific progress. Busching discussed the scientific-theoretical and ideological principles of his geographical work in his preface on the 'Usefulness of the earth description'. The most important features are as follows: ... that, by geography, the essence of God the Maker and Great Keeper of all things is greatly clarified ... for ... as all the universe gives testimony that there is a God, so our earth of all things gives the most certain proof (vol I, 7 ) .

Although Busching in this preface says that proving God's existence should be the objective of his geography, the main body of his work rests on the firm ground of empiricism, apart from a few theological digressions. Where Wolff had believed it was possible as an initial approach to God to recognize the Creator's presence and activity from the order of natural phenomena, Busching in practice remains nearer to a position such as that of Johann Albert Fabricius (1668-1736) (Geogr. Biobibl. Stud, vol 5 (1981), 35-9). It is known from the Bible that 'God created earth and everything in it* (vol I, 9). This stipulated beforehand, contemplation of the earth can only fortify this belief, by demonstrating how this God-made world (or earth) looks and how it functions; a real proof of God's existence is not given. Even though Busching, by this reasoning on the relations between geography and theology, appears to be at the turning point toward theological neutrality, the theological premise in the methodical aspect still controlled his geographical thinking. Having divided the multitude of phenomena into works of nature and works of art (or works of both), he defines and identifies those elements and factors through whose interrelations geographical development occurs. Nature, though basically static, praises God's 'creative and sustaining power', seen partly in the existence of natural laws. These natural laws provide a foundation for creative human art, giving to man the joy of cultural accomplishment through his recognition of the dynamic relation between nature and art. Through his power of using nature man can develop his natural creative gifts, and a main purpose of education is to stimulate such human activity. Busching held a view, similar to that of Christian Wolff, that man was the telo8 of the natural order: 'All these things exist for the sake of man' (vol 1, 9 ) . Nature is basic but the activity of man is dominant and human freedom of decision is God-given and divinely guaranteed. This means that a determinist and materialist approach is unacceptable, for God's purpose is expressed by man's transformation of nature through his culture and art. This also means that a human emphasis is fruitful, for such an approach reveals the existence of God, currently manifest in the world. To Busching as a Lutheran this revelation was of particular significance. Geography therefore is much more than an intrinsically useful science. In addition, it has a 'spiritual benefit', which in turn elevates geography to a science with educational merits in its own right. 3. INFLUENCE AND SPREAD OF IDEAS In the second half of the eighteenth century, Busching was regarded as the 'Strabo' of contemporary geography. Until well into the nineteenth century, most geographical publications were based, to some degree, on Busching's writings, sometimes even taking whole passages, as often as not referring to Busching by name. For instance, Erich Adickes revealed in 1911 that Kant's lectures on geography contained such passages of Busching's almost verbatim. There had not been a geographical work of such calibre since Munster (1^88-1552), throughout the European region (Geogr. Biobibl. Stud., vol 3 Cl979)> 99-106). It is proved by the numerous reprints, new

Anton Friedrich

editions, and the many translations into English, French, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Swedish and Spanish. It superseded both Hiibner's and Hager's voluminous and treasured works on geography for its finer quality, its precise definition of the specific mission of geography, its systematic arrangement of subjects, its critical evaluation and application of sources, all of which gave a scientifically-founded geography. Of this there was a promise in the work of Hauber and Franz but the achievement came with the work of Busching. Nor was that all, for Busching's work suggested further progress on numerous problems; for example, in his treatise of Asia, in his determination of the relations between general (or physical) and regional geography, with some consideration of detailed problems of the relationship between man and nature. In this consideration of man and nature there is a striking similarity between the work of Busching and of Carl Ritter (1779-1859) {Geog. Biobibl.Stud., vol 5 (1981), 99-108). Busching's works were the f basis of the young Ritter s geographical education; from 1796 onwards Ritter attended lectures by Sprengel (17^6-1803) who completed the remaining parts of Busching's geography of Asia (1802). Ritter's two volumes on Europa (180U-O7) are closely connected with Busching's Staatsgeographie, although on a first reading Ritter's main work does not seem to have much in common with that of Busching. But Ritter, when he began his work on Die Erdkunde im Verhaltnis zur Natur und zur Gesohiohte des Mensahen (The science of the earth in relation to nature and the history of mankind), in effect referred back to an idea contained in Busching's work. Certainly, in his Earth description Busching concentrated on the human influence on nature rather than on an ecological approach. Ritter, like Busching, deals with nature as the 'sum total of all things created' and also with 'art and human activity' which lead to the emergence of new products (Europa, part 1, Frankfurt 180U, p. VII; and Allgemeine Erdkunde lectures published by Daniel, Berlin 1862, pi.) Contrary to Busching, Ritter held that nature is itself only of significance in any full sense in relation to man (Einleitung, Berlin 1852, p 62), so that man has the opportunity, indeed the duty, of using natural resources, in a world richly endowed as the 'dwelling place', even the 'education institute' for mankind. Ritter praised Busching's Europa as a 'masterpiece of its era' and welcomed the historical material as it was not 'confined into the deforming corselet of the geographical compendiums' (Allgemeine Erdkunde lectures, p 29). In general Ritter condemned works that were merely factual, with no philosophical considerations and it was often assumed that Busching's work was of that type. Attention was given mainly to the pragmatic character of his writing, with its vast range of data, though praise was accorded to some of the new methods he introduced, such as the use of statistical methods, the study of census data, the exact delimitation of areas with the use of precise scales. Oscar Peschel said that it was 'Busching's greatest achievement to have understood ... that the study of population density should be one of the tasks of geography ...' as no geographer had done before

Btt.ach.ing

13

(Geschichte der Erdkunde, 1878/1961, p xvi). The recent studies of Busching have shown that in addition to his massive presentation of data he raised philosophical questions — perhaps to a greater degree than Ritter — that are still of interest and relevance in geographical thought.

Bibliography and Sources 1. REFERENCES ON ANTON FRIEDRICH BUSCHING Putter, Johann Stephan, Versuch einer academischen Gelehrten-Geschichte von der Georg-AugustusUniversit'dt zu Gdttingen (A tentative academic history of academic science at the Georg Augustus University of Gottingen) , part I, Gottingen, 1765, 8, 103-06; part II, Gottingen, 1788, 80-U, 302, 396 Busching, D. Anton Friedrich, Eigene Lebensgeschichte (Autobiography), Halle, 1789, 6l7p. Meusel, Johann Georg, 'A. F. Busching,' in Lexikon der vom Jahr 1750 bis 1800 verstorbenen Teutschen Schriftsteller (Encyclopedia of German writers from 1750 to 1800), vol. I, Leipzig 1802; reprinted Hildesheim, 1967, 700-12 Lowenberg. J. 'A. F. Busching,' in Allg. Dtsch. Biogr., vol. 3, Leipzig (1876), 6 M - 5 Peschel, Oscar, Geschichte der Erdkunde (History of geography), 2 ed. , Sophus Ruge (ed.), Dresden, 1878; reprinted, Amsterdam 196l, XVI, I+65, 791*, 803-05 John, Vinzenz, Geschichte der Statistik (History of Statistics), part I, Stuttgart (188U), 91-5 Plewe, Ernst, Untersuchungen iXber den Begriff der 'vergleichenden ' Erdkunde und seine Anwendung in der neueren Geographie (Studies of the term 'comparative' geography and its application in modern geography), Ph.D. diss., Greisfswald (1931); Berlin (1932), 92p. (passim) Selle, Gotz von, Die Georg-August-Universitat zu Gdttingen3 1737-1937 (The Georg August University at Gottingen, 1737-1937), Gottingen, (1937), 82-8, 98-9, 125, 350-1 Kuhn, Arthur, Die Neugestaltung der deutschen Geographie im 18, Jahrhundert (The new direction of German geography during the 18th century), Leipzig (1939), lU9p. (passim) Michel, Wilhelm, 'A. F. Busching,' in NDB, vol 3, Berlin (1957), 3-h Plewe, Ernst, 'D.. Anton Friedrich Busching. Das Leben eines deutschen Geographen in der zweiten Halfte des 18. Jahrhunderts' ('D. Anton Friedrich Busching. The life of a German geographer during the second half of the l8th century'), Stuttgart. Geogr. Stud. , vol 69 (Lautensach Festschrift) (1957), 107-20 'Studien tiber D. Anton Friedrich Busching' ('Studies of D. Anton Friedrich Busching'), in H. Paschinger (ed.), Geographische Forschungen (Geographic investigations), Festschrift H. Kinzl, Innsbruck (1958), 203-23

14

Anton Friedrich

Busching

Buttner, Manfred, 'Theologie und KLimatologie'

1770-8; Italian, Florence, 1773-80; English, London, 1762; Dutch, Amsterdam, 176l; Swedish, Stockholm, 1780; Spanish, Madrid, 1785. Numerous reprints, including the 2k volumes published in Troppau and Brunn, 1785-7, additionally a Hauptregister (Master index), was published in k vols, Brunn and Vienna, 1789/90 (each volume contains from 500 to 600 pages)

('Theology and Climatology'), Neue Z. Syst. Theologie und Religionshpilos^ vol. 6 (196U),

15fc-91

Schmithiisen, Josef, Geschiohte der geographisohen Wissenschaft (History of the science of geography) Mannheim (1970), 129, 1U5-9

Beck, Hanno, Geographie. Europaische Entwicklung in Text en und Erlauterungen (Geography. European developmentt in narrative and commentaries), Munchen (1973), 170-5, 196-9 Buttner, Manfred, 'Zum Gegenuber von Naturwissenschaft (insbesonders Geographie) und Theologie im 18. Jahrhundert. Der Kampf urn die Providentialehre innerhalb "des Wolffschen Streites' ('On the opposition of natural science [especially geography] and theology during the l8th century. The controversy on the teaching of Providence within the so-called Wolff disputation'), Philos. Nat., vol lit (1973), 95-122 Buttner, Manfred, 'Zum Ubergang von der teleologischen zur kausalmechanischen Betrachtung der geographischKosmologischen Fakten' ('The changeover from teleological to causal mechanic views of geographicalcosmological facts'), Studia Leibnitiana, vol 5 (1973), 177-95

Oehme, Ruthardt, Eberhard David Hauber (1695-1765). Ein Schwdbisches Gelehrtenleben (Eberhard David Hauber, 1695-1765. The life of a Swabian

scientist), Stuttgart, 1976 Jakel, Reinhard, 'Johann Michael Franz (l700-176l)', in Manfred Buttner (ed.), Wandlungen im geograph-

isohen Denken von Aristoteles bis Kant. Abhandlungen und Quellen zur Geschiohte der Geographie und Kosmologie (Changes in geographical thinking, from Aristotle to Kant. Treatises and sources on the history of geography and cosmology), vol 1, Paderborn (1979), 253, 260-61

1758 Preface to: Hansen: Stoatsbeschreibung des Herzogthums Schleswig (Hansen: Political description of the duchy of Schleswig), Hamburg 1758 Vorbereitung zur grundlichen und niitzlichen Kenntnis der geographisohen Beschaffenheit und Stoatsverf as sung der Europaischen Reiche und Republiken (Preparation for the thorough and useful understanding of the geographical realities and constitutions of the European empires and republics), Hamburg, 2 1759, 3 176l, ^1768, 5 1776, 6178U. Also translated into Russian (1763), Italian (1770 and thereafter), French (1775 and thereafter, English (1778)

1762 Auszug aus seiner

Erdbeschreibung

(Extract

from

his earth description), Hamburg, 2 1767, 3 1771, n 7 7 6 , 5 1780, 6 1785, 902p. (2 ed.)

1766 Besohreibung (Description

des todten Meers in Palastina of the Dead Sea in Palestine), Hamburg,

56p. Also translated into Swedish (Stockholm, 1770). Republished in 1882 in Dresden, as

Kurze Biblische Geographie von Palaestina (Short biblical geography of Palestine) 1767-88 Magazin fUr die neue Historie und Geographie (Magazine of the new history and geography), 22 vols., Hamburg (vols. 1-6), and Halle (vols. 7-22). In 1793 a register for the entire set was published in Halle by Benj. Gottfr. Weinart as vol. 23

1772 Versuch, die Kenntnis der Natur den Kindern leicht und fasslich zu machen (Attempt to make knowledge of nature easily understandable for children), Berlin, 21772

1773-87 Wdchentliche Nachrichten von neuen Landcharten, 2. SELECTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS BY ANTON FRIEDRICH geographisohen, statistischen und historischen BUSCHING BUchern und Sachen (Weekly news of new maps, 1752 Kurzgefasste Staats-Beschreibung der Herzoggeographical, statistical and historical books thumer Holstein und Schleswig. Mit einer and affairs), 15 vols., Berlin Nachricht von seiner neuen allgemeinen zuver1775 Vollstandige Topographie der Mark Brandenburg lassigern Erdbeschreibung (Brief political des(Complete topography of the Province of Brandenburg), cription of the duchies of Holstein and Schleswig. Berlin, 6U and 3^8p. Including his new, general but reliable earth 1775 Unterrieht in der Naturgeschichte (Teaching natural description) , Hamburg, l63p. 175^-92 Neue Erdbeschreibung

(New earth

11 vols. Each volume consists of about lOOOp. Part I and II 2 vols., 1751*, 2 1756, 3 1758, U 1760, 5i761+, 61776} Ti777j 8th ed. in h vols., 1787/88. Part III, vol. 1, 1757, vols. 2 and 3, 1759; 2nd ed. of vol. 1, 1758, 2nd ed. of vol. 2, 1759; 3rd ed. of the entire 3rd part, 176l, ^1765, 51771, 61779; 7th ed. in 5 vols., 1789-1792. Part IV, 1761, 2 1762, 3 1767, ^1773, 5i782. Part V, first section, I768, 2 1771, 3178l. (Thereafter continued by C D . Ebeling, et al. until 1809 in nine editions). Translations (complete or in part): French,

Geographie Universelle,

science), Berlin, 229p., 2 1776, 3 1778, U 178l, 5iT87. Reprinted, Fiirth 1789 and Nurnberg, 1797. Translated into Danish, Copenhagen 1776 and with corrections, Odensee 1778; appeared also in Icelandic

description),

Strassburg, I768-8O;

Polish, Warsaw, 1768; Russian, St. Petersburg,

1775 Besohreibung seiner Reise von Berlin Uber Potsdam nach Rekahn unweit Brandenburg (Description of a journey from Berlin through Potsdam to Rekahn in the Brandenburg hinterland), Leipzig, 332p; N

2nd improved edition, Frankfurt, Leipzig, and Berlin, I78O

1780 Besohreibung seiner Reise von Berlin nach Kyritz in der Prignitz (Description of a journey from Berlin to Kyritz in the Prignitz region [.northern part of Brandenburg Province!), Leipzig, 560p. 1782 Aeltere Wettergeschichte der Mark Brandenburg, zur Erlduterung der neuen (Older climatic history of the Province of Brandenburg, as an explanation

Anton Friedrich

for

the newer one), Berlin

BUsching

15

neue Historie und Geographie (Magazine for the new history and geography)

Manfred Buttnert Dr. rer. nat.3 Dr. phil and Dr. theol.3 is Professor of the History of Geography and Cultural Geography at the Ruhr-Universitat, Bochum3 Federal Republic of Germany^ where he is also director of the research centre for the history of geography. Reinhard Jakel is an assistant at the research centre for the history of geography at the Ruhr-Universitats Bochumt Federal Republic of Germany. The translation from the original German text is by Prof. Klaus D. Gurgelt Ogden3 Utah, U.S.A.

Chronology 172U

Born at Stadthagen, c. September 27

1730

School education began

17U0

Became a pupil of Eberhard David Hauber

17^3

Attended the Latin school of A.H. Francke

nkk

Entered Halle University as a theological student

17^7

Graduated with a Master's degree, September 27

17^8

Worked as a private tutor

171*9-50

First journey to St. Petersburg and began to collect material on geography

1752

In Copenhagen (with E.D. Hauber] published his work on the Schleswig-Holstein duchies

1771

Asked Emperor Joseph II to appoint him as 'Imperial Geographer' but this was not possible

1772

Published an essay on nature study for children

1773

Began the publication of a weekly news sheet on new maps

1775

Travelled in the Berlin area, including Rekahn 3-8 June: further publications on the topography of Brandenburg, the teaching of natural science, and his journey to Rekahn

1779

Went to Kyritz in September and published a description of his journey in I78O

1782

Published Aeltere Wettergeschichte Mark Brandenburg (History of the in Brandenburg province)

1787

Illness prevented the publication of his journal

1789

An autobiographical book, Lebensgeschichte appeared

1793

Died in Berlin on May 28

175^

After a short stay in Halle went to Gottingen university as a professor: published part of his Neue Erdbeschreibung (New earth description), of which the remainder appeared in 1757, 1759, 17&L, and 1768

1757

Became a Doctor of Theology

1761

Moved to St. Petersburg as pastor of the Lutheran church

1765

Returned to Germany as a private tutor in Altona

1766

In October went to Berlin and became head of a grammar school: published his description of the Dead Sea in Palestine

1767

First publication of the Magazin

fiir

die

Eigene

der weather

Charles Carlyle Colby 1884-1965

WESLEY CALEF Charles Colby was an alert, interested observer who analyzed his observations independently. His opinions, judgements, and viewpoints, both personal and professional, were shaped, perhaps more strongly and directly than is true of most geographers, by the area in which he spent his entire life. He was born at Romeo in southeastern Michigan, an area consciously perceived by its inhabitants as part of the American Middle West or Midwest. The Middle West moulded him, instructed him, and always commanded his loyalty, attention, and admiration. The southeast of Michigan in which he spent his childhood and early youth was a rural agricultural area. He shrewdly observed and analyzed the area's strongly subsistence agriculture of the last years of the nineteenth century, the gradual shift, induced by the steadily increasing size of the urban market, to a more commercial agriculture, and the increasing economic difficulties experienced by southeastern Michigan's farmers in competition with the agriculture in more favoured regions. He also had opportunities to visit Detroit, the major city of the area, to observe there the evidences of wealth and industry. For the first three decades of the twentieth century he maintained close relations with, and paid frequent visits to, southeastern Michigan, and witnessed the enormous growth of the automobile industry in the area, and the attendant transformation of the area's economy. This aroused the interest and curiosity concerning the economy of areas that remained at the very centre of Colby's professional interests throughout his life.

1.

EDUCATION,

LIFE

AND WORK

In the opening years of the twentieth century Colby matriculated at Michigan State Normal College in Ypsilanti, Michigan, less than a hundred miles from his birthplace, in the same southeastern corner of Michigan. There he came under the enduring influence of the- remarkably imaginative and stimulating geographer and teacher, Mark Jefferson, who clearly made a life-long impress on his geographical thinking and work. In his lectures and seminar colloquies to the end of his career, Colby frequently paraphrased or quoted Jefferson with obvious approval. Moreover, whole sections of Colby's university courses were organized as they had been done by Jefferson, or as an elaboration of a Jeffersonian precept or recommendation. When Colby received the Bachelor of Pedagogy degree at Ypsilanti in 1908 the city of Chicago was the regional metropolitan, centre of the American Midwest, and the University of Chicago was widely regarded as the foremost midwestern university. Not surprisingly, Jefferson advised Colby to enrol for graduate study in the University of Chicago's geography department, then under the leadership of Rollin Salisbury. Like most of the founders of American professional geography, Salisbury had been trained as a geologist, but advanced study in Germany had acquainted him with the high status and quality of physical geography as practised there at the time. Consequently, he was entirely happy as chairman of a department of geography. As the department grew in strength new members of the staff cultivated fresh aspects of the subject, and physical

18

Charles Colby

geography was accepted as a respected field of research. The scope, focus and direction of other specialisms within geography, however, were "by no means clear, certain and agreed. During Corby's student years at Chicago most of the staff, graduates and students attended seminars on methodological problems, at which a paper was presented on some substantive geographical research or observations, followed by a Joint consideration of the theoretical implications, the practical utility and the methodological orthodoxy of the procedures and findings. The statements, arguments and disagreements of these seminar discussions were well remembered by those who attended them, and to several people were a crucial geographical experience of their lives, influencing their subsequent professional work. Colby was no less influenced than his fellow students.

His regular class teaching, plus work with numerous graduate students, particularly supervision of their theses, absorbed a large part of his working time. In 1931 Colby married one of his former graduate students, Mary McCrae. There were two sons, Stephen McCrae and Bruce Refern. During this same period he carried on an active research programme on the economic geography of North America, which he regarded as his field of special competence. In later years he would smilingly recall that during those exuberant youthful days he would boastfully assert that he knew more than anyone about the North American economy. He read widely and analytically in the literature relating to North American economic geography, and collated many of the more instructive articles into a Source book for the

Having completed his Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Chicago, Colby became Head of the Department of Geography at Minnesota State Normal School at Winona in southeastern Minnesota. There he had the opportunity of making his first individual field observations and gathered the field and archival data for his doctoral dissertation, of which the eventual title was 'Geography of Southeastern Minnesota'. It contained a strong historical geography theme. When the University of Chicago made a financial subvention available to him in 1913, Colby returned there for another year of graduate study. At the end of that year, in 191^, he was invited to launch a college-level programme of geography at George Peabody College — like Minnesota State Normal School a predominantly teacher-training institution — in Nashville, Tennessee. In subsequent years he rarely referred to his experiences as a Peabody faculty member, but he occasionally cited field observations he had made in and around Nashville. Colby returned to the University of Chicago as an Instructor in Geography in 1916, was granted the doctorate in the following year, and remained on the University of Chicago faculty until he reached emeritus status in 19^9. Colby's undergraduate training and his first two faculty appointments were all at teacher training institutions, so it is not surprising that his interests were permanently oriented toward geographical education. However, during the period of American involvement in the First World War, he served as a consultant to the United States Shipping Board, a federal agency charged with enhancing the efficacy of American overseas export and import of materials and commodities. This experience intensified his interest in economic geography, aroused a careerlong interest in international commodity movements (his last major publication concerned ocean shipping and the world order) and, most importantly, directed his attention toward the application of geographical data and methods to the solution of American problems, particularly, but not exclusively, national problems. For the next fifteen years Colby's activities were largely orientated by his position as a faculty member in the University of Chicago. They were grouped in three fields: teaching, research and writing, and service to geographical organizations.

both a commercial success and a significant contribution to college geography teaching, because prior to its appearance no general text on the economic geography of North America existed. The continuation of this pedagogical interest is revealed by his publication with Alice Foster of an Economic geography for secondary schools ten years later. Colby travelled extensively in North America during the 1920s, and also carried out two major field research investigations on specialized regions of fruit production, of which one was on apple production in Nova Scotia and the other on raisin production in the Fresno area of California. He published lengthy articles on each area. The presence of an active urban sociology group at the University of Chicago (where Park and Burgess were outstanding figures), and his perceptions of both urban problems and opportunities stimulated Colby to begin an exploration of the meagre literature relating to cities, to begin personal field study of American cities, and to direct students toward problems of urban geography. This urban interest culminated — but did not cease — in 1933 in his only published article in this field, 'Centrifugal and centripetal forces in urban geography'. It was the most widely cited of all his published papers. Throughout this period he guided numerous graduate students into this new field of urban geography, and supervised their master's theses and doctoral dissertations. Most of the prominent early American urban geographers were Colby's students. In the late 19^0s a leading university planning department, while preparing to add an urban geographer to its faculty, compiled a list of candidates. When the list had finally been winnowed to the top half-dozen candidates, every man on the list was a former graduate student of Charles Colby. During this period Colby was also active among the small coterie of American professional geographers. He regularly attended the annual national meeting of the Association of American Geographers, served as secretary of that organization from 1923-8 and participated in an informal group of midwestern academic geographers who met in the field somewhere in the Midwest each year to ponder, discuss, and experiment together concerning geographical field techniques. For a further description of this group's activities

economic geography of North America (1921).

It was

Charles Colby

see Richard Thoman's biography of Robert S. Piatt (Geog. Biobihl. Stud. , vol 3 (1979), 107-13). Partly motivated by an interest in field techniques engendered at these conferences, he published an article on the railway traverse as a technique of geographical reconnaissance, and he also edited a volume on geographical survey methods, published by the Geographic Society of Chicago, which was widely used for the next two decades in training graduate students of geography in field techniques. The significance of this work is discussed in a paper by Preston E. James and Cotton Maher, 'The role of periodic field conferences in the development of geographical ideas in the United States', (Geogr. Rev., vol 67 A (1977), M6-6l). His activities in the Association of American Geographers culminated in his election as president of the organization in 1935. Colby was active in the Geographic Society of Chicago throughout his University of Chicago faculty years. He was a Director of the Society from 1931 to 1955, and was the society's president in 19H3-1+. Throughout much of the period of his active membership, when he was a director and president, he made repeated efforts to turn some of the society's resources and efforts toward fostering scientific geography and serious geographical research and publication. Almost his only success in those directions, however, was the publication on geographical field techniques just mentioned. Colby, nonetheless, was respected and admired by the membership, as attested by the society's award of its gold medal to him in 19^8. From 1935-8 the Tennessee Valley Authority engaged Colby as a consultant, in which capacity he turned his attention to the problems associated with the characteristics of land and of land use in developing the regional economy of the Tennessee River Basin. Immediately thereafter, in 1938, he became a member of the Land Committee of the United States government's National Resources Planning Board, which was studying the relationships of land characteristics and land use to problems of land-use planning and economic development. Later he served as chairman of the Board's subcommittees on Land Classification and on Regional Approach to Employment Stabilization, the latter term meaning what later came to be called regional economic development. To be practically useful any information, ideas or advice of a professional scholar-scientist relevant to the solution of governmental problems must be effectively transmitted to the governmental decision makers and administrators. During his various periods as a consultant to the national government, Colby had observed that information and advice contained in memoranda, analyses, and reports by consultants and advisers commonly failed to influence decision making administrators , who could not or would not take time to read those generally lengthy advisory documents. Because of his conviction that geographical data and concepts should be applied to governmental decisions, Colby — along with his former graduate-student, Victor Roterus — developed and designed a procedure involving a chart-like, compact, condensed display of data and conclusions concerning land use, which would and could be scanned and digested quickly and easily by a governmental decision maker. They published an

19

example of the method and its rationale, under the

title Area analysis:

a method of public

works

planning

(19^2), as a Technical Paper of the U.S. National Resources Planning Board. Throughout the remainder of his life, more than a quarter-century, the significance of land characteristics and land use to land-use planning and economic development were at the centre of his professional interests. In the years after Colby reached emeritus status at the University of Chicago in 19**9» he held a series of visiting professorships at the University of Illinois, the University of California at Los Angeles, Michigan State University, Southern Illinois University, and the University of Kansas. At Kansas he was the director of a geographical survey of the Kansas River Basin. During Colby's first period at Southern Illinois University, a report submitted to the university by a private research agency was strongly pessimistic concerning the resources and economic future of southern Illinois and its university. Colby, characteristically confident and optimistic, went to the university president to refute that estimate. The president subsequently appointed Colby to be director of an interdisciplinary research programme within the university, the Mississippi Valley Investigation,This he directed until his death in LaCrosse, Wisconsin at the age of 8l, while engaged in field work related to that programme. He died as he had lived throughout his career, as a professional geographer, actively applying his geographical knowledge and techniques in research relevant to American problems. 2. SCIENTIFIC IDEAS AND GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT Charles Colby was an eclectic geographer. His approach to geography was intuitive and personal. He paid small heed to theory, and less to geographers' methodological statements. Rather, he observed what they had done and evaluated their results. Colby's presidential address to the Association of American Geographers is the epitome of his approach to, and orientation within, geographical methodology. It quotes only a few geographers' statements on their objectives and the rationale for their methods, but instead presents an historical account of the problems Americans faced in occupying and using the American land; it reports what geographers did to make contributions to the solution of those problems, submits a most optimistic appraisal of the value of those contributions, and exhorts his professional-geographer auditors to do even better work in the future. The address focuses exclusively on American geography and geographers. There is no mention or citation of any foreign geographer. He asserted that a 'close association of geographic science and geographic application is traditional in American geography' (p. 29). The entire address faithfully reflects Colby's geographical motivations, his confident, optimistic, and affirmative personality, and the inspirational nature of most of his public geographic pronouncements. It is most revealing that his presidential address was his last publication in a geographical journal. Thereafter his interests were so focused on the applications of geographical data and concepts to current American problems that most of his

20

Charles Colby

later publications were directed toward an audience external to geography. 3.

INFLUENCE AND SPREAD OF IDEAS

Undoubtedly, Charles Colby's greatest influence on geographical thought and practice in the United States was an outcome of his role as a teacher of graduate students at the University of Chicago. Throughout the entire 1916-1+9 period of Colby's faculty tenure at Chicago, that department was among the more prestigious American university graduate departments of geography, and probably foremost in the combined quantity and quality of its advanced degree recipients. Chicago degree holders went out to found, chair, and serve as senior staff members for many of the steadily growing number of major university graduate- geography departments. Colby was the mentor and thesis supervisor for a disproportionately large share of Chicago's geography graduate degree recipients, partly because his regional speciality was the geography of North America, but also because he took a direct personal interest in the students individually, an interest to which they responded. Colby was a bold and imaginative thinker. He was, as the phrase is, an ideas man. He would broach his ideas to his students and geographical colleagues as promising and useful potential courses of study and action. His urgings of his students to pioneer in urban geography are an example. In his presidential address to the Association of American Geographers he said that 'the application of statistical methods, I believe, will introduce new types of measurement, will clarify present methods of analysis, and will give us results which are quantitatively exact as well as qualitatively true. Here we are on the frontier of geographical thought'. (Colby (1936), p.37) It is an excellent example of Colby's role as an ideas man. Here, clearly, was a suggestion that geographers could make greater use of statistical methods in their research, a suggestion that antedated by more than a decade the so-called quantitative revolution in American geography. Colby had not analyzed the idea carefully, nor did he ever make any attempt to implement the suggestion — but he recommended it on many occasions. Colby believed that an effective professional geographer must be personally motivated and capable of independent self direction. Totally unlike some of his famous geographical professorial contemporaries, he never produced sycophantic disciples. Colby thought of himself as an American professional geographer, whose professorial and professional contributions were the application of his geographical training and techniques to the economic and political improvement of the United States, and to the training of professional geographers able to contribute similarly. He and Harlan H. Barrows — a colleague on the University of Chicago faculty, and also a long-term consultant to the federal government — gave such an unmistakably applied orientation to the department's research and student training that visiting faculty members noted and commented on it explicitly. His students went out to become leaders in applications of urban geography, economic geography, and regional economic development. Not irrelevantly in this connection, Colby had an

enviable reputation in academic, government, and planning circles as a shrewd appraiser of geographical talent and abilities. He did not give blanket judgements. He almost never appraised a.geographer as mediocre or highly talented. Rather, he would offer an opinion that the person was very talented in some matters, less so, or incapable in others. He would offer the judgement that the geographer under consideration would perform exceedingly well in one type of position, less satisfactorily or unsatisfactorily in a different one. He was, of course, not infallible, but his appraisals of talent were so commonly borne out by subsequent performance that his personnel opinions were widely and repeatedly solicited and acted upon. This ability to recognize unusual talents in his graduate students led him to direct their studies along lines and into branches of geography in which he thought their abilities would best function, and then to obtain a professional post for them suited to their talents and knowledge. In their role as professorial trainers of graduate students of geography, his students continued and extended Colby's pragmatic approach to geographic contributions to solutions to America's land-use problems. Others of his students took positions in government agencies pertaining to urban and regional planning and to regional economic development at all governmental levels — national, state, and local — and acquitted themselves so as to assure geographic research respected standing in those fields. A few of his students were among the very first in America to apply geographical concepts, training and data to the solution of business problems. Quite possibly his geographical grandchildren, the students of his students, are among those leading the current American wave of interest in applied geography.

Bibliography and Sources 1.

REFERENCES ON CHARLES COLBY

Harper, Robert, 'Charles Carlyle Colby', Geogr. Rev. , vol 56 (1966), 296-7 Harris, Chaucy D., 'Charles Carlyle Colby, I88H-I965', Ann. Assoc. Am. Geogr. , vol 56 (1966), 378-82 Hartshorne, Richard, The nature of geography, Assoc.

Am. Geogr. (1939), ^82p. James, Preston E., All possible worlds: a history of geographical ideas, Indianapolis (1972), 622p. 2.

SELECTIVE AND THEMATIC BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS BY CHARLES COLBY

a.

Regional

1916

and economic

studies

in

U.S.A.

'The driftless areas of Minnesota, a geographic unit', J. Geogr., vol lU, 165-7 1917 'Geography of southeastern Minnesota, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Geography, University of Chicago. 312p. , typed. Available in University of Chicago Photoduplication Depart-

Charles Colby ment (microfilm) 'The California!! raisin industry — a study in geographic interpretation', Ann. Assoc. Am. Geogr. , vol Ik, 1+9-108 'Agricultural adjustments to the natural environment in southeastern Minnesota during the period of bonanza wheat farming', Transactions, Illinois State Academy of Science, vol IT, 213-25 (an abridgement of his doctoral dissertation) 1925 'An analysis of the apple industry of the Annapolis-Cornwallis valley', Econ. Geogr., vol 1, 173-97, 337-55 1933 ed. Geographic Surveys, containing essays by V.C. Finch and R.S. Piatt, Bull. Geogr. Soc. Chicago, no 9, 75p.

1921*

b.

Comparable studies of direct significance for planning 19^1 Land classification in the United States, Report of the Land Committee to the National Resources Planning Board, Washington D.C., Government Printing Office, 155p. 19^2 Area analysis: a method of Public Works planning, U.S. National Resources Planning Board, technical paper no 6. A report of a special subcommittee of the Land Committee, Washington D.C., Government Printing Office. With Victor Roterus, 31p., revised ed. April 19^3, ^0p. 1956 The Kansas basin: pilot studies of watershed ... Introduction to the Kansas basin project, Lawrence, Kansas, 103p. Pilot study of Southern Illinois, Carbondale, 111., 9^p.

c. University and School texts 1921 Source book for the economic geography of North America, Chicago, Ul8p., 2 ed. 1922, l*60p. , 3 ed. 1926, 5^9p. 1931 (with Alice Foster) Economic geography for secondary schools, Boston, 620p. 1932 (with Alice Foster) Directed studies in economic geography to accompany 'Economic geography for secondary schools', 136p. 19^0 (with Alice Foster) Economic geography: industries and resources of the commercial world, Boston, 685p. , republished with revisions, 19^7 19^1 (with Alice Foster) Investigations in industries and resources, Boston, l69p., to accompany Economic Geography 195^ Successful teaching with maps: world and continental geography, 69p. (with Clarence B. Odell). Published as a teacher's manual for use with the Denoyer-Geppert series of wall maps. d. Methodology 1933 'Centrifugal and centripetal forces in urban geography*, Ann. Assoc. Am. Geogr., vol 23, 1-20 1936 'Changing currents of geographical thought in America', Ann. Assoc. Am. Geogr., vol 26, 1-37 (presidential address to Assoc. Am. Geogr.) 19^2 (ed.) Geographic aspects of International Relations, lectures on the Harris Foundation, 1937, Chicago, 295p.

21

e. Works on the geography of transport 1933 'The railway traverse as an aid in reconnaissance', Ann. Assoc. Am. Geogr., vol 23, 157-6H 1966 (posthumous) The North Atlantic arena: water transport in the World Order, Carbondale, Illinois, 272p. /. Biographical studies 1929 'Memorial of Charles Redway Dryer', Ann. Assoc. Am. Geogr. , vol 19, 62-h 1933 'Ellen Churchil Semple', Ann. Assoc. Am. Geogr., vol 23, 229-^0 Wesley Calef is Professor State University

of Geography at the

Illinois

Chronology 188U

Born at Romeo, Michigan, April 13

1908

Granted bachelor's degree at Michigan State Normal College, Ypsilanti

1909

Bachelor of Science degree, Chicago University, where he was a student of Mark Jefferson

1910

Became head of the geography department at the Minnesota State Normal School Winona: began field research in southeastern Minnesota for his doctoral dissertation

1913

Left Winona and went to Chicago as a graduate student, where he met Carl Sauer, Wellington Jones and Vernon Finch

19ll+

Associate Professor at Peabody College, Nashville, Tennessee (to 19l6)

1916

Became a member of the Geography Faculty at Chicago University (to 19^9) and published 'The driftless area of southeastern Minnesota'

1917

Awarded the Ph.D. degree of Chicago University for his dissertation (unpublished) on the 'Geography of southeast Minnesota'

1918-19

Special expert of the U.S. Shipping Board

1923

Secretary of the Association of American Geographers

192^-25

Published papers on intensive fruit cultivation

22

Charles Colby

1929

Field trip to the Peace river area of Canada

1950

Visiting professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (to 1951)

1930

Visited England, mainly to studyBritish ocean trade and shipping

1953

Given the Distinguished Service Award by the National Council of Geography Teachers

1931

Appointed as Director of the Geographic Society of Chicago (to 1955)

1955

Visiting professor and director of the Kansas river basin survey, University of Kansas (to 1956)

1956

Awarded the honorary doctorate of Science by the Southern Illinois University and became director (until his death) of the Mississippi Valley investigations at the Southern Illinois University

1959

Served as 'distinguished visiting professor' at Michigan State University

1965

Died at La Crosse, Wisconsin, July 16

1933

Publication of his influential paper 'Centrifugal and centripetal forces in urban geography', advocated the 'railway traverse' as a means of reconnaissance

study (Ann. Assoc. Am. Geogr., vol 23,

157-6U) and edited a bulletin on surveys for the Chicago Society 1935

Became president of the Association of American Geographers and began his work for the Tennessee Valley Authority

1936

Publication of his much-studied presidential address to the Association of American Geographers, on 'Changing currents of geographic thought in America*

1937

Chairman of the Harris Memorial Foundation of International Relations: edited a volume based on lectures (1938)

1938

Member of the Land Committee of the National Resources Planning Board (to 19^2)

1939

Chairman of a subcommittee on land classification for the NRPB

19^0

Chairman of a subcommittee on the regional approach to economic stabilization, of NRPB

19^1

Publication of Land classification United States

19*+2

Became chairman of the Geography Department„.in Chicago University (to 19^.9.) and

published Area analysis: public works planning

in the

a method of

19^3

Adviser on war shipping administration; president of the Geographic Society of Chicago (to 1 9 M )

19^6

Acted as member of the planning staff in the headquarters committee of the United Nations

19^8

Awarded the gold medal of the Geographic Society of Chicago

19^9

On retirement as emeritus Chicago Univerity, became visiting professor at the College in the University

professor of for one year a Graduate of Illinois

Nicholas Copernicus 1473-1543

JOSEF BABICZ, MANFRED BUTTNER AND HERIBERT M. NOBIS The historical significance of Copernicus as an astronomer and cosmographer rests on his heliocentric theory with its scientific and ideological consequences. Copernicus' interest in cosmographical problems was closely related to that theory. His contribution to cosmography, which for a long time escaped attention, has become of particular interest to historians of modern geography.

1.

EDUCATION,

LIFE

AND WORK

Nicholas Copernicus, born on 19 February 1^73 at Torun, was a son of Nicholas Copernicus, a shopkeeper and assessor of the city, and Barbara Watzenrode. After his father's death {a. lU83), Nicholas, his elder brother Andrew and his sisters Barbara and Catherine were brought up by their uncle Lucas Watzenrode, a subject of the Polish King, who was from lU7T a canon at W^oc^awek and then, from lU89, Bishop of Varmia (Ermland). Copernicus studied natural philosophy, astronomy and cosmography at the University in Cracow, in the years 1^91-5, a period of splendid development at the University. In 1U96, Bishop Watzenrode arranged that Nicholas should go to Italy for studies suited to an ecclesiastical career. At Bologna (ll*96-150l) he studied Roman and Canon Law, classical philology and astronomy. He remained in contact with Dominicus Maria Novara (1^53-1501*), an eminent astronomer, and was, according to Rheticus, not so much his student as an assistant carrying out astronomical observations. His studies of ancient works as well as his con-

tacts with outstanding representatives of the Italian Renaissance led him to question the accuracy of the geocentric system of the structure of the world. According to his later statements (as in the dedication letter to Pope Paul III), by the turn of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Copernicus considered the then accepted astronomical doctrine to be inadequate. His belief had been inspired by the Pythagoreans and by Plutarch, whose views were discussed in the work of Georgius Valla, an Italian humanist. Contemporary geographical discoveries led him to a new conception of the structure of the cosmos and the earth. After a brief stay in Varmia (Ermland) in 1501, Nicholas was allowed by his chapter authorities to continue his studies in Italy, particularly in medicine, in order 'to be, in the future, a physician and counsellor of the most venerable principal and chapter members'. During his medical studies at Padua (1501-03) Copernicus continued to be interested in antiquity and his mind was shaping a model of the heliocentric system rooted in the Pythagorean speculations about the earth's motion, in Platonic views on the sun and in critical reviews on Aristotle and Ptolemy. As a Doctor in Law, Copernicus began his career in Varmia, at Lidzbark castle (Heilsberg), in the service of his uncle Bishop Lucas Watzenrode, a diplomat and statesman. Both his uncle and he himself, as well as his whole family on the father's and mother's side, were of rich patrician stock and supported the anti-Teutonic attitude then characteristic in Prussian towns. Copernicus accompanied his uncle at meetings and other forms of diplomatic activity and they both declared full

24

Nicholas

Copernicus

loyalty to the Polish Crown, arguing against the territorial claims of the Teutonic Order. Copernicus maintained this position after having moved, in 1510, to Frombork (Frauenburg), the centre of the ecclesiastical and political life of Varmia where he stayed, except for two short periods (1516-19 and 1520-1), to the end of his life. During that time, as the administrator of the chapter estates, living at Olsztyn (Allenstein), he organized resistance and eventually took precautionary measures to protect the town against Teutonic aggression. Later on he concerned himself with economic and population problems of the depopulated areas. After coming back to Frombork in 1521, he held a number of positions: he was a visitor and chancellor of the Chapter and finally reached the summit of his career as the general administrator of the diocese (Commissarius Varmiae). The difficult economic situation of Varmia, caused by the war, preoccupied his attention. At the Prussian council meetings (1528, 1529, 1530) he presented a dissertation on Monetae cudende ratio dealing with theoretical monetary problems. In fact, during the twenties of the sixteenth century politics and economic activities absorbed him more than those related to literature and medicine. Copernicus' cartographical works, stimulated by his continuous interest in astronomy and particularly by the concept of the heliocentric structure of the cosmos, were also related to his political activity. Copernicus' heliocentric theory was developing gradually, along with his experience resulting from studying scientific writings, reasoning and observations. His first concise heliocentric essay of a theoretical and descriptive character in 'Commentariolus' (c. 1507)» lacked mathematical apparatus and differed in some essential details of geometrical construction (concentricepicyclic) from the solutions contained in De revolutionibus although it had been based on the same assumption of the three motions of the earth. Not intended for publication, it was made available only to a small group of readers, among them probably a few Cracow astronomers with whom Copernicus cooperated in 1515-30 on the observation of eclipses. Its fragment has been quoted by Tycho Brahe who had received the manuscript from T. Hajek (Hajecius), a friend of Rheticus. After the 151^ discussion of calendar reform, Copernicus made a number of observations of the planets Mars, Saturn and of the sun, which led to the discovery of the instability, in relation to the fixed stars, of the earth's eccentric and of the sun's apogee (Apogaeum, latin). Eventually, in 1515-19, he made the first revisions of some assumptions in his system. Observations, already begun at Ferrara (of which 60 were registered), were continued for long years in the home country with the use of instruments modelled after the ancient ones. Those were a quadrant, a triquetrum, a parallactic instrument and an armillary sphere. In Olsztyn, he continued his observations. Besides the figures indispensable to elaborate the new theory, those observations provided important information on the changes in the location of the planet orbits, considered until then as fixed, and also made it possible to correct calculations. In 1521, Copernicus left his position of Commissarius Varmiae and also gave up the administrative

duties for the chapter estates, to settle again at Frombork where he found more favourable conditions for scientific work. Having compared the data given in Ptolemy's 'Almagest' (ed. Venice 1515) with his thorough experimental observations to support a new theory of planet movements, from about 1523 he worked on a revised version of his De revolutionibus, supplementing it systematically until 1532 with current observations. His deliberations of that period, a sui generis polemic review of the Nuremberg treatise of the astronomer Jan Werner who dealt with problems of the precession of the equinoxes, were reflected in his letter to Bernard Wapowski. ('Precession' is the earlier occurrence of the equinoxes in each successive sidereal year.) Despite his friends' urgent requests Copernicus delayed publication of the already completed De revolutionibus. As he wrote in the dedication letter he wanted to avoid letting himself in for criticism and disfavour because his statements were new and beyond comprehension. Isolated and lonely, he concentrated for decades on the grand problem of his life. Following the Pythagorean example, he protected the mystery of his achievements from the incompetent judgement of public opinion and co-operated only with a small circle of confidential friends. Afflicted with paralysis, he died some months later, on 2k May 15^3, on the very day when his work came from Nuremberg to Varmia. That fact, however, could no longer be perceived by the great astronomer in his waning consciousness. 2. SCIENTIFIC IDEAS AND GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT Copernicus entered the history of scientific thought primarily as the creator of the heliocentric system of the world. The substance of that 'revolution' consisted in postulating three kinds of motion of the earth: first, the revolving motion about its own axis explained the day-and-night phenomena with the background of the sky and the fixed stars; second, the circulation around the sun explained the seasons' phenomena, and third the slow conical motion of the earth's axis explained the phenomena of precession. This new theory influenced the development of geophysical and physico-geographical concepts and also that of mathematical geography.

a.

Geophysical

concept

Book I of De revolutionibus contains a number of concepts belonging today to the scope of geography, geology and geophysics (including problems of the earth's gravitation) although these disciplines had not been enumerated by Copernicus among the 'noblest' sciences such as mathematics, geometry, optics, geodesy and mechanics. In his day geography was taught within geometry at the Quadrivium stage. Similarly elements of geophysics and oceanography were discussed along with comments on Aristotle's Meteorology, but Copernicus presents his views on the shape and structure of the earth at the beginning of his work because he regarded the earth's sphericity as fundamental to his theories. In Book I he discusses some matters previously considered by Ptolemy and Regiomontanus; for example in chapter 1 he says that 'the Universe is spherical' in chapter 2, that 'the Earth too is spherical' and in chapter 3, he explained 'how the Earth forms a single sphere with Water'.

Nicholas i)

Eeliocentrism

and the shape of the Earth.

The

heliocentric theory, in which the earth has lost its privileged central position to "become one of the planets circulating around the sun, made it necessary to define in more detail some of the earth's features as well as to understand the essence of the relations "between the earth and the cosmos. Having proved the sphericity of the cosmos, Copernicus proves the spherical shape of the earth by astronomical arguments. Following Plinius he indicated as a proof the regular changeability of the position of stars as an observer travelled in geographical latitude: he also indicated the invisibility of evening eclipses of the sun and the moon to people living in the east and of morning eclipses to people in the west. He used here the fact already known to Aristotle that the earth casts a spherical shadow on the moon. In chapter 3 he says that 'The earth together with its surrounding waters must in fact have the shape that its shadow reveals, for it eclipses the moon with the arc of a perfect circle'. Following the ancients he quoted as a proof of the earth's sphericity a floating ship disappearing beneath the horizon. However, he omitted Magellan's travels (1519-21), which gave empirical confirmation of the earth's sphericity. According to his argument the earth had the shape of an ideal sphere defined by ocean surfaces. 'Hence whatever land emerges out of the ocean is admittedly that much higher'. From chapters 3 and k it follows that the revolving motion of the Earth is connected with its spherical shape.

ii)

Structure

of the Earthy a solid body with water

and gas cover, has also been discussed to argue its three motions. The reports of travellers with the discovery of new continents excited contemporary minds and were dealt with in scientific works (Waldseemiiller,

Cosmographia3 1507; J. Stobniczka, Introductio

ad

cosmographiam3 1512): such material helped Copernicus to abandon Aristotle's conviction that the mass of waters was ten times greater than that of the lands. Taking into account Ptolemy's picture of the oecumene as extending 'the habitable area halfway around the world', the reports of Spanish and Portuguese travellers and particularly those referring to America located diametrically opposite to the Ganges of India, and also sharing the hopes of further discoveries of new lands, Copernicus could give an answer, indispensable for the heliocentric theory, to the question: 'How does the earth form a single sphere with water?' The revolving earth was in its essential mass a solid body and eventually he stated that 'there is no difference between the earth's centres of gravity and magnitude ... From all these facts, finally, I think it is clear that land and water together press upon a single centre of gravity; that the earth has no other centre of magnitude; that since the earth is heavier, its gaps are filled with water; and that consequently there is little water in comparison with land, even though more water perhaps appears on the surface' (Chapter 3 ) . According to Copernicus the gas cover was no hindrance to the three kinds of the Earth's motion. He believed that 'not merely the earth and the watery

Copernicus

25

element Joined with it have this motion, but also no small part of the air ... is linked in the same way to the earth. The reason may be that the nearby air, mingling with earthy or watery matter, conforms to the same nature as the earth ...* (Chapter 8). He assumed a distinct analogy between the gas and water covers and compared the wind in the air to 'the wave in the sea'. The theory of the earth's structure, its consistency, its one gravity centre, with its water and gas covers, led Copernicus to discard the ancients' belief that the motion of the earth was impossible. In accordance with ancient and mediaeval physicists, he held 'that motion is natural and not violent' and that as this was the case 'Ptolemy has no cause, then, to fear that the earth and everything earthly will be disrupted by a rotation created through nature's handiwork, which is quite different from what art or human intelligence can accomplish' (Chapter 8). In Copernicus' opinion it was not clear 'why motion should not be attributed rather than to the enclosed than to the enclosing, to the thing located in space rather than to the framework of space' (Chapter 5). But through this concept the earth was not the centre of the universe, though it had features similar to those of other planets such as gravity, on which he wrote that 'For my part I believe that gravity is nothing but a certain natural desire, which the divine providence of the Creator of all things has implanted in parts, to gather as a unity and a whole by combining in the form of a globe. This impulse is present, we may suppose, also in the sun, the moon, and the other brilliant planets, so that through its operation they remain in that spherical shape which they display' (Chapter 9 ) . Attributes of the earth were common to other celestial bodies and therefore a uniform law applied in the cosmos and on earth. This made it possible to accept the earth's revolving motion on an orbit. Humboldt {Ko8mos vol 2 (18U7), 3^7-8) observed that spherical shape was explained by the general gravity or gravitational force towards the centre of the sphere but this advance in theory was incomplete, a long way behind Newton's discovery that the essential attribute of the gravitational law was action from distance. Even so, the concept of the earth and the cosmos, as part of the heliocentric theory, made Copernicus a discoverer not only of a new heaven but also of the new earth.

b.

Cartographical

works

Copernicus employed his astronomical knowledge and instruments in measurements basic for cartography such as the determination of the geographical latitudes for

Frombork (Biskup, M., Begesta Copemicana

(Reg.

Cop.),

Ossolineum, Wroclaw 1973). One of the chapters of his work, devoted to plane and spherical trigonometry ('De lateribus et angulis triangulorum', edition of 15^2) was applicable to land surveying and geodesy. (The term 'geodesy', used by Copernicus in Book I, may have been taken from Aristotle). Having at his disposal diopters, a plane astrolabe and a levelling instrument called chorobates he could use them in geodetic measurements. While the heliocentric theory was Copernicus' passion, his cartographic interests resulted from the political situation of Varmia and from the necessity of

26

Nicholas

Copernicus

drawing maps because of the permanent contest between Poland and the Teutonic Order. He was also interested in Wapowski's initiative to draw a map of the whole Polish Kingdom. The trips through Varmia, connected with his administrative and political activities, made that task easier. Although Copernicus' maps and geographical descriptions were lost, a number of sources provide evidence of his work, including i) In 1509, at the Piotrkow Seym, Bishop L. Watzenrode demonstrated to the Gdansk deputies a map (eyne gemeelte) to solve the conflict relative to a part of the Vistula Bar. Most probably Copernicus was the author of that map

(Reg. Cop. 58).

ii) Fabian von Losseinen, later to be Bishop of Varmia, in his letters to Jan Schonberg of 29 May and June 1510, mentions the map of Varmia and of the western part of Royal Prussia (a disputed territory between Poland and the Teutonic Order), which he wanted to copy for the Teutonic

party (Reg. Cop. 61-62).

iii)

In his letter of 17 May 1519, Bishop Fabian v. Losseinen asked Canon T. Giese to fetch to the court, during a dispute with the town of Elblag (Elbing) over the fishery rights in the western part of the Vistula Bay, 'Topographicam eius loci descriptionen, quam doctor Nicolaus depinxit'

(Reg. Cop. 191).

iv) The Varmian bishop Maurice Ferber confirmed in his letter of 10 July 1529 addressed to Alexander Sculteti, a canon, the receipt of mappa sive

desariptio

terrae

Livoniensis.

He also encour-

aged Sculteti to join his efforts with those of

Copernicus to draw mappam sive descriptionen Terrarum Prussiae (Reg. Cop. 299). v)

A mention by C. Schutz that the river Pregola

quam Copernicus latine

Praegolam dixit

flows out

Copernicus' friend from student days in Cracow, was deeply interested in the calculation of planetary positions, and intended to prepare an astronomical calendar for 1538 showing 'real and examined planet movements' computed by Copernicus on the basis of new heliocentric tables in the autumn of 1535 (Reg. Cop. 3U5). The news of Copernicus' theory spread through Europe and J. Schoner, an astronomer and mathematician of Nuremberg, encouraged Georg Joachim Rheticus (Geogr. Biobibl. Stud., vol k (1980), 121-6) of Feldkirch, a professor of Wittenberg University, to come to Frombork. He became a friend of Copernicus and prepared his work for printing: all now known about Copernicus as a geographer comes through the writings of Rheticus. Before the publication of Copernicus' theory, Rheticus issued Narratio prima, dedicated to Schoner, in which he discussed Copernicus' theory and so made it known to the scientific world. To the Narratio he appended the Encomium Prussiae, showing geographical aspects. Narratio prima, published in Gdansk in 15^0 and in Basel in 15^1 evoked the interest of many European scholars, including A. Aurifaber, A. Gassarus, Duke Albrecht of Prussia, P. Melanchthon, A. Osiander, J. Petreius, C. D. Scepperus, R. G. Frisius and E. Reinhold. This interest was stimulated by the favourable comment on Copernicus' work sent by Bishop Jan Dantyszek to his friends in Louvain, Cornelius Duplicius, Scepperus, Reiner and Gemma Frisius (Reg. Cop. U68, U69, ^92, U95). During his lifetime, Copernicus' work enjoyed continuously increasing appreciation. Besides Wapowski, T. Giese also supported his ideas. In a treatise on 'Hyperaspistes' of 1536 Giese defended Copernicus' theory and quoted the approval expressed by Erazm of Rotterdam (Reg. Cop. 3^8, 358). E. Reinhold, a professor of mathematics at Wittenberg, in a preface to his

Theoricae novae planetarum

(15U2) compared Copernicus'

achievement to that of Ptolemy. But this was not to last. At the ducal court of Konigsberg Copernicus was regarded as an astrologer and in 1539 he was asked to evaluate a horoscope made by J. Camerarius for Duke Albrecht. The outstanding representatives of Protestantism, M. Luther and P. Melanchthon, believed Copernicus' theory to be absurd (15^1) (Reg. Cop. U21. U78). In 15^0-1, during his second stay in Varmia, Rheticus presented to Copernicus some astronomical works, among which was the Greek Almagest (Basel 1538). This lecture 3. INFLUENCE AND SPREAD OF IDEAS induced Copernicus to introduce some corrections, supplea. Heliocentric system ments and editorial changes in his work. In 15^2, Information on the heliocentric system reached the papal Rheticus as editor published the first chapter of court about 1533, probably through Alexander Sculteti Copernicus' work, 'De lateribus ...', and with the conwho from 1527 had been staying in Rome and was in touch sent of Copernicus prepared the publication of the whole with Jan Albert Widmanstadt, an orientalist; the latter, work in Nuremberg. In order to avoid objections from in his talk with Pope Clement VII said that 'Copemicanam the Peripotetics (Aristotelian philosophers) and teleolde motu terrae sententiam explicavit'. Three years ogists, Andreas Oriander in his preface suggested that later, Cardinal Nicolas Schonberg (who died in 1537), the work was a mathematical astronomy making calculations in his letter from Rome, dated 1 November 1536, asked simple, an opinion shared by Johannes Petreius the Copernicus to send him, through Dietrich von Reden, a printer and by J. Schoner. But Copernicus stressed the canon of the Varmian chapter, more details about the reality of his system in both the work itself and in the new doctrine of the world structure which he greatly dedicatory letter to Pope Paul III. T. Giese agreed admired (Reg. Cop. 359). Other scientific centres of with Copernicus and protested against efforts to limit Western Europe learned about Copernicus' theory from his theories to a mere technique of measurement. his friends T. Giese and B. Wapowski. From a letter Immediately after the work had been published, a of Sigismund Herberstein, a diplomat and imperial envoy, double interpretation of its theory developed. Such dated 15 October 1535, it follows that Wapowski, scholars as Giordano Bruno, G. Galilei, J. Kepler, from a marsh, and another concerning the location of the source of the river Bersza, 'Copernico Versae' — cited without reference to its origin and repeated by Ch. Hartknoch (p. 7-8) — indicate the existence of some lost geographical or cartographical writings by Copernicus still known to Schutz.

Nicholas

E. Wright and Th. Digges held that the theory of Copernicus reflected the real structure of the world while others, such as G. Frisius {Eph.emevid.es novae 1556, 1559, 1560) treated it as one of the two possible hypotheses explaining planetary movements, as an instrumental concept and a model serving to calculate the position of planets. As a heliocentric hypothesis Copernicus' system made its way forward in atlases, handbooks, in models and schematic drawings of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Until the end of the sixteenth century, attention was mainly focused on Copernicus' achievements in mathematical astronomy, research methods and mathematical analysis and not on the heliocentric theory itself which was in fact gradually adopted by a limited number of scholars. Only at the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries did Copernicus' thesis about the motions of the earth become a central problem in natural sciences with protagonists among such eminent scientists as G. Bruno, G. Galilei and J. Kepler. At the same time it was realized that Copernicus' theory cast doubt on any anthropocentric concept of the cosmos and so had theological implications. A critical approach to Copernicus' theory among representatives of both Protestant and Catholic churches gave rise to a period of strong ideological struggle which led to the inclusion of Copernicus' work in the Index librorum prohibitorum (1616). But when Newton, in his Principia mathematioa (1687), proved the validity of the heliocentric theory that attitude changed. From then on appreciation for Copernicus' theory spread largely first in Protestant circles and then within the Catholic ones who used it to interpret allegorically texts from the Scriptures. In the time of ideological conflicts of the seventeenth century it was wiser to present in atlases the biblical 'story of creation1 than to deal with the difficult problems of astronomical geography, including the position of the earth in the cosmos. Such was the practice in the Atlas of G. Mercator (1607) and in the Atlas of Hondius Iudocus (1609). While French handbooks treated the heliocentric theory as the supposition fond&e sur la pensie de quelques vieux philosophes the Dutch, German and French atlases showed Copernicus' system as one of the possible hypotheses and presented it along with the systems of Ptolemy and Tycho Brahe and, occasionally, with old-Egyptian or Cartesian systems in order to stress more distinctly its hypothetical nature. After all, the Atlas of Hondius Janssonius presented the then valid opinion that the majority accepted Ptolemy's system while Copernicus' system hodie quoque nonnulli Mathematicorum figuntur. In the eighteenth century the importance of the novel systems was stressed, namely those of Tycho Brahe and of Copernicus. The Minor Atlas Scholastious of 1752 dealt exclusively with Copernicus' system. Through time his theory had gradually achieved priority, as is evident from a chapter on 'Systeme de Copernic ou Abreg€ de l'Astronomie* in the Atlas d 'Etude pour I'instruction de la jeunesse (Paris 1797). The Atlas Universel of M. Lapie (Paris 1829) states distincly that of the three systems — those of Tycho Brahe, Cartesius and Copernicus — the latter is le plus probable. Finally, after the exclusion of Copernicus'

Copernicus

27

work from the Index librorum prohibitorum (1828) his system was considered to be the only valid one in the Atlas of August Legrand (Paris 1835). b. Copernicus ' geophysical ideas were more closely discussed by Simon Stevin (15^8-1620) in the cosmographical part of his work Hypomnemata mathematical Lugduni Batavorum 1608. Galileo in his Dialogues (1632) dealing largely with the problem of planet movements assumed the law of common gravitation, implicitly contained in Copernicus' theory although formulated explicity only by Newton (1687), whose discovery had, however, been preceded by J. Kepler's Physica Coelestis (l622) which explained the problem of planet movements. c. In contradistinction to the long and impeded reception of Copernicus' heliocentric theory, his cartographical work was recognized during his lifetime and enumerated among the monuments of contemporary cartography. Those were i) B. Wapowski's Mappa Poloniae (Cracow 1526) in its north-eastern part, particularly detailed regarding the areas of Varmia and Masuria. Wapowski, the Cracow canon and cartographer, also arranged for a map of Livonia to be drawn by A. Sculteti in cooperation with Copernicus. In his letter of 5 March 1533, Wapowski expressed gratitude to Jan Dantyszek, the bishop of Chelm (Kulm) for the map brought to him by the bishop of Frombork, Fabian Emmerich, a close associate of Sculteti. As Arbusow stressed, it follows from Wapowski's letter that the map, without cartographical coordinates, was relatively accurate in its western part though it contained mistakes in the borderland of Russia and Finland. ii) Carta Marina by Olaus Magnus (1539), who resided in Gdansk from 1527 to 1537 and kept contact with the scholars of Varmia. He must have used the best materials then available and among them Sculteti's map of Livonia. iii) J. Rheticus' works such as his Encomium Prussiae published jointly with his Narratio prima (15^0) and also Chorographia (15I+I); to the latter (in manuscript) he attached the hastily prepared Tabula chorographica auff Preussen und etliche umbliegende lender which, as he stressed in his letter to Duke Albrecht at Konigsberg (reprinted by K. H. Burmeister, vol 3 p. 323), was completed with the help of various friends, among them Copernicus himself {Reg. Cop. UT2). This unpublished and lost map was incorporated in Tabula Prussiae by Henry Zell, Rheticus* fellow-traveller to Prussia and published as woodengraving in Nuremberg, in 15U2 (there is a copy in the Marcian Library, Venice). It crowned the joint efforts of Copernicus, Rheticus and Zell. Then it was issued in the 3rd edition of Cosmography by S. Minister (1550). iv) Kasper Henneberger's Prussiae. Das ist des Landes zu Preussen. From the letter of recommendation of Duke Albrecht Friedrich of Prussia of 1575, written to the Varmian Chapter, it follows that the map, drawn independently from Zell's map, was considered to be inferior though it had been based upon Copernicus' materials known to both K. Schutz the historian, and J. Brozek, Copernicus' biographer.

28

Nicholas

Copernicus

d. Rheticus' views on geography presented in his Chorographia reflected those of Copernicus. According to them 'the very beginnings of geography' deal with 'how the Earth can be studied in relation to the space of heaven', assuming the necessity of a close link between geography and astronomy 'because without knowing the geographical longitude and latitude of a town it is impossible to calculate either eclipses, or the motions of the sun, the moon, the planets or the stellar heaven'. The aim of geography, 'a superior science', 'a useful art' consisted in 'drawing maps of lands according to reliable rules' that is by combining itineraries with geographical co-ordinates and by compiling geographical tables. 'Such tables should be a concern of a genuine and scrupulous mathematician who, following the example of Ptolemy, would renew geography'. Following Copernicus, Rheticus defined the tasks of chorography as a discipline defining precisely 'the principles of drawing chorographic tables', thus embracing cartography and mathematical geography. Rheticus presented the prevailing view and Ptolemaic tradition. The same is true of S. Munster in his Mappa Europae, Frankfurt 1536.

Bibliography and Sources polonorum hecatontas

by

Sz. Starowolski (Frankfurt, 1625) whose study had, in turn, employed the materials compiled by Jan Brozek (1585-I652), a Cracow astronomer and surveyor. On his journey to Varmia, in l6l8, Brozek carried out studies on the activities of Copernicus. The Copernican literature has been continuously increasing and efforts were made to compile bibliographies of which the most comprehensive are H. Baranowski: Bibliografia

1509-1955 (Copernican bibliography

1509-

1955), vol I, Warsaw 1958 (3750 entries), vol II, 1956-19T1, Warsaw 1973; and Bibliography. Selected

material

for the years 1972-1975t

Studia

copernicana,

Warsaw 1977. With the interest in Copernicus, new editions of his works and phototype reprints have been published. On the occasion of the 500th birthday anniversary of Copernicus new studies were undertaken. The Copernicus Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw inaugurated, in 1972, the serial Nicolaus Copernicus Opera Omnia (in Latin, English, French, Russian and Polish versions) and also Studia Copernicana (19 volumes). Quotations have been derived from Nicholas Copernicus Complete Works II:

On the Revolutions

Ausgabe, published by G. Klaus, Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1959 (Latin and German). Problems of the geographical and cartographical activities of Copernicus were dealt with by historians, who made use of the Konigsberg and Frombork archives, and also by some authors of specialised works: Arbusow I. , 'Vorlaufiige Ubersicht uber die Kartographie Alt-Liviands bis 1595', Sitzungsberichte der

Gesellschaft ffir Geschichte Riga (1935)

der Altertumskunde

zu

Babicz J., 'Nicolaus Copernicus und die Geographie*, Der Globusfreund no 21-3, Wien (1973), 6l-71; Organon vol 10 (197M, 129-37; 'Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki, 1973', p. 1+95-502; Przegl. Kartog. No 1 (1973),No 1, p. 1-6; 'Die Aufnahme der copernicanischen Lehre in Europa mit besonderer Berucksichtigung der Rezeption der Heliozentrischen Theorie in Polen', Philos. Nat. , Meisenheim/Glan (1973), p. 365-379 Birkenmajer A.L., Mikofaj Kopernik, Cracow (1900); 'Marco Beneventano, Kopernik, Wapowski a najstarsza karta Polski/Marco Beneventano, Kopernik, Wapowski and the oldest map of Poland^/, Rozpr. Wydz. Mat.

copernicana,

Cracow (192*0

Until the modern Copernican studies of the nineteenth century, the biography published by P. Gassendi (Paris I65M was the basic source of information on Copernicus. In his work, Gassendi made use of the data

kopernikowska

derived from: Nicolaus Copernicus Uber die Kreisbewegungen der Weltkorper, Erstes Buch, Geisprachige

Przyr. , ser. A, vol Ul (1901); Stromata

SELECTIVE THEMATIC BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS ON NICHOLAS COPERNICAS

included in Scriptorum

lished in co-operation with the Kommission fur die Copernicus Gesamtausgabe. Quotations have been

Warsaw-Cracow 1978, Translation

and Commentary by Edward Rosen. In a similar research centre in Munich, H. M. Nobis opened, in 197^, a German series whose first volume Faksimile des Manuskripts (Hildesheim 197*0 was pub-

Biskup M., Regesta Copernicana (Calendar of Copernicus ' Papers),

Ossolineum, Wroclaw (1973)

Buczek K., History

of Polish

Cartography from the

15th

to the 18th Century, Wroclaw 1966, 30, 31, 37, 38 Buttner M., 'Kopernikus und die deutsche Geographie im 16. Jahrhundert', Philos. Nat., Meisenheim/Glan 1973, 353-6U Burmeister K.H., 'Georg Joachim Rheticus as a geographer and his contribution in the first map of Prussia', Imago Mundi vol 23 (1969), 73-6 Ferstreuter K., 'Fabian von Losseinen und der Deutsche Orden', in Kopemikus-Forschungen, Leipzig (19U3) Gerlo A., 'Copernic et Simon Stevin', Extrait du Bulletin

Ciel et Terre,

No 10-11, (1953)

Goldstein T., 'The Renaissance concept of the earth and its influence upon Copernicus', Terrae Incognitae, Amsterdam (1972) 'The influence of the geographic discovery upon the Copernic', Organon (1973), 199-215 Guerlac H., 'Copernicus and Aristotle's Cosmos', Historical Ideas, vol 29 (1968), 109-13 Hartknoch Ch., Alt^und Neues Preussen, Frankfurt (189*0 Olszewicz B., 'I lavori cartografici de Nicolo Copernico',

Actes 8 Congr. Int.

Hist.

Sci. , Firenze (1957),

U25-6 Polak6wna M., 'Tradycje kopernikafiskie w kartograficznym obrazie Pras Zella' ('Copernican traditions in Zell's cartographic picture of Prussia'), Studia

tr6dtoznawcze,

Poznafi 1958

Prowe L., 'Nicolaus Copernicus', Osnabruck (1967),

Neudruck der Ausgabe, 1883-188U, vol 1-2

Rheticus G.J., Corographia, Wittenberg (l5*ri.); 'Neuherausgegeben durch Hipler', Z. Math. Phys., Leipzig (1878); Polish translation by J. Staszewski,

Chorografia

graficzne

Jerzego Joachima Retykat

Zeszyty

WSP, Gdansk, vol 3 (l96l), 133

Geo-

Nicholas Rosen E., 'Copernicus and the discovery of America', Hisp. Am. Hist. Rev., vol 23 (19^3) Schmauch H., 'Neues zur Copernicusforschung' Zeitschrift fUr die Geschichte und Altertumskunde Ermlands, vol 26 (1938) Schiitz K., Historia rerum prusicarum, Leipzig (1599), I, 2 and II, 1 Varep E. , 0 wljanii naucnoj diejatielnosti Kopernika na Kartografiju Estonii, Actes 11 Congr. Int. Hist. Soi, Varsovie-Cracovie 2^-31 Aout 1965, vol h, 267-9 Zinner E., Entstehung und Ausbreitung der Copernikanischen Lehre, Erlangen (19^3) Professor Jozef Babicz is head of the department of the History of Natural Sciences in the Institute of the History of Sciences and Technology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Manfred Buttner, Dr. rer. nat.3 Dr. phil. t Dr. jur.3 is Director of the research centre for the history of geography and Professor of the History of Geography and Cultural Geography at the Ruhr-Universit'dtj ' Bochum3 Federal Republic of Germany. Dr. phil. Heribert M. Nobis is Director of the German Copernicus Research Centre in the Deutsche Museum, Munich. Translated from the German text by Mark Bassin

Chronology 1U73

Born on February 19 at Torun (Thorn)

1^91-95

Studied at Cracow University, including natural philosophy, astronomy and cosmography

1^96-1501

At Bologna, studied law, classical philology and astronomy

lU97

Began his long association with the Chapter of Varmia

1501-03

Medical studies at Padua University, with wide reading on scientists of antiquity

1503

Awarded the doctorate of Canon Law at Ferrara University

1503-06

On his return home, he lived at various places in the service of his uncle, Bishop Lucas Watzenrode

1506-10

Still in the service of his uncle, as physician and adviser, Copernicus began to design political maps to illustrate the territories contested between Poland and the Teutonic Order

1510

Settled at Frauenburg (Frombork) and in 1511 became Chancellor of the Chapter of Varmia

1515

Copernicus

29

Began to study the works of the Cracowastronomers

1519-21

Still concerned largely with ecclesiastical estates, and also with cartography, from 1520 actively engaged in defensive measures against the Teutonic Knights

1521-37

Visitor and Chancellor of the Varmia diocese, in effect its general administrator: at this time he was publishing his major works

1522

Active in the parliament of Varmia, and lectured on monetary problems

1535

At Frombork, produced his work on the astronomical calendar for 1536

1538

Visit of Joachim Rheticus to Frombork

15UO-U1

Rheticus stayed in Varmia for some time and Copernicus agreed to the publication of Revolutionibus

15U3

Died at Frombork, May 2*+

Mihai David 1886-1954

ION GUGIUMAN 1.

EDUCATION,

LIFE

AND WORK

Born on 21 May 1886 in the village of Megresti, department of Vaslui, Moldavia, Mihai David was the seventh child of Dumitru David, a peasant. He received his higher education at the University of Iagi in natural sciences and studied under Ion Simionescu, the professor of geology and palaeontology who was also well known as a geographer. David graduated in natural science at Iagi University in 1910, taught biology from 1910-12 at the C. Negouzzi grammar school of Iagi and then spent eight years (until 1920) as assistant to Professor Simionescu. In 1919 he achieved his doctorate for a thesis on his geological researches on the Moldavian plateau. After the death of S. Popescu, the first professor of geography at Iagi University, Ion Simionescu became professor of geography in 1913. Mihai David, as his assistant, shared the interest of Simionescu in the work of W. M. Davis, Walther Penck and A. Wegener, of several Romanian geologists including G. Murgoci, Sava and Ion Atanasiu, David Preda, G. Macovei, I. PopescuVoitegti and the Romanian geographers, notably S. Mehedin£i, G. valsan and C. Bratescu. From this broadly based study in geology and geography, David was well qualified as a university professor and through his teaching and scientific work he became known as the first director of the laboratory for geographical studies in Iagi. He served there as professor of geography from 1922 to 19^5. In 1921 he had the good fortune to be a member of the excursion organized by Emmanuel de Martonne through the eastern Carpathians, Moldavia and northern

Dobrogea. He remained in touch with de Martonne until 1937» chiefly on geomorphology. To the end of his life David was a worker in geology and geography for various organizations associated with Iagi and with central government in Bucharest. He was also director of the student house from 1922-33, of Moldavian cultural centres from 1935-8, founder and chairman of the Dimitric Cantemir Geographical Society of Iagi from 1932-UU, Rector of Ia§i University from I9I+I-U and corresponding member of the Romanian Academy from 1939. In 19^1 he was President of the Congress of Romanian Geographers. He died at Ia§i on 26 June 195^.

2.

SCIENTIFIC

WORK AND GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT

Having a strong geological foundation for his work as a geographer, David saw landforms as the result of geological structure, petrological composition, movement of the earth's crust, and other factors including those of climatological, hydrological and biotic origin. Following the theories on the cycle of erosion of W. M. Davis and E. de Martonne, David identified three surfaces of erosion and three major terraces in the Moldavian plateau, the eastern Carpathians, the subCarpathians of Moldavia and the Transylvanian plateau. These he described in various works (see bibliography). His text was admirably illustrated by his own drawings, for he had artistic skill comparable to that of E. de Martonne and, in his home country, George Valsan. Essentially, David was concerned with analysing the relationship between the structure, tectonics and land forms. His was pioneer work in Romania, much studied

32

Mihai David

and followed later, published in his works on the subCarpathians of Moldavia in 1932, and for the area around Iagi in 19^1. In the latter study, which had been discussed with E. de Martonne during the excursion of 1921, David drew attention to the effect of tectonic faults on the hill slopes to the south of Ia§i and surfaces of structural origin were also seen in the planed surfaces of the central Moldavian massif. These findings were confirmed by later research. From 1928 in geomorphological work David emphasized the existence of the tectonic depression of North Dobrogea drained by the Danube, Prut and Sinet rivers. Here the loess deposits ('limans') of Kabul and Ialpung reached their greatest depth, as borings made later were to confirm. Unfortunately David was unable to publish all his research, though in his lecture courses he used material from his own observations, such as the rapid erosion seen in the frequent and heavy landslides in the Moldavian Plateau. This rapid erosive process remains of interest — and indeed human significance — to later research workers. David worked from geology forward to geomorphology and, like others of his time and workers of later days, regarded the physical landscape as basic to human study with man as the major agent in the transformation of the landscape. 3.

INFLUENCE AND SPREAD OF IDEAS

The geomorphological work of David earned the respect of later Romanian geographers such as S. Mehedin^i, G. Valsan, C. Bratescu, and also of Emmanuel de Martonne, Among his students were Professor Victor Tufescu, who continued David's work in genetic geomorphology and provided admirable panoramic sketches, and Professor C. Martiniuc of Ia§i University who with many young workers developed the ideas of David. In time the work at Ia§i was emulated at other universities, for example between 1950 and 1970 on structural geomorphology at Bucharest and Cluj. There was also the influence of workers in other countries following comparable lines of research. David made a transition from a geological geomorphologist to a geographer naturalist. He never underestimated the influence of human society in transforming the natural landscape, and considered the study of the earth essential to wise use of its resources, and avoidance of conflict with natural laws. In his lectures and seminar discussions he gave many examples of unwise human activity deleterious to economic life. Clearly he saw in geomorphology a study crucial to problems of world population and food supply.

Bibliography and Sources 1.

REFERENCES ON MIHAI DAVID

Nastase, G., 'Le professeur M. David' (l94l) Iancu, M., 'Le geographe physicien Mihai David. et l'oeuvre' (1956) Gugiuman, I., 'Le geographe M. David' (1969) 2.

L'homme

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS BY MIHAI DAVID

1920

'0 schrfca morfologica a podigului sarmatic din Moldavia' ('Esquisse morphologique du plateau sarmatique de Moldavie*), Bui.

Soo.

(R.)

Rom.

Geogr., vol 39, 331-81; French abstr., 376-81 1921 'Formes caracteristiques dans la morphologie du plateau moldave', An. Sti.

Univ.

Ia§i,

vol 11,

81-181^ 1922 Ceroetari qeologiae in podisul moldovenesc (Reoherohes g&ologiques dans le plateau moldave), Bucharest, 152p.; French resume 141-7, bibliography 148-51 1923 'Regiunea "Codrilar Bacului" fata da "Podigul Sarmatic moldovenesc" precizari morfologicce' ('La region des "Codri Baculu" en face du "Plateau sarmatique moldave", precisions morphologiques', Bui.

Soo.

(R.)

Rom. Geogr.,

vol ^ 2 , 68-92; French

resume1 91-2 1931 'Relieful regiunei subcarpatice din districtele Neamt si Bacau (evolutia sa morfologica') ('Evolution morphologique de la region subcarpatique dans les districts de Neamtz et Bacau'), Bui. Soo. (R.) Rom. Geogr., vol 50, 5-113; French resume 98-110, bibliography, 111-13 1933 'Quelques considerations geomorphologiques sur la forage de Valsui', An. Sti. Univ. Ia§i, vol 18/ 3-U, 9p. 1944 'Observaiii aspura relieful posigului transilvanean' ('Observatons sur le relief du plateau transilvanien'), Rev. Roum. Geogr., Bucharest, vol 1, 45-7 Ion Gagiuman is professor of geography at the of Ia§i. Translated from the French text by T. W. Freeman.

University

Mihai David

Chronology 1886

Born at Megresti, Moldavia, May 21

1910

Graduated at Ia§i University in natural science

1910-12

School teaching

1912-21

Assistant in the Geography Department at Ia§i University

1919

Doctorate for a thesis on the geology of the Moldavian plateau

1921

Attended an excursion led by E. de Martonne in the eastern Carpathians, Moldavia and Dobrogea

1932

Founded a geographical society in lasi University

1939

Became a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy

19^1

President of the Congress of Romanian Geographers

19^1-M

Rector of Ia§i University

195^

Died at Ia§i, June 26

33

Ludovic Drapeyron 1839-1901

NUMA BROC 1.

EDUCATIONt

LIFE

AND WORK

Ludovic Drapeyron was born at Limoges on 26 February 1839. His father was an industrial worker though his mother was the daughter of an inspector }.n the Limoges Academy. Drapeyron's first schooling was at Barcelona, where his father managed a china works, but from 18U9-57 he was a pupil at the Limoges lycee and from 1857-9 at the lycee Charlemagne. As a student at the Ecole Normale Superieure he followed the courses given in historical geography by E. Desjardins and was attracted to the history of mediaeval times. Having gained his agrGgation in 1862 he taught from 1862-9 at the Besancgn lycee and prepared a thesis on mediaeval history for which he received the degree of Docteur es lettres in 1869. He then became a teacher at the lycee Napoleon (Henri IV) as successor to Emile Levasseur {Geogr. Biobibl. Stud. , vol 2 (1978), 8l-7), who had left to become professor of economic geography at the College de France. During the siege of Paris in 1870 in his articles published in I'Eleoteuv Libre he demanded the calling of a national assembly. When the war with Prussia was over he continued to write on the dangers of German aggression in Europe, fostered by the policies of Bismarck, as a permanent threat to peace. With this he continued his studies of mediaeval history, on which he contributed several papers to the R&vue Politique et Litt&raire, the R&oue Soientifique and the R&vue des Deux Mondes. In all he wrote some 200 articles, varied in length and in depth. From 1875 Drapeyron turned aside from political activity and gave all his energy to work in history and geography. Like many of his contemporaries he was

appalled by the inadequate teaching of geography at all levels of education in France, and expressed his hope of making changes in a paper given at the International Geographical Congress in 1875 at Paris. In 1876 he was one of the founders of the Societe de Topographie and in 1877 he established the Revue de Geographie, a main purpose of which was to make geography one of the 'political sciences' and to link the somewhat utilitarian approach of the various geographical societies existing in France with a scientific geography that was as yet scarcely articulate. Associated with the R&vue de Geographie were the notable contemporary French geographers, whether working in universities or outside them, including Gaffarel, Berlioux, Cortambert (Geogr'. Biobibl. Stud., vol 2 (1978), 21-5), Himly (ibid., vol 1 (1977), ^3-7) Levasseur (ibid., vol 2 (1978), 8l-7), Camena d'Almeida and others. Even the great Vidal de la Blache was not averse to writing for the R&vue in the years before he founded the Annales de Geographie in 1891. From 1880 Drapeyron pursued his campaign for higher education in geography, before then made subordinate to history. Among his supporters eager to establish a national school of geography were General Faidherbe, A. Bardoux, a former minister of education, and Ferdinand de Lesseps, then president of the Paris Geographical Society. Even so, in 1885 the government remained hostile and discouraged any idea of special schools, but Drapeyron contined to advocate the foundation of an agrtgation for geography students. This idea was defeated by Himly, the most influential teacher of geography at the Sorbonne, who had nothing but

36 Ludovio Drapeyron

contempt for 'scientific' geography. However Drapeyron achieved some success for from 1885 colonial geography was taught at the Sorbonne and from 1886 physical geography was taught in the Faculty of Science at Paris while from 1890 geography was taught at several of the French provincial universities: before 1890 it had been represented only at Caen, Nancy, Lyon and Bordeaux. Drapeyron's biographer, G. Regelsperger, commented that as a geographer and historian he gave all his life to his work. Modest and unassuming, he devoted his whole

strength to the Sooiiti

de Topographie and the R&vue de

Geographie. He remained in Paris, absorbed in these two enterprises and in his teaching at the lyce"e Charlemagne until his retirement in 1899, though he was offered teaching posts at universities in the provinces. A 'geographer of the study', he travelled hardly at all, except to the International Geographical Congresses at Venice in l88l and Berlin in 1899. He died on 9 January 1901.

2.

SCIENTIFIC IDEAS AND GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT

Apart from Drapeyron's historical work which is not considered here, his one main idea was to inculcate in the national consciousness the knowledge of geography or — to express it more adequately — the geographical spirit. His thought and its practical outcome may be summarized in four main levels.

a.

Topography

To Drapeyron 'topography was the soul of geography'. Topography must be the whole foundation of the new geography and therefore all geographers should be well versed in map reading. But there was a wider concept of 'topography' in his work, presaging a broadly-based 'physical geography' associated with geology, botany and zoology.

b.

Geography and the Tuonan sciences

Drapeyron said that properly understood geography brought human understanding to the political sciences. It was not merely the servant of history, but rather the key to and support of all the political sciences: without geography the institutions, the military and political history of peoples, the modifications of races and of languages, the varied forms of civilization and religion, were almost unintelligible. Without geography no serious study of history was possible. All this explains the insistence on the 'application' of geography to history: for example one section of the Societe de Topographie was named •Geographie applique a l'etude d'Histoire', and the project for the agrigation, to be achieved so many years later, was the 'Application de la geographie a l'etude d'histoire'. Drapeyron may or may not have observed that the first volume of Ratzel's Anthropogeographie, 1882, had the subtitle 'the application of geography to history'. He commented on occasion that geographical understanding was a characteristic of such diverse personalities as Richlieu, Napoleon, Bismark and even Joan of Arc.

a.

Geography as a new humanism

Drapeyron saw geography as a new humanism, stronger than lesser conceptions such as a nomenclature, a memory training, a congested encyclopaedic treatment of human knowledge. He often noted the prevalence of 'encyclopaedic geography' at his time and on this observed that 'Geography is not some kind of universal knowledge in which all the surface phenomena of the earth are assembled together in an artificial manner and listed alphabetically'. On the contrary, geography is the 'science of the earth itself and its various branches, political, economic and historical, must be subordinate to physical geography. His ideas were in fact deterministic: not only were the various aspects of physical geography firmly related (topography with geology; geology with flora) but also the supreme purpose of geography was to show the 'indissoluble relationships between earth and man'. There lay the new humanism of a reformed geography. The humanities could no longer ignore it any more than they could ignore history or philosophy. Its mission was clear. History deals with the past and geography with the present. Philosophy is speculation but geography is living action.

d.

'Living

action'

Drapeyron developed the idea of living action by the argument that geography was the natural basis for military activity, for diplomacy, commerce, and colonial action. The failure to take adequate cognisance of geography was seen in the 'Langson affair'. In March 1885 the retreat of a French military force in the north of Tonkin showed the inadequate training of some French military officers. This led to the fall of the government of Jules Ferry, and indirectly to the teaching of colonial geography at the Sorbonne. Drapeyron was convinced that expansion into distant and little known areas would fail without adequate geographical survey. Influenced by the colonial aspirations of the Third Republic, he argued that in time the world would belong to those who knew it best. Finally, though constantly advocating modern and contemporary geography, Drapeyron was always interested in the work of past geographers and cartographers and wrote studies of Bouguereau, Le Clerc, and Cassini de Thury.

3.

INFLUENCE AND SPREAD OF IDEAS

As a lycee teacher Drapeyron was not in a position to attract adult disciples though a number of colleagues and friends shared his ideas, among whom were A. Dupaigne, professor of natural sciences at Stanislas College (a Catholic institution near Paris), F. Hennequin who was president of the Societe de Topographie, P. Cortambert and G. Regelsperger. In the short term his influence was greater with the general public and in political, military and colonial circles than in higher education. Outside France he was often regarded as the representative of French geography, notably at the International Geographical Congress at Venice in l88l when he presided over the educational section. In general Drapeyron, a man of new ideas and a tireless organizer, was more concerned with spreading geographical knowledge than with building up his own

Ludovic Drapeyron

scientific work. He looked to the future, and in this his success could be measured in much that happened after his time, including the foundation of the Institut de Geographie at Paris in 1925 and of the agr&gation in geography in 191+2. In some ways more of a theoretical than a practical geographer, his work did much to make possible the striking development of French geography after 1900.

Bibliography and Sources Except for formal death notices, the only obituary of consequence is Regelsperger, G., 'Ludovic Drapeyron', Rev. G&ogr., vol 1+8 (1901), l6l-9. Drapeyron's papers are numerous and on a wide range of subjects: no general bibliography has ever been compiled. His thesis for the D. es L. in 1869 was on L'empereur Heraclius et I 'Empire byzantin au Vllhne siScle with the Latin presentation, De burgundioe historia et ratione politico. Merovingorum ootate. His political writings included L 'Europes la France et les Bonaparte (l87l) and Les deux folies de Paris, Quillet 1870s mars, 1871 (1872). His geographical work may be conveniently listed under five headings. a. Theory of geography 1877 'De la transformation de la methode des sciences politiques par les etudes geographiques et de 1'application des reformes du Congres geographiques de Paris', Rev. G&ogr. , vol 1, 11-1+3 'Les nouvelles institutions geographiques de la France: la Societe de Topographie', Rev. Geogr., vol 1, 329-1+0 1885 'Que la geographie est une science grace a la topographie,' Rev. Geogr., vol 16, 1+01-11 1886 'La geographie et les humanites', Rev. G'eogr. , vol 18, 1*01-11 b. The teaching of geography 1885 'L'ecole de geographie devant le Senat', Rev. Geogr. , vol 17, l6l-8 'Professeurs d'histoire et professeurs de geographie*, Rev. G&ogr. , vol 17, 1*01-12 1886 'L'Ecole de geographie devant le conseil gSnerale des facultes de l'Academie de Paris: la consultation des deux doyens', Rev. G&ogr., vol 18, 108-13 'Les chaires de geographie dans les Facultes', Rev. Geogr.., vol 18, 303-01+ 'Examen du voeu du Congres concernant une agregation speciale de geographie', Rev. G'eogr., vol 18, 3U 3-9 1887 'Les deux Buache, ou l'origine de l'enseignement geographique par versants et par bassin', Rev. G'eogr. , vol 21, 6-l6 c. History of geography 1885 'Le sens de geographie du cardinal de Richelieu', Rev. Geogr., Vol 17, 27^-88

37

1887

'Le diagnostique topographie de Napoleon', Rev. GZogr. , vol 20, 321-30, 1+35-1+6; vol 21 (1887), 109-18, 20U-13; vol 22 (1888), 172-89 'L'education geographique de Louis XVI, Louis XVIII et Charles X ' , Rev. Geogr., vol 2 1 , 21+1-56 'L'image de la France sous les derniers Valois (1525-1589) et sous les premiers Bourbons', Rev. G£ogr., vol 2k, 1-15 1890 'L'oeuvre geographique du prince de Bismarck', Rev. G'eogr. , vol 26, 321-30 1896 'La vie et les travaux geographiques de Cassini de Thury, auteur de la premiere carte topographique de la France', Rev. G&ogr. , vol 29, 21*1-53 d. Other works 1890 'Le premier atlas national de la France, (15891591*),' Bulletin de geographie historique et descriptive annee 1890, 35-57 1899-1900 'A travers I'Allemagne du Nord', Rev. G'eogr., vol 1*5, 1*01-17; vol 1+6, l-ll, 86-99, l6l*-73, 268-76 Numa Broc is a professor of geography at the Centre Universitaire de Perpignan3 France. Translated by T. W. Freeman.

Chronology 1839

Born at Limoges, February 26

181+0-1+9

Childhood spent in Barcelona

181+9-57

Secondary education at Limoges

1857-59

At the lycee Charlemagne studied for entrance to the Ecole Normale Superieure

1862

Graduated in history at the E.N.S.

1862-69

Taught at the lycee in Besancon

1869

Awarded the D. is Lettres and taught at the lycee Napoleon (Henri TV) During the siege of Paris he opposed resistance to the bitter end, but strongly denounced German aggression. From this time was an active writer, and worked at the lycee Charlemagne Advocated the revival of geography in French education

I87O-I

1875 1876

With F. Hennequin, founded the Societe de Topographie

1877

Founded the Revue de Geographie

38

LudovCc Drapeyron

l88l

President of the Education Section at the IGU Congress held in Venice

188U

Advocated a national school of geography in France

1885

Vigorously involved in a new campaign for an agrtgation in geography

1899

Travelled in Germany on his retirement

1900

At the Paris Exposition was awarded a gold medal for his work on the Revue de

G&ographie

1901

Died in Paris, January 9

Charles Bungay Fawcett 1883-1952

T. W. FREEMAN For twenty one years, from 1928 to 19^+9, Fawcett was Professor of Geography at University College, London and in his short retirement he spent two years as a Visiting Professor in Clark University, which gave him an honorary Sc. D. in 1950, and on his way home he served temporarily, from September 1951 to March 1952, as Head of the Department of Geography in the University of Ceylon at Colombo. Unfortunately he had become ill while attending the Indian Science Congress in 1951 and he died soon after his return to England, at Guildford on 21 September 1952. If retirement is an expression of a man's character, this was certainly so for Fawcett. He loved to teach geography, to encourage others in their work and to share the fellowship of a university. Blessed with a happy home life through his marriage in 1917» with his wife he was a familiar figure at geographical gatherings of all kinds, always courteous and tactful in his dealings with others, reserved in some ways but enjoying conversation with a wide range of people, particularly with teachers. He had a strong social conscience, expressed most clearly in his writings on national and international planning problems in a broad sense. His published work shows the influence of H. J. Mackinder and he cared particularly about poverty and malnutrition: as H. J. Fleure commented (Geography, vol 37 (1952), 233) "The problem of feeding an ever increasing number of mouths haunted him and he worked out estimates of the cultivable land of the world.' He had none of the charisma as a speaker of Mackinder, Roxby, or Eva Taylor and never aspired to an emotional appeal in presenting his case: rather he was a precise lecturer, presenting his case

in an apparently cold manner in a small but excellently produced voice, with occasional flashes of dry wit. There was a great sense of purpose in his teaching and writing, and his interest was in humanism. Living through two world wars and the difficult twenty years between them, he shared the concern of thoughtful people on the future as well as the present. 1.

EDUCATION,

LIFE

AND WORK

Fawcett was born at Staindorp, County Durham on 25 August 1883 and was educated at Gainford Grammar School after which he became a primary teacher. In November 190^ he entered University College, Nottingham (now the University of Nottingham) and in 1908 he was awarded the External Pass B. Sc. degree of London University in Division II. He spent the next two years, to 1910, teaching at Long Eaton Grammar School, but his zeal for research was increasing and during vacations from 1910 he began to study the valley of the river Tees, on which his M. Sc. thesis of London University was presented in 1916. In 1910, however, he went to Oxford University as a student for the Diploma in Geography, which he acquired in 1912. At that time A. J. Herbertson was in charge of geographical teaching and from him Fawcett received a thorough grounding in the physical basis of regional geography, notably in climatology. This became basic in his teaching. He taught the world distribution of climate on a basis of average monthly temperatures and rainfall with such skill that many students, given a set of figures, could by deductive argument locate any climatic station

40

Charles Bungay Fawoett

in the world. But under the influence of Herbertson's teaching of human geography, with that of H. J. Mackinder on political aspects of geography, he also developed a wide-ranging interest in population and settlement, particularly on conurbations, regional units to replace the archaic counties of England, and world food supply. Though much of his work deals with large areas, he cared very much for local investigations and encouraged students to write studies of small areas as part of the second year Honours course during his years at Leeds. This was in accord with the practice at Oxford and with the enticing oratory of Patrick Geddes (185^-1932), whose will to replan the human environment was based on investigation of things as they currently were. In Fawcett's time human geography was experimental but its followers were convinced that it had boundless opportunities. Writing in 193^, after the IGU Congress in Warsaw, Fawcett said that the meetings revealed that 'we are as yet in the early stages of investigation of the many problems of human geography, and have not reached well-established generalizations'. From 1925 the IGU Commission on the Rural Habitat studied dispersed and nucleated settlement and by 1939 a thousand papers had been written, but as Fawcett observed old generalizations on reasons for the sites of villages and isolated settlements proved to be invalid, such as those on water supply, protection against invaders and — especially — Meitzen's association of dispersion with certain racial types (Geogr. J., vol Qk (1931*), U27 and vol 93 (1939), 132-5). Large problems engaged the attention of geographers in Fawcett's time. He wrote his Oxford B. Litt. thesis

of 1913 on The fjord

peoples:

an essay on human

geography. This was a comparative study, dealing with peoples living on fjord coasts around the North Atlantic and the Pacific and the purpose was clearly defined for such a group of different peoples living in similar lands offers a favourable opportunity for an investigation into the extent to which their development has been influenced by the geographical conditions under which they live ... The method employed was 'to give a survey of the 'geographic' (sic) conditions, especially topography, climate, natural resources and communications , a study of the people to the land and the effects produced in their modes of life, their social organization, and their relations with other peoples'. Following Grenfell and Nansen, Fawcett stated that contact with European and other traders, and also with missionaries, had been unfortunate. The second thesis of Fawcett, his London M. Sc. in

Geology, 19l6, was on The Middle Tees and its tributaries - a study in river development. As noted above,

this had been in mind at least from 1910, and readers of

H. J. Mackinder's Britain

and the British

seas of 1902

will recall that such work was then much favoured in physical geography. In the thesis Fawcett suggests that 'at least three distinct cycles of erosion may be seen. . . the smooth upland surface, possibly of Tertiary origin, the second cycle of shallow mature valleys, perhaps late Tertiary, and the last, youthful cycle, with deep narrow gorges due to postglacial uplift. The conclusions were presented to the Royal Geographical Society at a meeting in 1916, and published later in

the same year. In 1918 Fawcett published a short book on

Frontiers:

a study in political

geography,

in which

he was concerned with the choice of boundaries least likely to cause future strife, and in a paper of 1922 on 'Some geographical factors in the growth of the state' (Scott. Geogr. Mag., vol 38 (1922), 221-32) he emphasized the 'sheer distance' element that became so familiar to his students: he pointed out the difficulty of achieving a unitary state in the case of Egypt, where the effectively cultivated land was in a belt TOO miles long and at most a mile or two wide. The continuing interest in political geography was reflected

later in his Political

geography of the British

Empire

of 1933, a book which now seems nostalgic for though he avoided nineteenth century imperialism he did not discern the imminence of vast political changes. . It reflected the hope of its time that the Empire, evolving into a Commonwealth, was likely to endure as a world political entity abiding for many generations. Fawcett had great faith in what he called the 'Englishry', meaning in general the English-speaking people as a united force for world peace and regarded the Commonwealth as 'a World State in close relations with most of the other states of the world ... probably the most hopeful effort to create a world union which is now being made'. Early in the Second World War some of Fawcett's political ideas

were extended in The basis of a world commonwealth, 19U1, where once again he looked forward to the establishment of peace based on the unity of the 'Englishry' in effect a pax Anglo-Americana. This was a view not infrequently expressed in articles, speeches and sermons during the war years but it ignored the world impact of Communism and the potential power of the USSR. Fawcett argued that the British Commonwealth might be extended into a World Commonwealth to include the other 'democratic states of Europe', listed as Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. He feared that Germany could never become a democracy and he was strongly averse to Fascism which 'might become the political aspect of Roman Catholicism', and also to Communism which in the USSR, he thought, 'had resulted in the old Russian Empire under new management'. Some of these judgements may now seem naive and there was certainly an element of prejudice, particularly in his strictures on the church. But it is hard to see how any political geographer can be completely objective, except by producing an unreadable book. Fawcett returned to the

Empire theme in Geography in the twentieth

century,

edited by Griffith Tayior and published in 1951. In this final paper of his career (except for a short study, 'Maps in the study of international relations'), Fawcett goes back to the teaching of Mackinder's view of first, 'the idea of the development of the nation and state in its nuclear area, or metropolitan region', and second 'the concept of the complementary and conflicting roles of the Heartland and the marginal regions'. This he had developed five years earlier in the Herbertson Memorial Lecture of the Geographical Association given in 19^6 (Geography, vol 32 (19U7), 1-12). In the 1951 paper he said that 'Every empire had at its heart a geographical base, a nuclear area, or metropolitan region', and he ascribed the loss of the Spanish Empire to resources inadequate to re-establish a new universal empire, at

Charles Bungay Fawoett once overseas and European, built on the tradition of the Roman Empire but as a great Catholic power. France was far richer, having a fine nuclear area in the Paris basin, and able in time to aspire to universal European conquest, until the battle of Waterloo. Britain's empire was based on the nuclear area of the English Lowland, on effective communications by land and sea and a headstart in industrialization. The USA could only become a great power with modern communications, for in the pre-railway age, places two hundred miles or more away from the capital were hard to control (the emphasis on 'sheer distance' once again), so 'the U.S.A. is a product of the railway and the modern British Empire a product of the steamship'. However by the late 19^0s it was clear that Russian had become a great power, and Fawcett — writing in the 'cold war' period — came to the conclusion that Western Europe is at present the key region in world politics; and the hope of peace in the world of today depends on whether its peoples and states can, and will be allowed to, unite for the maintenance of their own economic and political security and freedom. Without such union the States of Western Europe cannot hope to maintain their independence, or to hold their dependencies, except under the protection of one of the Giant Powers. Yet today the addition of Western Europe with all its human and mineral resources to either of the Giant Powers would give that one a decisive superiority which could lead to a World State. Fawcett briefly considers the possible emergence of China and India as world powers but is convinced that 'at present ... Western Europe is ... the key region of world politics'. Reviewing the life and work of Fawcett, it is easy to discern the dominating influence of Mackinder and, to a lesser extent, Herbertson. He maintained their basic reverence for a regional approach to geography based on local study as on broad natural regions, mainly climatic though he experimented with such entities as the 'Nordic region'. He adopted the 'nuclear core' idea for states and groups of states as in Western Europe; he shared the concern of his time for the hunger of millions of the world's population and on home affairs he called attention to problems of administrative units and conurbations. By nature he was pragmatic and practical, always concerned to express his views in a clear and concise manner. This was well shown in his book published in 1919, The Provinces of England, one of the volumes in the Making of the future series of the Williams and Norgate firm, among which was Patrick Geddes' famous Evolution of cities, 1915» in which the term 'conurbation' first appeared. Fawcett eagerly adopted this term, and wrote an article on 'British conurbations in 1921' in the Sociological Review, vol lU, 111-22: this paper did not attract much attention, but a further development of the conurbation theme {Geogr. J., vol 79 (1932), 100-16) for the 1931 Census was widely read, particularly after the Second World

41

War. Fawcett gave a far more precise definition of the term 'conurbation' than Geddes, and with a little modification it was adopted for the 1951 Census of England and Scotland. Later, for the 197^ redefinition of local government boundaries, the conurbations became the basis of larger areas known as metropolitan counties. Fawcett's first university appointment was at Southampton University College in 1913 as a lecturer and during the war years he also worked at the Ordnance Survey. In 1919 he went to Leeds as lecturer in Geography, becoming Reader in the following year. The Honours course, established in 1919, had its first graduate in 1922. One feature of the work at Leeds was the provision of lectures on Railway Geography to classes selected from 'the clerical staff of the NorthEastern Railway'. These were given during the two winter terms at Hull in 1919-20, Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1920-1 and Darlington in 1921-2, and according to the University's Annual Report 'took the lecturer away for a full twenty-four hours in each week*. This work was continued throughout his service in Leeds. Before the First World War, geography had been merely a subsidiary subject to geology in Leeds, and a topic for annual summer schools held in association with Sheffield University and Armstrong College, Newcastle, then part of Durham University. With Fawcett's arrival, geography became an independent department, in which virtually all the students were intending teachers in the new grammar schools. A diploma course was also established to give an additional qualification for teachers unable to take the Honours degree. In 1928, Fawcett was offered, unsolicited, the chair of geography at University College, London, held by the controversially-minded L. W. Lyde from 1903. Then began his years of constant activity in London. He built up a vigorous department in University College and his outside work developed strongly. When the LePlay Society was formed in 1930 he gave it active support for its main interests were in education and field work. The Society's Presidents were Sir Patrick Geddes, Sir Halford Mackinder, Lord Meston and Sir John Russell. Fawcett enlisted the help of numerous colleagues in running tours of the Society, which gave many people, notably teachers, practical experience of fieldwork. Always sympathetic to younger university teachers, Fawcett was active in the Association of University Teachers, of which he became the national president in 191+5-6. He regularly attended meetings of Section E (Geography) of the British Association, and in 1937 at Nottingham, gave the Presidential Address on 'The changing distribution of population'. Much is owed to his patience in dealings with the Royal Geographical Society, which during the inter-war period was reluctant to accept papers on human geography, then more likely to find a home in Geography, the Geographical Review or the Scottish Geographical Magazine. The archives of the Society show that from 1929-3^ there were negotiations and talks in which several senior geographers were involved. One fortunate result was that the Society's centenary celebrations included a symposium on world population problems but some harsh words were said on various papers published elsewhere on human and regional geography: at a meeting on 9 December 1929, A. R. Hinks, then secretary and editor of the Royal Geographical Society, said that Fawcett's own paper on Edale {Scott.

42

Charles Bungay Fawoett

Geogr. Mag., vol 33 (1917), 12-25), came to 'conclusions much the same as for all country places'. Dr. Marion Newbigin, editor of the Scottish. Geographical Magazine, saw things differently. In a footnote on the first page of the article she wrote that It has not been our custom to publish here detailed regional surveys of areas outside Scotland. An exception has been made in the case of the present paper because the region treated has more than local importance, and the deductions based upon the survey are applicable to parts of Scotland as well as of England. The Royal Geographical Society gave a similarly unfriendly reception to another paper eventually published in the Scottish journal. They said that H. J. Fleure's 'human regions' were 'vague' {Scott. Geogr. Mag., vol 35 (1919), 9^-105 and later in Ann. Gtogr. ), using such terms as 'parts of the Mediterranean' which were 'unsatisfactory' for '... when you come down to it a region degenerates to a patch: and then there is nothing more ... than saying "this place is fertile"'. In time all was forgiven and both Fleure and Fawcett served on the Council of the Royal Geographical Society: Fawcett's first period of service was from 1929-33 and the second from 19^5-9, when he became a Vice-President. If considerable tact were needed in dealing with RGS, still more was needed in work for the Institute of British Geographers. Many younger geographers said that abundant material was available for publication in monograph form, much of it derived from post-graduate theses. To finance this they hoped to acquire a subscription of 1% of salary, which would have produced £2.50 or £3.00 from junior members of staff to £10.00 from seniors. This was not accepted. When the Institute was constituted in 1933, Fawcett became its president for three years. In fact the supply of suitable monographs proved to be less abundant than forecast, though until after the Second World War no papers were published. Fawcett himself doubted the abundance of suitable monographic material. International contacts included two terms as Visiting Professor at Clark University in 1930-1 and 19*t6-7, while still in active service. At the Warsaw Congress of IGU in 193^, Fawcett was chairman of Section III (Human Geography) and he was leader of the British delegation to the first post-war congress, at Lisbon in 19^9. He was also chairman of the IGU Commission on Population from 19^9: this commission had from 1925-38 been on the rural habitant and from 1938-U9 was concerned with population and the rural habitat. 2. SCIENTIFIC IDEAS AND GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT Like many, indeed most, geographers of his time Fawcett had a firm faith in the educational value of geography, particularly regional geography. Geographical study began where one happened to be living, so it was no accident that his first published papers were on 'the teaching of the cycle of landforms' and on 'the study of local geography in schools' and that two years later,

in 1915, these were followed by 'The Long Eaton district', where he taught before entering Oxford

University.

When Great Britain:

essays in

regional

geography, edited by A. G. Ogilvie, was published in 1928, Fawcett contributed three chapters, on the Pennine Highland, the Yorkshire Region and his own home area, the north-east. And when the British Association annual meeting was held in Leeds in 1927, he edited the General handbook and wrote two contributions on the.city, 'The location of Leeds' and "The modern city; the site and plan'. Like many geographers of his time (and happily since then) he regarded it as a duty to know the home area and to illustrate geography in general from what would be seen locally; more could be seen in and around Leeds than many people supposed. His strong regional consciousness was reflected in his book of 1919, on the Provinces of England. In the preface to this work he notes that he had 'made many attempts at marking out these provinces' during the previous ten years, had read the 19l6 paper previously mentioned to the Royal Geographical Society (Geogr. J., vol kg (1917), 12U-Ul) and presented the same paper at a meeting of the Regional Association in Newbury, Berkshire, where some useful points were raised in discussion. Many people had been helpful and Fawcett records his great indebtedness to the many people who have, in various places and circumstances, given me personal information about local conditions and popular sympathies in different parts of the country, especially in areas near to these suggested boundaries. Their answers to the many questions I have put, often to strangers in a railway carriage or at casual meetings of many kinds, have always been courteous and very often helpful. But in no case has any specific statement been made on such an authority unless I have been able to confirm it otherwise. This last sentence shows the passion for accuracy that was so marked a feature of his work, at a time when some geographers were inductive in approach. Fawcett derived some of his ideas on administrative

units from H. J. Mackinder's Britain

and the British

seas,

of 1902, which considers diocesan and county boundaries, some other ancient divisions of Great Britain and Ireland, and the general division of England into two major areas, metropolitan and industrial, broadly divided by a line from the Severn to the Wash. He refers to Mackinder's work as a 'masterly work' and also noted with approval

that in Democratic ideals

and reality,

published in 1919,

Mackinder suggested that some form of federal government would be suited to the United Kingdom: these suggestions are given in quite general terms, crystallised in the statement (p. 195) that you must base national organization on provincial communities, but if your province is to have any sufficient power of satisfying local aspirations it must, except for the federal reservations, have its own complete and balanced life. That is precisely what the real freedom of men requires — scope for a full life in their own locality.

Charles Bungay Fawaett

Fawcett read Mackinder's book of 1919 after his own work was complete and quietly suggested that his provinces might be units in a federation: for example he defined a possible Lancashire, with 6h million people, covering the existing Lancashire, all save a few small areas of Cheshire, the Stoke-on-Trent (Potteries) area, northward to a line through the Lake District from west to east crossing Dunmail Raise, with a few areas of Yorkshire on the west side of the Pennines. In this province local patriotism is already strong ... it has developed a public opinion which makes (it) quite as ripe for self-government as Scotland and Wales. Each province should have 'a definite capital, which should be the real focus of its regional life': those suggested included Newcastle-on-Tyne, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Southampton, Plymouth, possibly also Oxford and Norwich. Devolution was favoured by many people in a number of countries: for example in France the centralization of power in Paris has been constantly criticized and many geographers have been advocates of regional development. Study of Fawcett's work shows that he defined the proposed regions with great care, for his concern was that 'the boundaries should be so chosen as to interfere as little as possible with the ordinary movements and activities of the people'. Each province should have an adequate population to justify selfgovernment though none should be nationally dominant from voting power. Generally watersheds would provide suitable boundaries rather than rivers: it was surely anachronistic that the Thames should be a county boundary for almost the whole of its course. Conurbations were also a source of interest to Fawcett, though he defined them on a bricks-and-mortar basis, observing how one town merged into another even though, as in West Yorkshire, there might be considerable enclaves of agricultural land between them. This proved to be a basis for the statistical work of the 1951 Census when the major conurbations of the West Midlands, Merseyside, Greater Manchester (initially called Southeast Lancashire-Northeast Cheshire or SELNEC), West Yorkshire and Tyneside were considered. In fact the interlocking of towns in such areas had become more marked after 1931 for new residential suburbs were spreading over much of the intervening land between towns. Fawcett's work on political geography, and on world food supply, was less fruitful than his writings on provinces and on conurbations. After the Second World War empires disintegrated though new economic and political alignments emerged which Fawcett saw only in his last years. Political geography remained of interest but the need appeared to be for detailed study rather than for the broad concepts that Fawcett had derived partly from Mackinder. Even so, his concern with population problems, and the feeding of the world's inhabitants, remained a permanent concern, carefully studied by geographers such as L. D. Stamp and others. As it happened, Fawcett's detailed regional work, based like that of most workers of his time on maps (including small scale maps), proved more

43

lasting than his more general work on population and cultivable land or on world political geography. He belonged to a generation of geographers who were eager to give a world view, a comparative approach, to consider all continents and countries within them as regional and political entities, knowing that what happened anywhere, however remote and even unknown, might prove to be of international significance. The world had been opened to the view of humanity during the nineteenth century as never before and one educational purpose was to stimulate interest in all its territory and people. That in the later part of the twentieth century this may seem to be an impossible dream does not make the aspiration less worthy. 3. INFLUENCE AND SPREAD OF IDEAS It would be wrong to ignore the contribution Fawcett made to the school teaching of geography. Working teachers said that however exalted he might be as a professor and departmental head in London University, he also knew the problems of working in primary and secondary schools from his own experience. Some of his university colleagues found him didactic, clinging to a point of view that to him seemed to be valid. One of them commented that Fawcett was 'quite useless at the discussion of an idea in his own field': an idea was right or wrong, and though he favoured the idea of studying market and service areas of towns of different size and strength, he was critical of other attitudes to urban geography and of the wish to experiment, already showing by the end of the Second World War signs of the vigour it was to develop later. Nevertheless Fawcett's native caution did not preclude an interest in planning, and he welcomed some of the early regional plans produced from the 1920s. According to W. Iain Stevenson {Geogr. Biobibl. Stud. , vol 2 (.1978), 591, Fawcett was invited by Patrick Geddes to speak at the Dublin Summer Meeting in 191^. Geddes valued Fawcett's approach to regionalism highly and invited him to contribute a book on' the geographical aspects of political devolution for the Making of the

future

series.

This book, the Provinces

of

England,

said Stevenson, 'justly made Fawcett's reputation and had great political influence but its ideas are pure Geddes'. What Fawcett did was to transmute Geddes' inspirational but somewhat vague ideas of regionalism into a workable scheme. In i960 the Provinces of England was reissued, in a revised form with a new preface by W. G. East and S. W. Wooldridge. They note in this preface that Fawcett intended to write a revised edition of his book but this was never achieved though in 19^2 he gave a revised map in which the major changes were the transfer of Northamptonshire to the East Midlands from Central England and of the 1916 'Peakdon', the province with some 1,200,000 inhabitants (in 1919) based on Sheffield, to Yorkshire. 'Peakdon' in fact foreshadowed the South Yorkshire metropolitan district established in 197*+• The idea of regionalization in Britain came into prominence with the advance of town and country planning, especially from 19.6^ when a new Labour government was elected. In 1978 under a later Labour government legislation was passed to establish national assemblies in Scotland and Wales, but a referendum in 1979 showed

44

Charles Bungay Fawcett

that a majority of the voters in Wales were not in favour: in Scotland a small majority wished to see such an assembly but 36% of the electorate did not vote so the support was below that deemed necessary for implementation of the 1978 Act. Much more significant was the production by the Department of Economic Affairs of a series of regional surveys, on the West Midlands and the Northwest in 1965, on the East Midlands and Yorkshire and Humberside in 1966. In 196U the Ministry of Housing and Local Government published the South East study and a government report on the North East appeared in 1965. These reports showed the particular economic, and to some extent allied social problems of various recognisable regions and were significant as guidelines for future planning. Numerous works were written by geographers on regions of England and Wales, including a general survey by

G. Manners and others, Regional development

in

Britain,

I ed. 1972. Nevertheless regional parliaments of the type Fawcett had in mind as the expression of 'devolution' never became effective though the second of the two local government commissions (Redcliffe-Maud 1966-9) provided an administrative division of England into eight regional units. Reviewing these critically, J. W. House {Geogr. J. , vol 136 (1970), 6-12) notes that As far back as 1917 C. B. Fawcett stressed the merits of 'natural provincial divisions', made cohesive by their traditions, sense of patriotism, and a distinctive way of life focused upon the necessary regional capital; indeed to him the regional capital had an integrating role in transmitting the sense of regional individuality as contributing to the strength of national life, but he spoke before the era of greater personal mobility, progressive equalization of wealth and opportunity and the spread of those urban and metropolitan influences which promote greater uniformity throughout Britain (p.7).

Probably all the authors who dealt with the regional division of England and Wales in the post-19^5 period, and certainly the present writer, would acknowledge their debt to C. B. Fawcett for his clear exposition in 1917 and 1919 of the 'provinces', and some would be aware that his ideas were not entirely original but given precision and emphasis. The final settlement, implemented in 197^, of new counties and metropolitan counties retained many existing boundaries and was therefore less radical than the suggestions of Fawcett. Conurbations, following their statistical acceptance at the 1951 Census, became the basis for Greater London and the six metropolitan counties of Tyne and Wear, the West Midlands, Merseyside, Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. These units are generally larger than the conurbations suggested by Fawcett (for example Merseyside and Greater Manchester together spread from the Pennines to the Irish Sea and form a barrier between a truncated Cheshire and a truncated Lancashire), but Fawcett wrote before the post-19^5 housing spread caused the interlocking of

towns to an ever increasing extent. It might indeed seem that the less rigid definition of Patrick Geddes in his famous book of 1915, Cities in evolution, triumphed in the end. Some modernization of administrative boundaries has therefore been achieved. No doubt Fawcett would have been glad to realise that many geographers were involved in the discussions that led to the final redefinition implemented in 197^, though he might not have been entirely happy with the final solution. Pragmatic and practical he certainly was but his originality was questionable though he had the ability to give concrete expression to the ideas of others. This was derived particularly from his basic faith in local fieldwork, preferably actually on the ground but failing that on map evidence, for in his day faith in map evidence was supreme. His judgements may have been unimaginative but he stands in British geography as a pioneer applied geographer of modern times, concerned in his work to be a good citizen using his research for the general welfare of the people.

Bibliography and Sources 1. OBITUARIES ON CHARLES BUNGAY FAWCETT Obituaries appeared in Geography, vol 37 (1952), 232-3 (by H. J. Fleure); Geogr. J., vol 118 (1952), 511*-l6 (by R. 0. Buchanan); Geogr. Rev., vol 1+3 (1953), 281-2 (by R. E. Murphy) and Trans. Inst. B*r. Geogr., Publ. no. 18 (.1953) xi-xii (anon., with bibliography). 2.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS BY CHARLES BUNGAY FAWCETT

a.

Education and

aortography

'The teaching of the cycle of landforms*, Geogr. Teach. , vol 7, 19-28 'Suggestions for the study of local geography in school work', Geogr. Teach., vol 7, 117-21 1921+ 'Railway geography', Geogr. Teach., vol 12, 29^-6 1931 'England', J. Geogr., vol 30, 72-82 19I+O 'Formal writing on maps', Geogr. J., vol 95, 19-25 19U9 'A new net for a world map', Geogr. J., vol llU, 68-70 1952 'Maps in the study of international relations', 1913

Yearbook of International

b.

Regional

1915 1916 1917 1919 1927

Affairs,

no 6, 211-21

studies

'The Long Eaton district', Geogr. Teach., vol 8, 16-26 'The Middle Tees and its tributaries: a study in river development', Geogr. J., vol U8, 310-23 'Edale: a study of a Pennine dale', Scott. Geogr. Mag., vol 33, 12-25 'A regional study of North-east England', Geogr. Teach., vol 10, 32U-30 'The location of Leeds', 6-19; 'The modern city: the site and plan', 173-82, in Fawcett, C.B. (ed),

General handbook, Brit.

meeting

Assoc. Adv. Sci.,

Leeds

Charles Bungay Fawcett 1928

"The Pennine Highland*, 26U-9; 'The Yorkshire Region', 322-31; 'North-east England', 321-37; in Ogilvie, A. G. (ed), Great Britain: essays in regional geography 1930 'Regional planning in England and Wales', Rep. Proc. IGC, Cambridge, 1+53-61 191+1+ A Residential unit for town and country planning, 72p ( 2 ed 19U5)

45

vol 53, 361-73 NOTE: The author is indebted for information to the late Professor R. E. Dickinson, to Mr. A. Plumb, Registrar of the University of Nottingham and to Dr. Christine Challis, Deputy Secretary of the University of Leeds.

c. Political geography T. W. Freeman is Emeritus Professor of Geography, 1917-18 'The position of some capital cities', Geogr. University of Manchester Teach., vol 9, 238-1+3 1918 Frontiers: a study in political geography, London, 107p 1919 Provinces of England: a study in some geographical aspects of devolution, London, 296p (also I960, London, ed. East, W.G. and Wooldridge, S.W.) 1922 'Some geographical factors in the growth of the state', Scott. Geogr. Mag. vol 38, 221-32 1926 'Centres of world power', Sociol. Rev., vol 22, 72-82 1883 Born at Staindorp, Co. Durham, August 25 1932 "The Nordic Region', Scott. Geogr. Mag. , vol 1+8, 78-83 190U-08 Student at University College, Nottingham, 1933 Political geography of the British Empire, London, for London external B.Sc. degree l+10p 1938 "The question of colonies', Geogr. Rev., vol 28, 1908-10 Teacher at Long Eaton Grammar School 306-09 1910-12 Diploma in Geography course, Oxford 191+0 'Some geographical factors in world unity', University New Commonw. Q. , vol 6, 95-101 19I+I The bases of a World Commonwealth, London, l6Tp 1913 Oxford University B. Litt. degree for 191+2 'The National in the World Commonwealth', New Commonw. Q., vol 7, 191-205 thesis on 'fiord peoples' 19lt3 'Pressure of population as a factor in inter1913-19 Lecturer in Geography, Southampton national relations1, New Commonw. Q., vol 8 University College: also worked for 191+7 'Marginal and interior lands of the Old World', Ordnance Survey Geography, vol 32, 1-12, also in Weigert, H. W., et al., The new compass of the world, 91-103 19l6 London M. Sc. degree for thesis on Tees 191+9 'Life-lines of the British Empire', in Weigert, H. W., et al. The new compass of the world, valley New York, 238-1+8 1951 'Geography and the Empire', in Taylor G. (ed), 1919-28 Lecturer, then Reader in Geography at Leeds University Geography in the twentieth century, London, 1+18-32 1928-1+9 Professor of Geography, University College, London d. Population and food supply 1921 'British conurbations in 1921', Sociol. Rev., 1929-33 Served on the Council of the Royal vol lit, 111-22 Geographical Society 1925 'The distribution of population over the land', Rev. , vol 17, 85-101+ Sociol. 1930-31 Visiting Professor, Clark University 1929 'The balance of rural and urban population', Geography, vol 15, 99-106 1933-36 President of the newly established 1930 'The extent of the cultivable land', Geogr. J., Institute of British Geographers vol 76, 50U-09 1932 'The distribution of the urban population in 1 i 93 + Chairman of Human Geography section, IGU Great Britain, 1931', Geogr. J., vol 79, 100-16 Congress, Warsaw 'Some factors in population density', in PittRivers, G.H.L.F. (ed), Problems of population, !937 President of Section E (Geography), British 191-7 Association for the Advancement of Science, 193U 'Areas of concentration of population in the annual meeting at Nottingham English-speaking countries', Population, vol 1/3, 1+-13 191+5-1*6 National President of the Association 'British conurbations in 1931', C.R. Congr. Int. of University Teachers Gtogr., Paris 1931, vol 3 , U5I+-65 1937 'The changing distribution of population', Annu. 191+5-1+9 Second term of service on the Council of Rep. Brit. Assoc. , 115-28; Scott. Geogr. Mag. ,

Chronology

46

Charles Bungay Fawcett the Royal Geographical Society, after which he "became a Vice-President

igk6-hl

Again served as Visiting Professor, Clark University

19U9

Leader of the British delegation, IGU Congress, Lisbon: became president of the IGU Commission on Population

19^9-51

Further period of service at Clark University, Madison, Wisconsin

1951

Attended the Indian Science Congress

1951-52

Acted as temporary head of the Department of Geography, University of Ceylon, Colombo

1952

Died at Guildford, September 21

Robert Gradmann 1865-1950

KARL HEINZ SCHRODER Within the history of geography Robert Gradmann can be included as part of the 'great epoch of German geography' (Schmitthenner). This epoch, which began after the founding of the German Empire in 1871, brought the definitive establishment of geography in German universities, fundamental results in research, and at the same time methodological debates, the results of which to a large part are still valid today. Gradmannfs contribution to this dealt above all with the history of the cultural landscape, the geography of vegetation and settlement, and regional geography, still called Landerkunde in Germany. 1. EDUCATIONt LIFE AND WORK The little town of Lauffen on the Neckar, where Robert Gradmann was born on 18 July 1865, is in Franconian Wiirttemberg, though his family background was neither purely Franconian nor, it would seem, purely Swabian, for his forefathers included both salt-makers from Franconian Hall and upper class people from Swabian Ravensburg. Research into his family history, a pursuit which Gradmann himself enjoyed, revealed some Thuringian and French elements. His father, after basic training in his home area of upper Swabia and also in Lausanne and Ancona as a merchant, and after many years of travel acquired a small grocery store in Lauffen in 1863, where he sold 'salt and pepper, sugar and chicory, herrings and shoe polish', according to the memoirs of his son. Gradman's mother was an active, intelligent and imaginative woman, the daughter of a Lutheran pastor: before her marriage she had

worked as a governess in Geneva and as a lady's maid in Paris, and this experience gave her a knowledge of the world not usual at the time. In 1869 Gradmann's parents and their three sons moved to Stuttgart, mainly to ensure a good education for their children. Here, contrary to all their hopes, they were confronted with considerable economic difficulties. Gradmann's father was able to find only modest positions, and there were times when the family was entirely without a steady income, so that his mother was for years compelled to contribute to their maintenance by taking in sewing, letting rooms, or running a small shop selling foreign fashions. The children suffered a great deal under these difficult conditions: Gradmann later wrote that 'my youth was definitely not a child's paradise'. Yet because of this he all the more gratefully acknowledged that nothing was spared which could contribute to his or his brothers' education. The means were always found to enable them to attend not only the most expensive elementary school and gymnasium, but also for concerts, theatrical productions, and museums. Above all, money was spent on music lessons at some sacrifice of general living standards. Gradmann's parents seemed to be relieved from concern for the education of Robert when at the age of fourteen he was accepted, after difficult entrance examinations, into the Protestant seminary in Maulbronn. This seminary was directed by the Church and offered free boarding education up to the final examinations, and together with three other similar institutions which were also housed in former monasteries it was one of

48

Robert Gradmann

the best schools in the region. To his parents' dismay, however, after barely three years their son expressed the strong wish to return to the gymnasium in Stuttgart. This came from his yearning to be free from the narrow and somewhat monastic life of the boarding school, his desire to deepen his study of botany (a desire which could not be met in a humanistically-oriented seminary school), and most of all the wish to broaden his musical education. His parents finally gave in, and did not subsequently regret their decision, for one-and-a-half years later Robert competed successfully in the 'Concourse', an examination which qualified him for acceptance into the famous Stift at Tubingen. Founded shortly after the Reformation in 1536 by the Duke of Wurttemberg, and housed in a former Augustinian monastery its aim was to enable gifted and carefully selected young people to receive a free education in Protestant theology. Kepler, Hegel, Holderlin, Schelling, and many other famous scholars and poets had studied in this institution, comparable to the colleges of the older English universities. In the nineteenth century students here could also study languages, mathematics, and the natural sciences if they intended to become teachers. Gradmann would therefore have been able to follow his interests and devote himself to botany, but he had no inclination towards becoming a teacher or working in the museum, which he saw as the only professional possibilities for such an education. Sober consideration held him back from devoting himself entirely to music, although he had been repeatedly advised to do so by professors at the Stuttgart conservatory. Thus he decided to undertake a theological education, for which he possessed the necessary religious conviction. At the same time, however, he took this step with the hope that as a pastor he would have ample time to pursue his scientific interests. His model in this was his paternal grandfather, who in addition to being an active pastor was also a well-known plant breeder. For one who knew Gradmann later as a serious scholar it is almost impossible to picture him as a light-hearted student with a colourful ribbon and red cap, who enjoyed drinking with his companions and often engaged in harmless pranks. In the streets of Tubingen he was more often seen in riding boots than with his bookbag, and later he was known for his 'pleasurable habit of cutting lectures'. The real reason for his behaviour as a student was, however, his disinclination towards the purely receptive listening to lectures, for he could take in things more easily with his eye than his ear. His studies therefore consisted mainly of reading books, and in this sense he was a thoroughly dedicated student. His rebellion against the system received brilliant exoneration when, at the age of twenty-two, he was able effortlessly to pass the examination for his first theological degree, and his excellent marks opened for him the prospect of the position of superintendent {Dekan). He served for four years as a pastor's assistant in various places in Wurttemberg, and in 1891 he was made the pastor of the town Forchtenberg, which at that time had fewer than 1,000 inhabitants. Now that he had a permanent position within the Church, he could begin to think about starting a family, and in the same year he married Julie Tritschler, the daughter of a respected hotel owner in Tubingen. They had been

engaged for three years. The marriage ultimately produced two children: Hans (b. 1892), who was to become a respected botanist, and Gretel (b. 189*0, who married a pastor. Strange as it may seem, Gradmann's scientific career actually began in tiny Forchtenberg: there his

Plant life

of the Swabian Alb was written in 1893-8.

He had been inspired by Eugen Nagele, who had belonged to the same fraternity as Gradmann at the University, and was now one of the leaders of the Swabian Alb Club and highly respected throughout the region. After familiarizing himself with scientific botany, Gradmann was then compelled to work on his theme far removed from any scientific institution. Towards this goal he ordered hundreds of books from libraries in Stuttgart, Tubingen, Berlin, Munchen, Vienna and Strassburg, and also undertook countless excursions through the region he was studying. When the first volume was published Nagele, without Gradmann's knowledge, presented it for evaluation without the title page — i.e. without indication of its author — to the professor who at the time occupied the chair of botany in Tubingen. The latter's reactions, not only positive but extremely enthusiastic, led Nagele to pose the question as to whether it would be suitable for submission as a doctoral thesis. The answer to this was an eager 'yes', and thus several weeks later Gradmann, without ever having heard a lecture in botany or any other natural science, after an oral examination received the title of doctor of natural sciences with the designation summa own laude. The book sold so quickly that a new printing was needed after a few weeks. Outside the region the book found a response mainly in scientific geography. This is hardly surprising, for Gradmann himself explains that he had conceived of his enterprise 'from the beginning as a geographical task', and in fact all of the original and basic information contained in the book derives more from a geographical than a botanical approach. What Gradmann presented here was the first botanical description of a German region from a geographical point of view. This is how he himself explained the sensational success of his book, which was to achieve two additional printings in 1936 and 1950. Gradmann nevertheless did not yet see himself at this time as a geographer, and participated in the International Geographical Congress in Berlin in 1899 only in order to hear the papers dealing with his branch of research. However, his name was at this time already so well known that he was one of the prominent persons among the congress participants who were presented to the Imperial Chancellor and also received an invitation from the City Council of Hamburg to visit the Hansa town. He found his personal meetings with Penck, Kirchhoff, Regel, and Nansen to be more important, as well as those with Engler and Drude, who invited him to participate in

writing The vegetation

of the

earth.

The year 1901 marked a turning point in Gradmann's life. At this time he was offered the position of university librarian in Tubingen, for which he had applied. It was not easy for him to leave his profession as a pastor, yet he was gripped by a certain 'happy feeling of freedom' in the process. This feeling, however, came not from any antipathy toward his religious vocation, still less for Christianity in general, but rather from the urge of a born scientist for precise scientific work and

Robert Gradmann at the same time a sense of release from the everpresent conflict between faith and knowledge. He was to keep the position of librarian, which he fulfilled conscientiously, for eighteen years: German libraries are indebted to him for a new system of cataloguing, still in use today, which he developed as part of his activities. Gradmann was to enter geography definitively during this — his second — period in Tubingen. While still in Forchtenburg he had written two papers, which in other ways point in this direction: "The Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Boundary and the Franconian Coniferous Region' (l899) and 'The Historical Development of the Central European Landscape' (1901). The latter work originated from a paper given in Stuttgart, which Alfred Hettner requested for publication in his

Geographische Zeitschrift.

Hettner also finally opened

the way for Gradmann to enter geography by arranging for him to write the geographical section of the new edition of the official regional description The Kingdom of

Wurttemberg.

Gradmann became a geographer in the fullest sense of the term through his work in the following five years (1903-07) with all of Wurttemberg1s geographical material: through excursions and trips which, paid for entirely by the government, he was able to make as often as and wherever he liked, through the confrontation with physical- and anthropogeographical problems, and through the survey of the landscape of southwest Germany in all of its complexity. Finally, Gradmann's participation in the official description of the small administrative district of Urach, which above all gave him a chance to deepen his knowledge of geomorphology, also made a contribution in this direction. Thus it was but a small and entirely logical step for him to become a Privatdozent (reader) in geography through habilitation at the late age of kk, through the encouragement of Karl Sapper. He was so attached to botany that when the faculty of natural sciences suggested that he should become a professor of geography he asked for time to consider the offer. In the trauma of these decision-making days he recognized, as he records in his memoirs, that from the beginning of his scientific activity his intellectual orientation had been primarily that of a geographer. He himself had not suspected this earlier and therefore, in his decision in favour of geography, Gradmann only 'finally found the way home to that science for which I was born'. The title of Privatdozent was conferred at

the end of 1909, on the basis of the work The cultivation of grain in German and Roman antiquity , which

iiad already been published. In the following years Gradmann earned the systematic qualification necessary for taking over a professorial chair of instruction. This involved further

publications, of which his Settlement

geography of the

Kingdom of Wurttemberg (1913-1*0 was by far the most important, research trips to South Tirol and Istria in 1910 and Algeria in 1913, and above all a course of lectures which helped him to acquire a close familiarity with all of the important branches of geography. The new occupant of the professorial chair, Carl Uhlig (Sapper had left in 1910 for Strassburg) served as a military geographer for the entire duration of the First World War, and had to give his teaching respons-

49

ibilities to Gradmann. The latter had also volunteered for military service and had already begun training as a medical orderly, but because of his small size and delicate frame he was not accepted. He then without hesitation took over all of the lecture courses which Uhlig had announced, although these included geomorphology, climatology, and oceanography, and also regional courses on France, Africa, and South America. "This was' he wrote later, c a most useful and beneficial preparatory exercise for a future professorial chair\ Nevertheless he had to wait several years before receiving this position, for during the war none of the chairs in Germany which had become vacant were filled. However, in 1919 he was able to choose between three universities — Konigsberg, Wurzburg, and Erlangen — for all of which he had been the first choice. His decision was for Erlangen and he declined Albrecht Penck's request to succeed him in Berlin. Gradmann's years in Erlangen brought him complete fulfilment of his professional hopes. During this time he was at the height of his powers and, until the onset in 1927 of an incurable illness of his wife lasting for many years, in the happiest period of his personal life. His description of this period in his memoirs is almost rapturous, and begins in the following way: 'There is no occupation more delightful than that of a university professor'. His new position brought with it a mass of administrative activities, organizational work, and responsibilities for conducting examinations. Among all these may be mentioned the development of the geographical institute (which at that time possessed only a small number of books and no maps whatsoever), the positions of dean (1922-23), rector (1925-26), the chairman of the Central Commission for German Geography (1919-1930), and the chairman of the Central Committee of the Conference of German Geographers (1931-33). In the last-named position he had the task of preparing for the Conference of German Geographers planned for Vienna in 1933, which fell victim to Hitler's foreign policy under which Germans were unable to export currency to Austria. Despite these responsibilities, and also his manysided activities in various societies, his scientific work was always in the forefront, even during his time as rector. In the fifteen years before he became an emeritus professor in 193** he produced a total of 56 works. The most impressive of these is his description of South Germany (1931, 768 pages), which he had promised Albrecht Penck in 1917 for the series, the 'Library of Regional-Geographical Handbooks'. As a full professor Gradmann would have had every chance to travel as widely as he wished to at least after the inflation of 1923. However, to write his book on Southern Germany, he sacrificed all the free time which would otherwise have been available, for travel in those regions with which he felt it necessary to become better acquainted. After the completion of this work he was free to undertake extensive trips. The first took him to the Orient, and resulted in the small book The steppes of the Orient (193M, in which he reconstructs the primaeval landscape with its contrasts between deserts, steppes and Mediterranean forests, and determines the cultural-historical significance of the steppes. A second journey, directed.towards more general study, took him to Greece in 193^. In 1936 Gradmann returned to Tubingen. He contin-

SO

Robert

Gradmann

ued his scientific work, although he did not seek any new themes. His goal was rather to "bring his fundamental ideas into line with the latest research, to defend them against the attacks of younger scholars, and to complete studies which he had begun earlier "but never finished. The objects of these studies were usually the Alemannian ethnic group, questions of settlement geography, and the development of the Orient. He published altogether forty works after his seventieth birthday, and thirteen more appeared after his death. His last years in Tubingen were not only those of a 'lonely man', as he described himself after the death of his wife in 1930, but were also overshadowed by Germany's fate and by difficult personal problems. As a patriot with a conservative outlook, who in 1919 was involved in the formation of a right-wing party, he detested National Socialism and its founder, whom Gradmann had observed during an appearance in the early 1920s in Erlangen, and against whom he warned his closest students. He was not spared the regime's retribution for his attitude: in the last two years of the war he had to suffer desparate anxiety for the life of two of his grandchildren, who as students in Munich had taken part in the 'White Rose' resistance movement. Both of them narrowly avoided execution, and were sentenced to long prison terms. In 19*+5 Gradmann moved to Sindelfingen, where in the pastor's house — with his daughter's family — he spent five years in vigorous creative activity. The extent to which this time was also filled with unceasing work may be illustrated with a few lines from a letter to the author of this biographical sketch: You have no idea how January 19^9 was crammed full for me with an incredible number of pressing responsibilities. Three manuscripts had to be prepared for the press, each one is rushed and very extensive, there were negotiations to be carried out concerning the new editions of both my two-volume works, Southern Germany and

The plant

life

of the Swabian Alb, professorial

references to faculties had to be written, and disputes with high authorities over their unbelievably raw discrimination: everyone thinks that an 83-year-old man has free time and that one does him a favour by finding something for him to do. On 15th September 1950, as he was bent over the correction sheet for the fourth edition of his Plant life of the Swabian Alb, Gradmann suffered a stroke. He died on the following day without recovering consciousness. 2. SCIENTIFIC IDEAS AND GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT A problem which constantly occupied Gradmann from the beginning of his scientific activity to the end of his life was the relationship between the geography of vegetation and the history of the landscape. While the latter had previously been oriented exclusively in terms of geology or geomorphology, Gradmann broadened this to include the history of vegetation and with this the post-glacial period. This also provided the opportunity to connect the development of the landscape

with the beginning of its modification through human agents, especially in Southern Germany. The results of Gradmann's research in these questions are presented in his theory of the steppeheathland (Steppenheidetheorie). The name comes from a sun-loving dwarf shrub formation with woody plants which Gradmann called 'steppe heath'. Gradmann saw in the sporadic occurrences remaining today the remnants of earlier complete 'steppe-heathland landscapes', which originated in the dry and warm climate of the postglacial period through the natural decline of the forest. In these park-like steppes, which Gradmann described as having 'poorly developed forest growth', the 'Banderamiker' or 'band ceramic agriculturalists' were settled around 2000 B.C. They were a people from southeast Europe who had migrated in the fifth millenium and settled in southern Germany, bringing pastoral and arable farming. Around 2000 B.C., in the optimal climate of the postglacial period, the conditions for settlement were favourable and they constructed permanent settlements based on agriculture and so left their mark on the landscape for when the forest advanced with the worsening climatic conditions the descendants of the 'Banderamiker' retained their agricultural life and prevented the spread of forest. By contrast the forest areas adjacent to the plains occupied by these migrants were avoided and settled only during the Middle Ages. Gradmann's hypothesis, for which he supplied highly detailed support, occasioned a discussion among scholars which lasted into the decades following the Second World War. It was much criticized, but also served at least partially to clarify the question. The criticism involved above all the recognition that these agriculturalists had come in not at the time indicated by Gradmann, but rather around H000 B.C., during the moist-warm 'mixed-oak forest period', which was favourable to forest growth. According to today's understanding, they therefore did not meet any large area of steppe-heathland, but rather unbroken yet bright mixed oak forests, which were well suited for forest pastures and presented no particular obstacles to clearance. Through his consideration of these questions Gradmann created the terms early settled land {Altbesiedeltes Land) and late settled land (Jungbesiedeltes Land), which have become an esssential part of today's settlement geography. They were at first used only in relation to Southern Germany, and were defined by Gradmann (most recently in 19^8) in the following manner. Early settled land is comprised of areas settled prior to the early Merovingian period (7th century A.D.), and late settled land is all those regions settled later. The contrast is not limited to the history of settlement, but is also of current geographical significance, for these two groups of landscapes possess differences in the distribution of forests, density of settlement, system of land use, pattern of settlement, and development of towns, all of which parallel the different sources and times of origin. The term 'early settled land' was for Gradmann connected with the concept of continuity of settlement: those areas settled in the Neolithic period were in all following periods up to the beginning of the Middle Ages uninterruptedly occupied by man. This idea as well had to be corrected as it was learned that areas of settlement in early settled land were for periods of time in prehistory repeatedly shifted, that areas were deserted by

Robert

man and reverted back to forest, later to be once again brought under cultivation. This took the basis away from Gradmann's thesis, that the settlement of the agriculturalists definitively established the 'basic lines of the geography of settlement'. While questions of this sort seem to be historical, for Gradmann they served only the function of explaining the present pattern of settlement. This was apparent in all his works on rural settlement, the most important

of which — Rural settlement

in the Kingdom of

WUrttemberg (1913) — can be seen, along with the work of Otto Schluter, as the basis of modern German settlement geography. This owes its honourable position to Gradmann's efforts not only to depict the settlement of Wurttemberg, but also to develop general methodological principles for settlement geography. Of these the following four are worthy of particular mention: 1. The inclusion of field patterns, with which Gradmann's ideas followed those of F. Ratzel, H. Wagner, and F. von Richthofen. 2. The use of a certain combination of the form of dwelling place (Ortsform) and field patterns as a basis for classifying the forms of settlement. In this way he arrived at the following four types for Wurttemberg: a) Gewanndorf, which is a cluster village

(Haufendorf)

or street village

(Strassendorf)

with open fields {Gewannflur), b) 'hamlet settlements' {Weilersiedlung) hamlets with block fields, c) linear villages with each house located on its individual strip of land (Waldhufendorf), d) separate settlements (Einddsiedlung), which are separate farms and hamlets with compacted fields. 3. The inclusion of historical factors in the explanation of the settlement form. k. Consideration of the economic nature of the settlement. In the vigorous development of German settlement geography after the First World War, to which Gradmann had given decisive impulses, the results of his work were to some extent retained and broadened, but also amended. This relates especially to his assumption of a regular connection of the form of the dwelling place with the field pattern, which since 19^0 has proved to be untenable, and for the interpretation of cluster villages and open fields, whose characteristic features Gradmann had ascribed to the period of Alemannian settlement. Since the 1950s there is no longer any doubt that both types are to be seen as the result of a development of individual farms and small loose groups of these farms and the land they tilled. Gradmann's works in urban geography (191^, 19l6) served to lead geography to a new genetic explanation of mediaeval cities, Ratzel's view, according to which these cities developed out of the villages which were located on the most favourable travel routes and then grew through trade, i.e. ultimately became large cities, dominated up to the First World War. In his book

•Urban settlement

in the Kingdom of Wlirttemberg (191*0

Gradmann was able, through subtle examination, to dispute this convincingly and make the point that the older cities of this r e g i o n — this included about 90 per cent of them — grew up out of (weekly) markets, and should be viewed as entirely artificial establish-

Gradmann

51

ments. In this he followed the basic ideas of the historian Rietschel, who was working at the same time (1899-1912) in Tubingen, and was able to supplement the latter's interpretation with impressive geographical arguments. However, the further development of these cities in the late Middle Ages and in the first four centuries of the modern era was indeed quite decisively influenced by the rank of the routes for long-distance travel on which it was situated. Gradmann demonstrated this with the example of the consequences for urban geography brought by the rise and decline of the former trade route between Venice and Flanders (1931, II). Gradmann's geomorphological works dealt with the plateau and the valleys of the Swabian Alb, their karst formations and their hydrography, and above all with the explanation of the cuesta landscape. His 'theory of flattened ridges'(1919), devoted to this problem, was not received with the same enthusiasm as. the results of his earlier research, and in the light of today's knowledge as well it must be seen as an insufficient interpretation of the cuesta relief. Nevertheless, it was without doubt a contribution to the discussion of the mechanics of cuesta formation. Gradmann's regional descriptions, on the other hand, have retained their undisputed value to the present. Of these, his Southern Germany (1931) can be seen as the greatest of all of his scientific achievements; it 'is one of the most valuable works produced by German Despite the fact that geography' (Berninger, 1951). several sections of it have been surpassed, as is natural by current research, it was nevertheless reissued in 1956 and maintains its character as an essential standard work. Here mention is made of only two of the principles which Gradmann applied in this work. These were almost universally recognized and are largely valid still today. One is the principle of classifying the region to be presented into 'natural landscapes', in which the interaction of physical factors and human activity is apparent. Gradmann did not thoughtlessly adopt this ancient idea, but rather dealt with it fundamentally, as testified by his spirited essay 'The harmonious image of the landscape' (192U). The second principle deals with his adhering to the 'regional scheme', which he justifies in an essay bearing this title (1931). In fact, this is nothing more than a natural and appropriate classification of the material according to series of phenomena, and has 'proved to be entirely appropriate for a causal approach as well, for in general it at least resembles a chain of causality and in presentation necessitates relatively little reference to material to be or which has already been presented'. 3. INFLUENCE AND SPREAD OF IDEAS Gradmann's scientific ideas have enriched not only geography, but other disciplines as well, such as library science, prehistory, and — although it was acknowledged at a late date — the sociology of plant communities. His influence on the development of geography, which is the sole subject of this essay, is limited mainly, but not exclusively, to Germany, and covers the history of the cultural landscape, settlement

52

Robert Gradmann

geography, and regional geography. Gradmann's name is closely linked with the beginning of the modern development of the history of the cultural landscape. Although his steppe-heathland theory was later basically corrected, it nevertheless supplied the first impulses for dealing with problems of this nature. Beyond this, it is Gradmann's lasting contribution to have laid the methodological foundation for the modern history of the cultural landscape. This contribution arose from his principle that various methods of investigation, disciplines, and types of evidence are to be applied in looking for a genetic explanation of the cultural landscape. Finally it should be mentioned that Gradmann's essay on the history of the Central European cultural landscape (1901) contains ideas which can be seen as predecessors to the attempts today at a periodization of the history of the cultural landscape. The strongest influence by far on the development of the discipline was exercised by Gradmann's works in settlement geography. His differentiation between early and late settlement areas, which was at first directed only at Southern Germany, was soon applied to other German regions: as shown by German geographers since the 1960s, these concepts are applicable to other parts of the earth as well. Examples of this are Dongus' work on the east Po plain, Wirth's on Syria and Iraq, Uhlig's on Kashmir, Nitz's on the Himalayan foreland, and Sandner's on Costa Rica, though the temporal differences between early and late settlement in these areas differ from those in Central Europe, for all the countries studied are of modern origin. The types of rural settlement which Gradmann distinguished were immediately made the common property of German settlement geography, and are also occasionally discerned in the literature of neighbouring countries. Only after 19^5, as the 'dynamic concept' full penetrated into genetic settlement geography and Gradmann's association of the form of the dwelling place with field patterns was given up entirely, did a more strongly differentiated typology arise and take the place of his simpler scheme. Research into field patterns, on the other hand, has proceeded further along the road marked out by Gradmann and established a precise methodology in the process. Equally fruitful was the attempt to draw the economic nature of a settlement into its characterization. What now enjoys such popularity under the designation 'classification of communities' (Gemeindetypisierung) owes its origin to the rudiments supplied by Gradmann, which in their turn had been inspired by Hettner. The broadest reception was given to the principle of the historical approach, the use of which in today's settlement geography is axiomatic, and occasionally perhaps exaggerated. Gradmann's work in urban geography had a considerable influence during the 1920s and the 1930s but workers in this field of more recent times have concentrated on the present form with the economic and social problems of towns. For this reason the work of Gradmann is now almost forgotten. However, Walter Christaller was a student of Gradmann at Erlangen and his doctorate thesis was published in a shortened

form as Die Zentralen

Orte in Suddeutsohland,

1933 and in translation as Central

Plaoes

in

Jena, South

Germany by C. W. Baskin, Englewood Cliffs, 1966. This famous work has been influential in the modern development of urban geography. The significance of Gradmann's regional descriptions came not only from the value of their contents, but as well from the methodological effects they exerted. Above all, his stress on the necessity of using historical information in explaining a region, the principle of an intelligent use of the regional scheme, and his use of the natural landscape as a basis, were widely welcomed. This principle of classification was later supplemented by the subdivision of these units on the basis of the 'classification of natural spaces' (Naturraumliche Gliederung). Gradmann had at first rejected this as a threat to the concept of landscape, but then finally acknowledged its usefulness, at least for Central and Southern Germany. Gradmann's book on Southern Germany appeared at a time when ideas of reform seemed to place geography's methodology and, even more, the principles of the regional approach into question. These ideas were associated above all with the names Passarge ('landscape science'), Banse ('artistic C'kunstlerische'D geography'), and Spethmann ('dynamic landscape science'). In these methodological debates Gradmann's book, with its universally recognized high scientific value and its captivating language, contributed decisively to a justification of traditional regional geography. This came ultimately from the power of the convincing practical example which he presented. Finally, Gradmann's methodological influence on governmental regional description in Southwest Germany should be mentioned, for this description is also a type of regional geography. Gradmann was the first geographer to participate in this tradition-rich work, which was founded in I82U by the King of Wiirttemberg and had for its first eighty years been shaped largely by historians. In his participation in this project (190^-16), he saw to it that the geographical approach was introduced, and argued extensively for its necessity in two essays (190U, 191+3). As this project was revived after 19^+5, his methodological ideas were given a central position, and since this time a number of geographers have been continually active in it. As other areas in Germany began to follow its example with similar projects, Gradmann's concepts were taken over and his views were widely accepted. In Germany today the value of regional geography is once again questioned, but many works of a regional character have appeared in recent years or are in preparation. There is certainly a demand for the unified geographical presentation of regions and in discussion of how this may be best achieved the ideas of Gradmann, worked out through long and arduous handling of his diverse materials, still remain relevant. Gradmann's was one of the most original minds active during the developmental phase of German geography. He was self-educated in the fullest sense of the term, and perhaps precisely for this reason — unrestricted by consideration for an academic teacher or a scientific institution — he was able to bring new ideas to life. Although the influence of his ideas is essentially limited to Germany (he almost never appeared on the discipline's international stage), he is nevertheless to be counted as one of the most successful and productive geographers of the first half of the twentieth

Robert Gradmann century. This is confirmed by an array of honours, of which only a few can be named in the following chronological summary.

Bibliography and Sources 1.

PRINCIPAL WORKS OF ROBERT GRADMANN

a. Geomorphology, geography of climate and vegetation 1898 Das Pflanzenleben der Schwabischen Alb (The plant life of the Swabian Alb), Tubingen, 81+2 p. (2 vol) 1909 'Uber Begriffsbildung in der Lehre von den Pflanzenformationen' ('The development of concepts in the theory of plant formation'), Englers Bot. Jahrb. , vol 1*3, 91-103 1915 'Das Problem der Klimaanderung in geschichtlicher Zeit' ('The problem of climatic change in historical times'), Geogr. Z., vol 21, 586-91 1917 'Die algerische Kiiste in ihrer Bedeutung fur die Kustenmorphologie' ("The significance of the Algerian coast for coastal morphology'), Petermanns Geogr. Mitt., vol 63, 137-^5, 17^-9, 209-16 1919 'Das Schichtstufenland' ('Cuesta landscapes'), Z. Gesell. Erdkd. Berlin, 113-39 192U 'Die postglazialen Klimaschwankungen MittelEuropas' ( ' P o s t - g l a c i a l climatic v a r i a t i o n s in Central Europe'.), Geogr. Z. , vol 30, 21+1-63 1952 'Lokale Verebnungen im Schichtstufenland' ('Local planations in cuesta landscapes'), Petermanns Geogr. Mitt., vol 96, 29-32 b.

1906

1910

OBITUARIES AND REFERENCES ON ROBERT GRADMANN

Metz, F., 'Robert Gradmann. Zu seinem 70. Geburtstag' ('R. Gradmann. On his 70th birthday1) Geogr. Anz., vol 36 (1935), 1+18-21 Beminger, 0., 'Robert Gradmann (18.7.1865 - 16.9.1950)', Petermanns Geogr. Mitt., vol 95 (1951), 187-90 Huttenlocher, F. , 'Robert Gradmann und die geographische Landeskunde Siiddeutschlands' ('R.G. and the regional geography of Southern Germany'), Erdkd., vol 5 (1951), 1-6 Metz, F., 'Robert Gradmann 1865-1950', Die Erde, vol 2 (1950-1), 333-8 Schroder, K.H., 'Robert Gradmann und die amtliche Landesbeschreibung' ('R.G. and governmental regional description') Wurtt. Jahrb. Stat. Landkd. , 1951-52, 172-5 Linnenberg, F., 'Bibliographie Robert Gradmann' ('A bibliography of R.G.'), Mitt. Frank. Geogr. Gesell. , vol 11-12 (1965), 19-1+2 Gradmann, R., Lebenserinnerungen (Memoirs), ed. K.H. Schroder, Stuttgart, 1965, l6l+p. 2.

1901

The relationship between climatic change, the spread of plants, and the geography of settlement 1899 'Der obergermanisch-ratische Limes und das frankische Nadelholzgebiet' ('The upper GermariicRhaetian boundary and the Franconian coniferous

1930

1933 191+8

53

region'), Petermanns Geogr. Mitt., vol 1+5, 57-66 'Das mitteleuropaische Landschaftsbild nach seiner geschichtlichen Entwicklung' (The historical development of the Central European landscape'), Geogr. Z. , vol 7, 361-77, 1+35-1+7 'Beziehungen zwischen Pflanzengeographie und Siedlungsgeschichte' ( 'The relationship between plant geography and the history of settlement'), Geogr. Z., vol 12, 305-25 'Uber die Bedeutung postglazialen Klimaveranderungen fur die Siedlungsgeographie' ('The significance of post-glacial climatic change for settlement geography'), Z. Dtsch. Geol. Gesell., vol 62, 117-22 'Die geographische Bedeutung der postglazialen Klimaschwankungen' ('The geographical location of post-glacial climatic variation'), Verh. (Wiss. Abh.) Dtsch. Geogr. Magdeburg, May 21-23, 1929, Breslau, 166-I85 'Die Steppenheidetheorie' ('The steppe-heathland theory'), Geogr. Z., vol 39, 265-78 'Altbesiedeltes und jungbesiedeltes Land' ('Early and late settled land'), Stud. Gen., vol 1, 163-77

c. The steppe question outside Germany 19l6 'Wuste und Steppe' ('Desert and steppe'), Geogr. Z. , vol 22, 1+17-1+1 and 1+89-509 1931+ Die Steppen des Morgenlandes in ihrer Bedeutung fur die Geschichte der menschlichen Gesittung (The steppes of the orient and their significance for the history of human civilization), Stuttgart, 66p. d. Geography of settlement, history of agriculture 1901 'Der Dinkel und die Alemannen' ('Spelt and the Alemannians'), Wurtt. Jahrb. Stat. Landkd., 1901, 103-58 1909 Der Getreidebau im deutschen und rdmischen Altertun. Beitr'dge zur Verbreitungsgeschichte der Kulturgewachse (Grain cultivation in German and Roman antiquity), Jena, lllp. 1913 Das Vdndliche Siedlungswesen des K'dnigreichs Wurttemberg (Rural settlement in the Kingdom of Wurttemberg), Stuttgart, 136p. 1911+ Die stadtischen Siedlungen des Kdnigreichs Wurttemberg (Urban settlement in the Kingdom of Wurttemberg), Stuttgart, 225p. 1916 'Schwabische Stadte' ('Towns of Swabia*), Z. Gesell. Erdkd. Berlin, 1916, 1+25-57 1933 'Siedlungsformen als Geschichtsquelle und als historisches Problem' ('Settlement form as an historical source and historical problem'), Z. Wurtt. Landesgesch. , vol 7, 25-56 1936 'Vorgeschichtliche Landwirtschaft und Besiedlung' ('Pre-historical agriculture and settlement'), Geogr. Z. , vol. 1+2, 378-86 191+2 'Hackbau und Kulturpflanzen' ('Hoe cultivation and domesticated plants'), Dtsch. Arch. Landes- u. Volksforschg., vol 6, 107-118 191+8 'Markgenossenschaft und Gewanndorf' ('Village communities and open field villages'), Ber. Dtsch. Landkd., vol 5, 108-11+ 1956 'Stuttgarts Stadtbild, Lage und Landschaft' ('Stuttgart's appearance, site, and landscape'), Ber. Dtsch. Landkd., vol 17/2, 193-205

54

Robert Gradmann

1957

'Tubingen, Werden und Wandel des Stadtbildes im 1898 Gang der Jahrhunderte' ("Tubingen: the development and change in its appearance in the course of the centuries'), Ber. Dtsch. Landkd. , vol 18/2, 163-193 1901

e. Ethnology and anthropology 1937 'Die Abstammung des schwabischen Volkes' ("The origin of the Swabian people'), Z. Wurtt. , vol 1, 1-U6 Landesgesah. 1938 'Schwaben und Alemannen' ('Swabians and Alemannians'), Z. Wurtt. Landesgesah., vol 2, 273-95 geography /. The methodology of regional 192U 'Das harmonische Landschaftsbild' ('The harmonious image of the landscape'), Z. Gesell. Erdkd. Berlin, (192U), 129-U7 1931 'Das landerkundliche Schema' ("The regionalgeographical scheme'), Geogr. Z. , vol 37, 5^0-8 19^3 'Die Oberamtsbeschreibungen als Vorbilder' ('Governmental descriptions as models'), Ber. Dtsch. Landkd. , vol 3, 1U6-51 g. Regional descriptions 1901+ 'Das Land Wurttemberg' ('The Wurttemberg region'), in Das Konigreich Wurttemberg, eine Beschreibung nach Kreisen3 Oberamtem und Gemeinden, Stuttgart, 10-58 1911 'Schwabischer Jura, Schwabische Alb, Rauhe Alb' ('The Swabian Jura, the Swabian Alb, and the Rough Alb'), Petermanns Geogr. Mitt., vol 57, 2-U 192U Schwabenland und Frankenland (Swabia and Franconia), Nurnberg, 12p. 1925 'Suddeutschland' ('Southern Germany'), Seydlitzsche Geographie3 Deutschland, Breslau, 227-320 1931 Suddeutschland (Southern Germany), Stuttgart, 768p. (2 vol) 1965 'Blute und Niedergang des Orients in geographischer Betrachtung' ('A geographic view of the rise and fall of the Orient'), Geogr. Z. , vol 53, 291+-3lU Karl Heinz Schr'dder is professor of geography at TUbingen University (Federal Republic of Germany). Translated by M. Bassin.

Chronology 1865

Born at Lauffen, Wurttemberg, July 18

1883

Began his theological studies in Tubingen

1887

Entered the ministry of the Lutheran Church

1891

Became pastor in Forchtenberg

Awarded a doctorate in natural science for his book The plant life of the Swabian Alb Appointed to be university librarian at Tubingen: began work on the history of landscapes

1903

Work began on the official regional description of Wurttemberg (to 19l6)

1906

Visited Southern France

1907

Received the gold medal for the Arts and Sciences of the Wurttemberg Royal Order

1909

for his study Achieved the habilitation of grain cultivation in ancient Greece and Roman civilizations

1910

Fieldwork in Tyrol and Istria

1913

Toured Algeria: Wurttemberg

191U

Became a professor in Tubingen (to 1918)

1918

Received the Cross of William in Wurttemberg

1919

Appointed to be professor of geography at Erlangen

1922-29

Chairman of the Central Commission for the Regional Geography of Germany

1925

Served as Rector of the University of Erlangen: became a member of the Imperial Leopoldina Academy of Natural Scientists in Halle

1929

Awarded the gold Prince Ludwig medal of the Geographical Society, Munich

1931-33

Chairman of the Central Committee of the German Geographical Congress

1933

Given the gold Carl Ritter medal of the Berlin Geographical Society: visited Palestine, Jordan and Egypt

193>+

Became emeritus professor:

1936

Moved to Tubingen

19Ul

Received an honorary doctorate of Tubingen university

19*+3

Became an honorary senator of the university of Erlangen

19U5

Moved to Sindelfingen

1950

Died September 16

continued studies in

visited Greece

Alfred Hettner 1859-1941

ERNST PLEWE In 1929 the American Geographical Society in New York presented Alfred Hettner with the Golden Collum Geographical Medal, inscribed 'Alfred Hettner for regional studies that are admirably proportioned and informed with experience as explorer, editor, and teacher'. In 1935 he recalled: *I was grateful that the Geographical Society in Dresden made me an honorary member as the 'philosopher' among geographers'

(Essays in memory of Alfred

Hettner,

i960, p. UT).

Hettner received honours of many kinds, but these two express his essence as a geographer. In his early years he was a thorough and circumspect field research-

er. Through the Geographisohe Zeitsohrift,

a journal

of international standing which he founded and alone edited for ho years, he became geography's leading methodologist. Here he was able to develop his ideas and successfully present them. The power of his inspiration as a university teacher is proved by his 'school', matched only by those which formed around F. von Richthofen and A. Penck. His gift of understanding complicated relationships, presenting them clearly, and indicating their causal connections, enabled him to compose regional studies which remain today as models.

1. EDUCATION, LIFE AND WORK Hettner, born on 6 August 1859 in Dresden, was one of fourteen children. His father, Hermann Hettner (1821-1882) was an important art and literary historian. Alfred was the oldest child of-his father's second wife. the daughter of the Dresden painter and art dealer Grahl.

She was half-Jewish. His later fate was in many ways shaped by this cultivated home, where his childhood, though simple and spartan, was happy. His inherited high intelligence and gift of quick comprehension allowed him to pass effortlessly through the gymnasium, finishing at the head of his class with the designation 'outstanding'. As the son of the author of The history

of the literature

of the 18th century

(6 vols., 1856-TO),

which was the only history encompassing the whole of European literature of the time, he was also seriously interested in studying and understanding the culture of other peoples. His own origins made him immune to the racism from which he himself was to suffer in his old age. His father, who had to support such a large family, was not able to help him in financing his studies and died at a relatively early age. Hettner began studying geography in 1877. He was the first in Germany to become a geographer at a university without having made a detour through another profession, and with this he set a standard for academic geography of the time. In Halle he found in Alfred Kirchhoff an inspiring teacher, who was 'quite well suited to give an introduction to geography'. Further study there with the geologist K. von Fritsch and the philosopher Rudolf Haym gave Hettner the thorough fundamentals of a university education. After one year, however, he transferred from this provincial setting to Bonn, to take up the study of the exact and descriptive natural sciences, as well as of the national economy. Here he joined the 'Bonn circle', a loose group of students out of which were to come many people -Drominent in Germany's cultural and public life. Geography in

56

Alfred

Hettn.er

Bonn was taught by the assistant professor (Privatdozent) Theobald Fischer, who suggested to Hettner the theme for his dissertation. However, because at that time the doctoral degree could only be granted by a professor with a chair, Hettner transferred in 1879- "to Strassburg to study with Georg Gerland (1833-1919). This traditional but thorough polymath, who had originally been a philologist, came to geography through Theodor Waitz, the author of The anthropology of primitive peoples (vols. 1-U, 1859-61*), and had completed this work later (vols. 5-6, 1870-72). Nevertheless he was methodologically unsure and saw geography more as a general physical study in the sense of geophysics, for he thought it methodologically impermissible that such diverse objects as the natural world, which functions causally, and man, who is free in his actions, should be treated together within a single discipline. Consequently he rejected human geography and consigned the problems with which it deals to ethnography, which he also taught. In this he conceded to regional geography a practical but not a scientific value. Already at this time, however, Hettner considered that a scientific solution to the problem of 'man and earth' within geography of an essentially different nature was possible. After receiving his doctorate for the thesis 'The Climate of Chile and West Patagonia', he returned to Bonn in l88l. Ferdinand von Richthofen had in the meantime begun teaching at Bonn, and with his research experience in field work had given geography a new direction and scope Above all geomorphology owes its systematic development on the basis of geology to him. Richthofen attempted to push Hettner, who in his dissertation had dealt with the Peru current, toward the geography of the oceans, but he declined to take up this study. This did not, however, disturb the mutual respect between the two scholars. Richthofen was to inaugurate Hettner's

Geographische Zeitsahrift

in 1895 with an article on the

'Peace of Shimonoseki'; Hettner contributed his only publication of the results of his second trip to South America — 'The distribution of rain, the plant cover, and the settlement of the tropical Andes' — to a Festschrift for Richthofen in 1893, and wrote an excellent obituary after his death in 1906. Nevertheless, he took a critical position toward Richthofen, for though he considered his lectures thoughtful and well-constructed he found them to be one-sided, and was unsatisfied with his later famous 'geographical colloquium', in which literature was discussed fairly randomly. The death of his father in the early summer of 1882 ended Alfred Hettner's period of indecision. In a letter of condolence from a friend of his father's he was offered the position of private tutor in the home of the British ambassador in Colombia, who had just been appointed. This post was to last for one year, and for Hettner was an unexpected stroke of luck. After a journey taking him through Jamaica, Colon, a detour through Panama, and further through Barranquilla and the Magdalena river he reached Bogata in mid-August. He used every opportunity to become acquainted with the city and its environs, and to familiarize himself with the use of his few instruments — a watch, compass, barometer, and thermometer — as a preparation for more extensive trips. These trips materialized sooner than

he expected. The ambassador was not happy in Bogata and, after paying Hettner quite generously, returned to England in March 1883. Thus Hettner had almost one and a half years, up to August 188U, to travel around in almost unknown tropical mountain regions. In order to make a maximum number of interrelated observations, he decided not to visit the Pacific west coast of the country, and on his first brief trip explored only a small part of the Central Cordilleras, concentrating mainly on the East Cordilleras, the region around Bogata, and the Western Llanos. The routes of these trips, which ultimately numbered seven, are shown in his 'Cartographic results of a trip through the Colombian Andes' (1888). The last and most extensive of these, from March to August 188U, took him over a lengthy, circuitous route from Bogata to Maracaibo. After a brief stay in the eastern United States, which incidentally was his only visit to North America, he returned in September to Dresden. Richthofen had in the meantime been offered a professorial chair in Leipzig, making it possible for Hettner to continue his studies under him. For his prospective professorial dissertation (habilitation) he did not, however, choose a theme dealing with Colombia, but rather used the thesis as an opportunity to complete a study he had already been carrying on for years on 'Mountain formation and the shaping of the land surface in the Saxonian Mountains'('Sachsische Schweiz'). In this work he demonstrated a notable independence of view in relation to the two leading earth scientists of the time. Contrary to Richthofen, who still considered a large-scale flattening of continental land to be impossible (he explained this through oceanic abrasion), Hettner maintained that such flattening originated through erosion caused by rivers; and contrary to Eduard Suess he proved that the uplift of broken massifs, and especially the deepening of the Elbe valley, came about through diluvial uplifts. However, because Richthofen had already been offered a position in Berlin, Hettner's professorial dissertation was supervised by his successor Friedrich Ratzel, and the degree was conferred in 1887. Hettner was never Ratzel's assistant, as is repeatedly maintained, but remained at all times independent. Hettner taught in Leipzig at first for only one semester, for he then received the offer — not surprisingly, in that he was a student of Gerland and familiar with conditions in South America — from the great ethnologist Adolf Bastian (1826-I905) to undertake the supervision in Cusco of a rich collection of Peruvian antiquities for the Ethnological Museum in Berlin. Once again Hettner had an unexpected stroke of luck. This particular position was cancelled, but Bastian stuck firmly to his contract, with the one change that Hettner was now to collect items for the museum himself, and was otherwise to be entirely free during his trip.

Hettner finished his Travels

in the Colombian Andes (1888),

and early in 1888 began his second, carefully prepared journey, which was to last for two and a half years. His research area was the Peruvian Andes in the region of the basin of Lake Titicaca from the coastal strip to the eastern slopes of the Youngas. He reported to Richthofen on the progress of his trip in letters which the latter

published in the Proceedings

of the Geographical

Society

in Berlin from 1888 to 1890. The Society expressed its recognition for Hettner's work in its offer of funds to

Alfred support an extension of the journey. Hettner now headed south to the Chilean saltpetre region, from where he travelled by ship to Valdivia and then over land to Puerto Montt. Here he met Dr. Carl Martin the outstanding explorer of Chile, with whom he had been in contact during his student days in Strassburg. From here Hettner returned to Santiago. Unfortunately his health had never been robust and he was able to carry out his trips only by mustering all his strength. Immediately after receiving his doctorate in Strassburg in 1882 he had registered for military duty, but much to his surprise was rejected by the doctors due to a problem with his legs of which he had up to that time been unaware. Now, nine years later, standing in the blazing sun near Santiago, he suddenly' collapsed as if from an electrical shock with paralysis of his legs, probably as a result of over-exertion. Nevertheless he quickly regained strength and was able once again to traverse the Andes on horseback, and then, partly by train and partly on postal wagons, to cross the Pampa and Uruguay to reach the areas of German settlement in Southern Brazil. Here he could once again carry on research in the morphology of the region. In time his leg muscles became progressively more atrophied, and in his later life this led, complicated by his breaking his leg during a field trip with students in 191^, to paralysis with complete numbness to his waist. This was all he confided about his physical condition, even to his closest friends. It obviously signalled the end to his research trips, but he had learned their value for drawing geographical judgements and later urged everyone attempting to start a university career to undertake trips overseas. The results of the work from the latter part of this, his last research trip (1888-90), are contained in articles on German elements in Chile and Southern Brazil (1902), ten years after his papers on Southern Brazil and Colombia in 1891-3.

Hettner

57

Zeitschrift, of which he was to be sole editor. Richthofen and Patzel stood behind this offer. The first of the twelve yearly issues appeared in January, 1895. In the foreward to this issue Hettner wrote that It Cthe journal] will serve first of all scientific research, but will contain no specialized work which can only be understood by specialists and is of interest only to them. Rather, it will deal only with basic questions or summarize the results of scientific research in generally comprehensible and entirely fluent presentation (vol 1, 18-19).

Hettner abided by this programme — also in his own articles — for forty years, until the National Socialists took the journal out of his hands. In this sense the Geographische Zeitschrift can be seen as Hettner's major life's work. Now Hettner's academic career began to take shape. In 189^ he became a titular professor in Leipzig. In 189T he accepted the offer of a position in Tubingen as associate professor (Extraordinarius). In this position he was not a member of the faculty nor could he vote in their decisions, so he had to have his interests represented by others. Here he became acquainted with the cuesta landscape and its erosion mechanics, which fundamentally broadened the scope of his morphological knowledge. In the philosopher Heinrich Maier, Hettner found a friend and intellectual colleague for life. The offer of an associate professorship in Wiirzburg was followed a short while later by a similar offer from Heidelberg, which he accepted in March 1899. Here he founded the Geographical Institute, became an honorary full professor in 1903, a regular full professor in 1906, and emeritus in 1928. He married soon after the move to Heidelberg; however, his wife died two years later. From this time on his wife's former servant, Marie Mall, managed his household and soon became his indispensable For the winter semester 1890-91 he was once again helper. She prepared final copies of his correspondence an assistant professor (Dosentur) in Leipzig. Although and his scientific works, and thanks to this unusual up to this point he had been concerned mainly with specialized works in the core areas of physical geography, woman Hettner, in steadily growing need of physical assistance, was able to reach his old age in full command climatology, and morphology, he wrote a critical review of his intellectual forces. He married her in 1925, and article of Ratzel's Anthropo-geographie (l89l). Then he died in 19^1. They had no children. His archive is he combined the results of his first trip and published held in the university library in Heidelberg. them in the thin volume The Cordilleras of Bogata, which Carl Troll was to designate a half-century later as basic for further research in the Andes. Hettner's doubts as to whether he should remain an Americanist or 2. SCIENTIFIC IDEAS AND GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT should stick to his original goal of becoming a universal In Heidelberg Hettner was able for the first time to geographer were solved by the offer to write the text develop himself fully. Through well planned field to accompany the maps in Spamer's large hand atlas. tours he had become acquainted with almost all European This was directly in his line of interest and relieved countries. The first of these, a journey through him for the first time of financial dependence on his Russia to the Caucasus, which he made while still based grandmother. He finally decided not to prepare the in Leipzig, was the final part of the 7th International material of his second trip for publication, and comGeological Congress in St. Petersburg in 1897. Out of pleted the text for the atlas by 1895. Because of its this trip came his book European Russia (1905), which poor cartographical quality the atlas was not a success. was twice translated into Russian and went through four Yet Hettner's work on it was not in vain. On the one editions in Germany. Trips outside Europe took him hand it became the basis for his later Basic features in 1908 to Egypt, in 1911, along with his student of regional geography, while on the other hand through Heinrich Schmitthenner, to Algeria and Tunisia, and with this work he had so thoroughly studied the regional him once again in 1913 to Asia. They travelled through geography of the entire earth that he was able in good Siberia, Northern China, Korea, Japan, Central China, conscience to accept the offer of the B. G. Teubner Press Hongkong, Canton, up the Si Kiang river, and then through to publish a geographical journal the Geographische Singapore to Java, where Schmitthenner was taken ill.

58

Alfred

Hettner

Hettner went on alone to Burma, travelled up the Irrawaddy into the Shan States of Indochina, and finally, having visited all of the important regions of Southwest Asia, to his final goal of Ceylon. Schmitthenner wrote about the trip to the Atlas mountain region in north Africa in his Tunisia and Algeria (192*0. Hettner hoped to present a report of his experiences in Asia but this was prevented by the First World War. In his work Hettner had always been concerned with political problems of the contemporary world and now he devoted himself almost entirely to political geography, on which he wrote numerous articles. In 19l6 he founded the series Theatres of the War, enlarged his old work to include the Russian Empire (1916), wrote a book on England's world dominance and the war (1915), and another on The peace and Germany's future (1917). The latter work attempted to propose an order for post-war Europe which would be just to all countries. All of Hettner's political-geographical works are imbued with the cool objectivity which was characteristic of him. Without this it would not have been possible to reissue his book on Russia anastatically (by direct reproduction) after the end of the war in 1921, and to bring out a fourth edition of England's world dominance in 1928. After the fall of the German royal dynasties Hettner initiated the discussion on The territorial re-shaping of Germany (1919), but with this ended his political-geographical period. He was pressed for a presentation of his system, a first outline of which he had already prepared while in the Andes. His two books Surface features of the land (1921, 1928; English translation by Ph. Tilley 1972) and The climates of the earth developed out of his numerous articles for the Geographische Zeitschrift. Both of these works are intended to organize two subfields of general geography into his concept of geography as a whole. However, Surface features of the land represents, in a stronger sense the more referencebook like Climates of the earth, a discussion of problems or morphology, and specifically addresses the specialist who is familiar with the problems and the literature of the field. Already in 1907 Hettner had, in Volume I {Europe) of his Basic features of regional geography, lifted his text from the unfortunate Spamer Atlas and presented it by itself. Nevertheless he was not satisfied with the result, which was a compromise between a textbook and a handbook, and so he let the matter rest. Now, after he had become familiar with large portions of the earth, he returned to his old thoughts with the clear concept of producing 'a brief presentation of the whole of regional geography, scientifically based but understandable by as large an audience as possible, including not only students and teachers, but all educated people'. He reduced his old work Europe to approximately half its original extent (1923), and followed it, beginning already in the next year, with similar volumes on NonEuropean regions of the earth. His arrangement of the material moves from general to specialized elements, i.e. from the continent as a whole to its major regions, and then finally to the individual component regions (Teillandschaften). For each section Hettner supplies brief statements about the history and the current state of research, as well as references to the most important literature and maps. The text is dependable, clear, and appealing, and its usefulness as a survey is

enhanced by over U50 maps. The 'Basic Feature ...' books became indispensible for generations of German teachers and students, went through many editions, and were also translated into foreign languages. Although today this work is in many respects dated, nothing of equal value has appeared to take its place. Hettner intended to follow these works with a more extensive presentation which would have given more room for discussion and description of the individual regions, but was not able to realize this. Outlines for this planned work are contained in his archive. 3.

INFLUENCE AND SPREAD OF IDEAS

The work which created for Hettner his unmistakable place in the history of geography — Geography3 its historyj its nature 3 and its methods (1927) — grew out of numerous articles in the Geographische Zeitschrift. This work has its own history. Hettner at first wanted to bring it out in a limited edition, wait for the ensuing discussion, and only then publish it in its final, polished form. This plan was frustrated by the publishers, who brought out so large a first edition that a considerable part of it was re-pulped as unsold remainders. Hettner, who while still a student had taken an interest in questions of scientific theory and had gone through his intellectual development during the period of 'methodological disputes' affecting all disciplines, was educated in philosophy, and familiar with the literature of the field like no other geographer. He constantly expressed his position on these matters. A thorough formulation of his views was 'The System of Sciences' (1905), and he steadily presented his ideas in a frequent column of his journal entitled 'current methodological disputes'. The original problem of the 'methodological disputes' was to justify the claim of the historical sciences to scientific status along with the natural sciences, which had come to occupy the predominant position. Geography, which from the days of A. v. Humboldt and Carl Ritter had been pursued by people of such various scholarly backgrounds as historians, mathematicians, jurists, and philologists, was obviously also involved in many debates. Hettner showed the futility of their extremely contradictory conceptions. First he indicated to the philosophers that their attempts to separate science {Wissenschaften) into the natural sciences (Naturwissenschaften) and the humanities {Geisteswissenschaften), into nomothetic and ideographic sciences, and also their attempt to draw conclusions on the basis of this, had been misguided, especially for geography, in which the object of study was the surface of the earth. Man and nature stand in a constant and at the same time historically changing mutual inter-relationship, which can be seen in the cultural landscape. There are on the earth hardly any surviving purely natural landscapes which could be studied and presented using the methods of pure natural science. Man constantly alters landscapes either through use or destruction. One must know both the laws of the natural world and the motives, the culture, and the technology of man, who is active in it, in order to understand and establish — that is, to be able to present in its causal relationships — what the geographer must present, the earth's surface in its division into regions, landscapes, and

Alfred localities. Geography deals not merely with individual elements, for example the plants in a particular region in their multiplicity of types and species, "but rather with the vegetation as a characteristic quality of the region. Similarly, geography's object is not man as an individual, not even as an outstanding personality (for whom alone the problem of freedom, for example, may be posed, a problem which does not exist in geography). In this way significant inventions such as the steam engine or the motor belong to the history of technology, and become of geographical significance only by virtue of their geographical consequences, which can be established causally through the motives for their use and spread. This is because motives are in the human realm the equivalent of lawful regularities [Gesetzmassigkeiten) in the natural world. Geography therefore is not the science of things in space, but rather the science of the spaces themselves as they are characterized by the things which determine their essence. From this comes for the geographer the principle of selection of what is to be presented. All that belongs essentially to a region, without which the region would lose its character, is geographically relevant; the remainder is, in terms of geography, coincidental and does not belong to a geographical presentation. Nonetheless, the nature and quantity of material selected is obviously dependent on the scale of the presentation and the points which are to be the focus. Thus, Hettner did not regard his

Russia:

a geographical

examination

of its

peoplet

country and culture (1921) as a regional geography, but rather an anthropogeographical study, and for this reason the introductory section on 'The Nature of the Country' takes up only 21 out of a total of 357 pages. Hettner has been charged with strait-jacketing regional geography within the sequence of the geographical site, the geology and soil conditions, the climate, hydrography, flora and fauna, and man. Apart from the fact that such a scheme had already been developed in the early nineteenth century, Hettner with justification maintained that such a sequence, properly applied, has an inner logic (1932), and took it as the basis for his last published work, his Comparative regional geography (h vols, 1933-5), which is a physical geography of the continents including biogeography. It has been said the the section 'The animal world' in Vol h of this work that it is the only part of Hettner's system for which he could not refer back to his own specialized works. It is worthwhile to look at this question briefly, for it illustrates a position which was characteristic of Hettner. In 189^ he wrote an article on 'The geographical diffusion of the means for land transportation', including in this a map which depicts essentially the diffusion of transport animals. In 1897 be paid tribute in an article to Eduard Hahn's brilliant work on domesticated animals. In 1913 Leo Waibel finished his dissertation on 'The forms and ways of life of forest animals in Tropical Africa', which had been inspired by Hettner, and in the same

year in the Geographische Zeitsahrift

an article

appeared by the zoologist and Hettner's friend R. Hesse on the ecological bases of the diffusion of animals. This article was followed in 192U by his book, also

stimulated by Hettner, on The geography of animals on the basis

of zoology*

which did not, however, correspond

Hettner

59

entirely to Hettner's ideas and hopes. Waibel's student Fritz Bartz then wrote 'The animal life of

Tibet' (Wiss. Veroffentlichungen des Museums fur L'dnderkunde zu Leipzig, Neue Folge, Leipzig, 1935, pp.117-76, with a bibliography and maps) and then above all his standard work The major fishing regions of the world 3 vols., 196^-7^. This example shows on the one hand how much interest Hettner had for fields which did not seem to occupy a primary position in his system, and, on the other, how strong was his force of attraction for others and how enduring his power of inspiration. Hettner countered the reproach that he unduly ignored anthropogeography with the explanation that although this was always his special interest, his generation nevertheless had the task of first working out the physical-geographical foundations. It came therefore as a surprise when after his death the threevolume General human geography was published on the basis of materials he had left: ostracized as a 'quarter-Jew' under the Third Reich, his attempts to have this work published during his lifetime were futile. Also published posthumously were his Basic

principles

(19^7), Geography of transportation

(1952),

and Economic geography (1957). Because the detailed table of contents of the uncompleted volumes on

Settlement geography and The geography of peoples and states3 ethnic and political geography was added as an appendix to Economic geography, it is possible to get an overview of Hettner's entire system. Hettner's

The march of culture

over the earth

(1923 - but best to

use the second edition, 1929), which was closely related to the work of Eduard Hahn, also contains basic ideas on this theme. Hettner's book is a development and discussion of the forms of economic activity: gatherers and primitive hunters, sophisticated hunters, hoe agriculture, plow agriculture with livestock and its special form of nomadism, the old advanced urban civilization, and the oceanic epoch, originating in Europe around 1500, the influence of which partly destroyed other cultural and economic forms, and partly remoulded them. Here the roots of the conflict, to break out only much later, between the industrialized and the developing countries were already exposed. If one attempts to express Hettner's significance in a single sentence, the following could be said: he consolidated geography as a science, he sought out its place in the system of sciences and placed it there solidly with his own work and work which he inspired. To be sure, there were outstanding geographers who both preceded and were contemporary with him, but the methodology of geography remained uncertain. Geographers still claimed in their works the broad field between geophysics, anthropology, and statistics, and in so doing endangered the development of the discipline. Hettner was the first who, referring back to Immanuel Kant and Carl Ritter, brought general recognition of the chorological principle in geography, according to which its object of study is the earth's surface divided into different component regions, regions which are to be investigated and described in an explanatory manner, i.e. establishing the causal inter-relationships. Human actions, to the extent that they are also significant for geography, result from motives, and thus may also be explained in the same way. In this sense

60

Alfred

Hettner

Hettner, apart from all of his individual works, is indeed the only geographer to present the system of geography as a whole: physical geography in his Comparative regional geography, anthropogeography in his General human geography, and specialized regional geography in his Basic features of regional geography. With his Geographische Zeitschrift, which he alone edited for 1+0 years, he "brought world recognition to his concept, as is shown by R. Hartshorne's The nature of Geography (1939). Modern ideas contradicting him have not been able to shake his work from its foundations.

'Kartographische Ergebnisse einer Reise in den columbianischen Anden' ('The cartographic results of a trip to the Colombian Andes'), Petermanns Geogr. Mitt., vol 3*+, 101+-12 Reisen in den columbianischen Anden (Travels in the Colombian Andes) , Leinzig; reprinted with an introduction by E. Plewe 1969 1888-90 'Briefe an F. von Richthofen iiber seine zweite sudamerikanische Reise' ('Letters to F. von Richthofen about his second trip to South America'), Verh. Gesell. Erdkd. , vol 8, 1+02-06; vol 9, 15U60, 269-76; vol 10, 526 1890 'Reisen in den Anden von Peru und Bolivien' ('Travels in the Peruvian and Bolivian Andes'), Verh. Gesell. Erdkd., vol 10, 512-25 1891 'Ratzels Anthropogeographie, Teil II' ('Ratzel's anthropogeography, Part II'), Das Ausland, vol 61+, 661-6, 689-91+ 'Die Typen der Land- und Meeresraume' ('Types of land and oceanic spaces'), Das Ausland, vol 61+, UUU-8, 1+70-1+ 1. REFERENCES ON ALFRED HETTNER 'Das sudlichste Brasilien. (Rio Grande do Sul)' 1921 Uhlig, C. 'Alfred Hettner (zum 60. Geburtstag)' ('Alfred Hettner (on his 60th birthday)'), ('The southernmost part of Brazil: Rio Grande Geogr. Anz., vol 20, 129-33 do sul'), Z. Gesell. Erdkd., vol 26, 85-11+1+ 12 L'dnderkunliche Studien, von Schulern Alfred 1892 'Reiseskizzen aus Sudbrasilien' ('Travel sketches from southern Brazil'), Dtsch. Rundsch. Geogr. Hettner ihrem Lehrer zum 60. Geburstag (12 studies Stat., vol ll+, 193-202, 253-61 by students of Alfred Hettner on his 60th birthday) , Breslau 'Die Cordillere von Bogota' ('The Cordillera of Bogata'), Petermanns Geogr. Mitt. Erg. no 10l+ 1929 Schwalm, H., 'Alfred Hettners Reisen "in Peru and Bolivien', ('Alfred Hettner's travels in Peru and 1893 'Regenverteilung, Pflanzendecke und Besiedlung der Bolivia'), Geogr. Anz., vol 30, 267-9 tropischen Anden' ('The distribution of rain, the plant cover, and the settlement of the tropical 19^1 Schmitthenner, H., 'Alfred Hettner (Nachruf)' Andes'), in Festschrift F. F. von Richthofen zum ('Alfred Hettner (Obituary)'), Geogr. Z. vol 1+7, 60. Geburtstag, Berlin, 197-233 UUl-68 'Uber den Begriff der Erdteile und seine 191+7 Schmitthenner, H. , 'Alfred Hettner', a biographical geographische Bedeutung' ('On the concept of introduction to vol 1 of Hettner, A., Allgemeine continents and its geographical significance'), Geographie des Menschen, Stuttgart, xi-xxxxiv Verh. 10.Dtsch. Geogr. Stuttgart, Berlin, 188-98 I9I+8 Tuckermann, W. , 'Alfred Hettner', Petermanns Geogr. Mitt. , vol 92, 188-90 'Die Anden des Westlichen Columbiens. Eine 1959 Pfiefer, G., 'Alfred Hettner zum 100. Geburstag' orographische Skizze' ('The Andes of western ('Alfred Hettner on his centenary'), Kosmos, vol 55, Colombia. An orographical sketch'), Petermanns 351-3 Geogr. Mitt., vol 39, 129-36 1960 'Alfred Hettner: 'Gedenkschrift zum 100. Geburstag' 1891+ 'Die geographische Verbreitung der TransTDortmittel ('Alfred Hettner: a memorial collection in honour des Landverkehrs' ('The geographical distribution of his centenary'), Heidelberger Geogr. Arb. , of means of land transportation'), Z. Gesell. vol 6 (with complete bibliography) Erdkd. Berlin, vol 29, 271-89 1895 Spamers Grosser Handatlas in 150 Kartenseiten. Hierzu 150 Folioseiten Text, enthaltend eine 2. SELECTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ALFRED HETTNER geographische und statistische Beschreibung aller l88l Das Klima von Chile und Westpatagonien. Erster Teile der Erde von Dr. A. Hettner, (Spamer's large Teil: Luftdruck und Winde. Meerestrbmungen hand atlas . . . with a geographical and statistical (The climate of Chile and West Patagonia. Part I: description of all parts of the earth by air pressure and winds. Oceanic currents), Dr. A. Hettner), Leipzig dissertation, Strassburg, Bonn 'Geographische Forschung un Bildung' ('Geographical 1885 'Die Sierra Nevada von Santa Marta' ('The Sierra research and education'),Geogr. Z., vol 1, 1-19 Nevada of Santa Marta'), Petermanns Geogr. Mitt., 'Die Lage der menschlichen Ansiedlungen' ('The vol 31, 92-7 state of human colonization'), Geogr. Z., vol 1, 1887 'Der Gebirgsbau der Sachsischen Schweiz' ('The 361-75 mountain structure of the Saxonian "Schweiz"') 1897 'Die Haustiere und die menschlichen WirtschaftsHabilitationschrift, published in full in formen. Nach Eduard Hahn' ('Domestic animals and Forschungen zur Deutschen Landes- und Volkskunde, human economic forms according to Ed. Hahn'). II, Heft 1+ as 'Gebirgsbau und Oberflachengestaltung Geogr. Z., vol 3, 160-6 der Sachischen Schweitz' ('Mountain formation and 'Der gegenwartige Stand der Verkehrsgeographie' surface formations of the Saxonian "Schweiz"') ('The present state of transportation geography') Geogr. Z. , vol 3, 62I+-3U, 691+-70U

Bibliography and Sources

1888

Alfred 1898 1899

1901

1902

1903

1901+

1905

1906 1907

1908

'Die Entwicklung der Geographie im 19. Jahrhundert' ('The development of geography in the 19th century'), Geogv. Z. , vol k, 305-20 'liber bevolkerungsstatistische Grundkarten' ('On base maps of population statistics'), Verh. 7 Int. Geographenhongress Berlin, vol 2, Berlin, pp. 502-10 'Die Landbauzonen der aussertropischen Lander. Nach den Untersuchungen Th. H. Engelbrechts' ('The agricultural zones of non-tropical regions, based on the studies of Th. H. Engelbrecht'), Geogv. Z. , vol 7, 271-81, 333-1+2 'Die wirtschaftlichen Typen der Ansiedlungen' ('Economic types of colonization'), Geogv. Z., vol 8, 92-100 'Das Deutschtum in Sudbrasilien' ('Germans in southern Brazil'), Geogv. Z. , vol 8, 609-26 'Das Deutschtum in Sudchile' ('Germans in southern Chile'), Geogv. Z., vol 8, 686-92 'Grundbegriffe und Grundsatze der physischen Geographie' ('Basic concepts and principles of physical geography'), Geogv. Z., vol 9, 21-UO, 121-39, 193-213 'Die deutschen Mittelgebirge. Versuch einer vergleichenden Charakeristik' ('The low mountains of Germany. An attempt at a comparative characterization'), Geogv. Z. , vol 10, 13-25, 86-95, 13U-1+3 'Das Klima Europas' ('The climate of Europe'), Geogv. Z., vol 10, 371-90 Das Euvopaisohe Russland. Eine Studie zuv Geographie des Mensohen (European Russia. A study in human geography), Leipzig-Berlin (2nd expanded ed. 1916, 3rd expanded ed. 19l6, 1+th ed. 1921; twice trans, into Russian) 'Das System der Wissenschaften' ('The system of sciences'), Pveussisahe Jahvbuoh, no 122, 251-77 'Das Wesen und die Methoden der Geographie' ('The nature and methods of geography'), Geogv. Z., vol 11, 5U5-6U, 615-29, 671-86 'Ferdinand von Richthofens Bedeutung fur die Geographie' ('F. von Richthofen's significance for geography'), Geogv. Z., vol 12, 1-11 GvundziXge dev L'dndevkunde. Bd.I. Europa (Basic features of regional geography. Vol I: Europe), Leipzig (2 ed. 1923, 3 ed. 1935, k ed. 1927, 5 ed. 1932) 'Die Geographie des Menschen' ('Human geography'), Verh. 16. Dtsoh. Geogr. NUrnberg, Berlin, 273-303, and in Geogr. Z., vol 13, 1+01-25 'Uber das Verhaltnis von Natur und Mensch. Randbemerkungen zu Schluters Vortrag' ('On the mannature relationship. Marginal comments to Schluter's paper'), Geogr. Z., vol 13, 580-3 'Methodologische Streifzuge' ('Methodological debates'): I. 'Der Gegenstand der Geographie' ('The object of geography'), Geogr. Z., vol 13, 627-32 II. 'Geographie und Erdvissenschaft' ('Geography and earth science'), Geogr. Z., vol 13, 69H-9 III. 'Beobachtung, Forschung, Darstellung' ('Observation, research, presentation'), Geogr. Z. , vol lit, 561-8 'Die geographische Einteilung der Erdoberflache' ('The geographical classification of the earth's surface'):

1910

1911

1912

1913

19llt

1915

1916 1917

Hettner

61

I. 'Die kunstlichen Einteilungen' ('Artificial classifications'), Geogr. Z., vol lit, 1-7 II. 'Die teleologische Einteilung Ritters' ('Ritter's teleological classification'), Geogr. Z. , vol lit, 7-13 III. 'Die Grundsatze einer Naturlichen Einteilung' ('The basic elements of a natural classification'), Geogr. Z. , vol lit, 9^-110 IV. 'Versuch einer Einteilung' ('An attempt at classification'), Geogr. Z., vol lU, 137-50 'Die Eigenschaften und Methoden der Kartographischen Darstellung' ('The characteristics and methods of cartographic presentation'), Geogr. Z. , vol 16, 12-28, 73-82 'Die Arbeit des fliessenden Wassers' ('The work of running water'), Geogr. Z., vol l6, 365-8U 'Die terminologie der Oberflachenformen' ("The terminology of surface formations'), Geogr. Z., vol 17, 135-ltlt 'Die KLimate der Erde' ('The climates of the earth'), Geogv. Z. , vol 17, 1+25-35, 1+82-502, 5U565, 618-33, 675-85 'Aus dem Schweizer Jura. Eine morphologische Skizze' ('From the Swiss Jura. A morphological Sketch'), Geogv. Z., vol 18, 515-21 'Alter und Form der Taler' ('The age and shape of valleys'), Geogv. Z., vol 18, 665-82 'Rumpfflachen und Pseudorumpfflachen* ('Peneplains and pseudopeneplains'), Geogv. Z. , vol 19, 185-202 'Die Entstehung des Talnetzes' ("The origin of the valley network'), Geogv. Z., vol 19, 153-61 'Die Abhangigkeit der For der Landoberflache vom innern Bau' ('The dependence of the form of the earth's surface on the inner structure'), Geogv. Z., vol 19, U35-U5 'Die Entwicklung der Landoberf lache' ('The development of the earth's surface'), Geogv. Z., vol 20, 129-1+5 'Die Vorgange der Umlagerung an der Erdoberflache und die morphologische Korrelation' ('The processes of rearrangement on the earth's surface and the morphological correlation'), Geogv. Z. , vol 20, 185-97 Englands Welthevrsohaft und der Krieg (England's world domination and the war), 1st and 2nd eds., Leipzig-Berlin; 3rd ed. Englands Weltherrsohaft und ihre Krisis (England's wovld domination and its ovisis) 1917; Itth ed. Englands Weltherrsohaft (England's world domination) 1928 'Die geographischen Bedingungen der menschlichen Wirtschaft' ('Geographical conditions of human economy'), in Grundriss der Sozialokonomik, II/I, Tubingen, 1-31; 2nd ed. 1923, 1-56 (expanded) 'Das Britische und das Russische Reich' ('The British and Russian Empires'), Geogr. Z., vol 25 353-71 Der Friede und die deutsche Zukunft (The veaoe and Germany 's future), Stuttgart 'Deutschlands territoriale Neugestaltung' ('Germany's territorial reformation'), Geogr. Z. , vol 25, 57-72 'Die morphologische Forschung. 1. Die entwicklung der Methode. 2. Kritik der deduktiven Methode' ('Morphological research. 1. The development of

62 Alfred

1920 1921

1923

192U

1925

1927 1929

1930 1931 1932 1933

Hettner

a methodology. 2. A critique of the deductive method'), Geogr. Z. , vol 25, 3^1-52 'Funfundzwanzig Jahre Geographische ZeitschrifV ('Twentyfive years of . . . ' ) , Geogr. Z. , vol 26, 1-8 die Oberflachenformen des Festlandes3 ihre Untersuchung und Darstellung (The surface features Leipzigof the land, their study and depiction), Berlin; 2nd ed. 1928; trans, into English by P. Tilley as The surface features of the land. Problems and methods of geomorphology, London, 1972 'Die Davissche Lehre in der Morphologie des Festlandes' ('The teachings of W. M. Davis on land morphology'), Geogr. Anz. , vol 22, 1-6 Der Gang der Kultur uber die Erde. Geographische Sohriften I (The march of culture across the face of the earth), Leipzig; 2nd revised and enlarged ed., Leipzig and Berlin, 1929 'Die Grenzen der Geographie, die Bedeutung der Morphologie, Landerkunde und allgemeine Geographie, Landschaftskunde, Deutschkunde und Auslandskunde' ("The boundaries of geography,' the significance of morphology, regional geography, and general geography, the study of the landscape, the study of Germany and foreign countries'), Geogr. Z., vol 29, 37-59 Grundzuge der Landerkunde3 Bd. II. Aussereuropaische Erdteile (Basic elements of regional geography. Vol 2. Non-European regions of the earth), Leipzig and Berlin; 3rd ed. 1926; Hth ed. 1930 'Das Verhaltnis der Geographie zu den Naturund den Geisteswissenschaften' ("The relationship of geography to the natural sciences and the humanities'), Geogr. Anz., vol 26, 209-16 'Passarges Landschaftskunde' ('Passarge's landscape science'), Geogr. Z. , vol 31, 162-1* Die Geographie^ ihre Geschichte3 ihr Wesen und Ihre Methoden (Geography3 its history3 nature3 and methods), Breslau 'Dymanische Landerkunde; Das landerkundliche Schema; Die Geographie des Sichtbaren und die Landschaftskunde; Allgemeine Geographie und vergleichende Landschaftskunde' ('Dynamic landscape science; the scheme of landscape science; the geography of the visible and landscape science; general geography and comparative landscape science'), Geogr. Z. , vol 35, 26U-86 'Geopolitik und politische Geographie; Zur Stellung und Methode der Wirtschaftsgeographie' ('Geopolitics and political geography; and the position and methods of economic geography'), Geogr. Z. , vol 35, 332-1+5 'Unser Auffassung von der Geographie' ('Our conception of geography'), Geogr. Z., vol 35, U86-91 Die Klimate der Erde. (The climates of the earth) in Geogr. Sch., Heft 5, Leipzig. 'Der Orient und die Orientalische Kultur' ('The Orient and oriental culture'), Geogr. Z., vol 37, 193-210, 269-79, 3^1-50, U01-1U " 'Das landerkundliche Schema' ("The scheme of regional geography'), Geogr. Anz., vol 33, 1-6 'Zur asthetischen Landschaftskunde' ('On an aesthetic landscape science'), Geogr. Z., vol 39, 93-8

1933-5 Vergleichende Landerkunde (Comparative regional geography) Vol 1. Die Erde3 Land und Meer. Bau und Hauptformen des Festlandes (The earth3 land and ocean3 the structure and major formations of the earth), Leipzig and Berlin, 1933 Vol 2. Die Landoberflache (The surface of the earth), Leipzig and Berlin, 1933 Vol 3. Die Gewasser des Festlandes: Die Klimata der Erde (The water bodies of the earth; the climates of the earth), 193I+ Vol h. Die Pflanzenwelt: Die Tierwelt: Die Menschheit: Die Erdrdume (The plant world: the animal world: mankind: world regions), 193U I93U 'Der Begriff der Ganzheit in der Geographie' ('The concept of totality in geography'), Geogr. Z. , vol U0, lUl-U 1935 'Gesetzmassigkeit und Zufall in der Geographie' ('Regularity and coincidence in. geography'), Geogr. Z. , vol Ul, 2-15 Works avvearing posthumously 19^7 Allgemeine Geographie des Menschen. Bd. I. Die Menschheit. Grundlegung der Geographie des Menschen. (General human geography. Vol I. The human race. The foundation of human geography) ed. H. Schmitthenner, Stuttgart 1952 Vol III. Verkehrsgeographie (Transportation geography), ed. H. Schmitthenner, Stuttgart, 1952 1957 Vol. II. Wirtschaftsgeographie (Economic geography), ed. E. Plewe. (Attached to this volume are his Siedlungsgeographie (settlement geography) and his ethnic and political geography, which did not appear separately.) Ernst Plewe is professor of geography at the University of Heidelberg. Translated from the German text by Mark Bassin

Chronology 1859

Born in Dresden, August 6

1877

Entered Halle University

1878

Moved to Bonn

1879

Went to Strassburg to study for his doctorate (l88l)

1881

Returned to Bonn as a teacher

1882

Became a private tutor in the home of the British ambassador in Colombia: remained in South America to August 188U

188U

Returned to Leipzig for further study, first with Richthofen and later with Ratzel

Alfred 1887

Granted the habilitation for a thesis written under Ratzel's supervision and taught for one semester in Leipzig

1888

Returned to South America, where he travelled in Peru, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and southern Brazil: the first signs of paralysis were seen. Began to publish paper on South America

1890

Served to 1893 as an assistant professor in Leipzig and promoted in 189^ to 'extraordinary' professor

1895

Edited the new journal, as he was to do for forty years, the Geographisohe Zeitschrift and wrote part of the text for the Spamer atlas

1897

Moved to Tubingen

1899

Settled in Heidelberg, where he became a full professor in 1906

1905

Published his book on European Russia

1908

Travelled in Egypt

1911

Visited Tunisia and Algeria

1913-1^

Travelled in Asia

191^

His health deteriorated and the paralysis became more severe Began to publish works on current problems in political geography

1915 1920

Though methodological papers had been written at various times (see bibliography), Hettner now concentrated his work on the nature of geography and on a comparative world treatment

1927

Published his book on Geographyt

historyy

its

nature and methods which, like

other works of his later years, included some work previously published in the

Geographisohe Zeitschrift

and elsewhere,

much matured by long reflection, study and experience 1928

Retired as Emeritus Professor

1930

Published his book on The climates

the 1933-35 1935

His U-volume Comparative

geography

regional

was published

Compelled by the National Socialist Nazi government to relinquish his work as

editor of the Geographisohe 19^1

of

earth

Died, August 31 at Heidelberg

Zeitschrift

Hettner

63

Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov 1711-1765

O. A. ALEXANDROVSKAYA A scientist of truly encyclopaedic range, Lomonosov is famous for his vast contribution to the development of the natural sciences in general and the earth sciences in particular. Among his varied activities, his work as head of the Geography Department of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences was of great significance for the development of geography in Russia. 1. EDUCATION, LIFE AND WORK Lomonosov was born on 19 November (8 old style) 1711. into a peasant family in the village of Mishavinskaya, near Kilmogory in the Archangel province. He learned to read early in life. Inured to the hard conditions of the Pomory area, the northern coastal strip of Russian Europe, in December 1730 he walked to Moscow, where in January 1731 he was admitted to the Slavonic-Greek-Latin academy, an institution for theological and civil service students where he acquired a training in philosophy and rhetoric, and also in Latin, then essential for reading scientific works. At the beginning of 1736, he was sent as the Academy's best student to the university under the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences and in the autumn of the same year, he went to Marburg for further study under the natural scientist, Christian Wolf, followed by two more years at Freiberg under Henckel, an authority on mining. With Wolf, Lomonosov developed a wide knowledge of the natural sciences, and at Marburg he made an intensive study of mining, frequently going into mines to study ores and minerals which he discussed with experienced workers. The first half of the eighteenth

century was a time of immense curiosity on the structure of the universe and life on earth in Russia, and the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, founded in 1725, had welcomed many eminent natural scientists including Leonard Euler, Nikola and Daniel Bernoulle, NicolaJoseph de l'Isle and Iogan Ghmelin. Early meetings of the Academy were given to such topics as the earth's configuration and the law of gravitation. The Academy adhered strictly to materialist Cartesian principles in physics, but controversy raged. Lomonosov, on his return to Russia in 17^1, began to state his own views, meanwhile working as curator of the mineral collection of the Academy and, from 17^2, as an assistant professor

His work Meditationes de coloris et frigoris causa (On the origin of heat and cold) was an integrated and consistent exposition of the molecular-kinetic theory of heat. This was followed by Dissertatio de actione

menstruorum chimicorum in genera (On the action chemical istry.

of

solvents) , in effect a study in physical chemBut his main interest was still in mining and

his essay of 1 7 ^ , De moty aeris

observato

(On the

free

movement of air in mines) was a theoretical treatment of air movement in mines. In 17^5 Lomonosov became professor of chemistry at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, which gave him a status equivalent to an academician and in 17^8 he managed to build a laboratory for his continuing experiments on the theory of elasticity of air, the nature of combustion, and the molecular structure of matter. In 17^8 he also formulated the law of the preservation of matter, though this was not published until 1760 in

his Meditationes

de solida

et fluido

(On solidity

and

66

Mikhail

Vasilyevich

Lomonosov

fluidity): on this he found varied evidence, some from his observation of the thermal effects of the dissolving of salt. (The law of conservation of matter is generally associated with the work, forty years later, of Lavoisier.) In his work of 17^9 Tentamen theorise

vi aeris elastica

(An essay of the theory of

elasticity

of air), Lomonosov's theory of heat as air motion presaged the kinetic theory of gases adopted in the middle of the nineteenth century. In a study of light, published in 1756, he adopted the wave theory. During this period he also studied the nature and properties of electricity, elaborated his teaching on colour, began to work on the history of Russia, published a study of rhetoric, completed a Russian grammar and made his best mosaics.' Appointed Counsellor of the Chancery of the Academy of Sciences in 1757, Lomonosov was interested in all its departments. His general work for education had contributed to the founding of Moscow University in 1755, to be available for all classes of the population. In 1758 he became head of the Academy's Geography Department which had been founded in 1739 and had issued

an Atlas

of the Russian Empire in 17^5.

By 1763 the

Geography Department had prepared new maps of several northwestern areas of Russia. Probably anticipating the end of his life (he died on 15 (U old style) April 176U in St. Petersburg aged only fifty-four), Lomonosov in speeches, projects and other activities unfolded a magnificent programme for the cultural and economic development of Russia, inevitably depending on the progress of science and education. During the reign of Empress Elizabeth (I'jhlSl), daughter of Peter the Great, Lomonosov was famed more as a poet than as a scientist, for his adulatory odes became a valued feature of official solemnities. With this, he was required to design illuminations. In fact he made a fine contribution to the literary as well as to the scientific and technical use of the Russian language. Though regretting diversion from his scientific work he managed to draw poetic material from

science, as in the Pismo o poize stekla

(Usefulness

of

glass) of 1752, a philosophical poem in which his own scientific aspirations were expressed. He retained his materialist concept of nature, based on the principle of the universal connection between phenomena and the existence of a cause and effect relationship between them. All through Lomonosov's scientific work, so wide in span, there is the idea of the development and variability of the world. 2. SCIENTIFIC IDEAS AND GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT From his primary concern with physics, Lomonosov developed his researches on atmospheric phenomena, geology, the relief of the earth's surface, its soil and vegetation cover and the development of Russia's northern regions. He was especially interested in atmospheric electricity, seen in lightning and the polar northern lights. From his meteorological work he suggested that the atmosphere was divisible into three strata, whose boundaries changed from season to season, though in general the altitude of the lower and middle strata was seven versts (c.'Jh Km) in each case and of the upper seventy versts (c.75 Km). Changes affecting life on the earth's surface occurred in the lower stratum, while

the middle stratum had consistently low temperatures and the upper stratum had a constantly clear and transparent atmosphere and was free from any influence from the earth. Lomonosov's ideas of vertical air mass flow presaged the findings of modern meteorology. He was well aware of changes of climate with wind direction and showed that the distribution of land and sea was of climatic significance. He proved that in winter the sea gave off more heat than the land and so moderated coastal climates. He also noted the differences between tundra, steppe and desert climates and associated the extra-tropical variable climates with the movements of ocean currents: in time, he pointed out, a proper meteorological service might include the provision of weather forecasts. From 17^3 he wrote various studies of the Polar lights, well known to him in the northern area of his childhood, and in the year of his death was planning a detailed study of these remarkable phenomena. Through his climatic work Lomonosov was finding his way to the idea of terrestrial unity that was to become so crucial to geographical methodology later. He was aware of the interaction of warm tropical and cold polar air as part of the general atmospheric circulation and demonstrated that in any locality climatic conditions depended on latitude, longitude, altitude, and distance from the sea. Also emphasised was the structure and formation of the earth, an interest first developed from his work on mining, but stimulated by such dramatic events as the eruption of Vesuvius in 1751 and the Lisbon earthquake of 1755In 1756 he began to write his dissertation on earthquakes and in the following year he read a paper to the Academy on the origin of metals in earthquakes, an extension of geological and geographical ideas seen in Peroye osnovania metallurqii (Elements of metallurgy), written in 17^2 but published in 1763. These ideas were developed further in his '0 ployakh zemnikh' ('On the strata of the earth') first published as a supplement to the 17&3 work. By this time, Lomonosov had much that was new to say on the relation between relief and the geological structure of the earth, the classification of surface relief forms and the possible explanation of their variety in the landscape. Convinced that one key to the origin of seas and mountains lay in the sinking and rising of the earth's strata, with marine oscillations, Lomonosov was reaching forward to a new tectonic explanation of the development of continents and oceans. This was embodied in the work on the oscillatory movements of the earth's crust by N.A. Golovkinsky and the structural principles of drawing up palaeographic maps by P. Kropotkin during the second half of the nineteenth century. Lomonosov was also concerned with detail, including the action of wind, rain, rivers, surf and frost weathering. At a time when most researchers held that the earth's form was due to the Deluge, he emphasized that the earth's surface was constantly smoothed out by the impact of river, rain, ice, oscillating surface waters and currents. In this he shared the views of Buffon, but unlike Buffon he held that the major influence was endogenous factors such as earthquakes and volcanic activity rather than exogenous factors. Lomonosov always insisted on an historical approach to geological problems. Insisting on the eternal variability of nature (especially in his 'Strata of the earth'), his ideas

Mikhail

were a century ahead of those held by most natural scientists in the eighteenth century, when the metaphysical views of the invariability of nature predominated. Lomonosov argued that earthquakes resulted in tectonic fissures, that volcanic activity caused mountains to rise and the earth strata to be flexured, that depressions are formed by sinking of the land, that century-long oscillations of the earth's surface were accompanied by transgression and regressions of sea level, that water, ice, wind and other known phenomena were also influential. All the changes had 'occurred not once, but countless times and at various periods of time; they continue to occur today ...' {Complete works (1955) vol 6, 587). Lomonosov's acceptance of 'actualism' is well shown in his work on chernozems, in his view the product of decomposition of the residue of plants and animals, and therefore not originating from mineral constituents. The work on chernozems, though anticipating the theories of Dokuchaev {Geogr. Biobibl. Stud., vol h (1980), 33-1*2) was imprecise, for it was applied to any black soil, including those of swamps and damp meadows as well as to the humus content in soils made up of sand, silt or clay. In 1901, Dokuchaev {Lectures on soil science, p. 360, in Russian) noted that 'with a feeling of surprise ... I learned that the theory for which I had the degree of Doctor of Science conferred ... had long since been expounded by Lomonosov'. The broad view of Lomonosov, however, included lignite, coal and chernozems as of organic derivation. The relevance of the subsoil was not understood in Lomonosov's time though he noted that 'the uppermost layer ... borrows much from the underlying layers ... mutually insulating them from one another'. Perhaps not surprisingly, Lomonosov gave the first known analysis of the tundra, known to him as a forestless expanse overgrown with moss lying along the coast of the Arctic ocean. Viewing geography as a science 'which takes in the entire expanse of the universe with a single glance' {Complete works, vol 8 (1956), 252) Lomonosov as head of the geography department was concerned with the countryside and its population and planned the compilation of an atlas dealing with the whole of Russia, to be studied not only physically, but in terms of ethnography, economic and historical development. The full economic and political treatment of the Russian Empire was to include its natural resources, trade and industry, market demand and transport. Data were to be shown both on maps and in written work appended to the atlas. In 1760 six hundred copies of a questionnaire were sent out, from which the replies were presented in four volumes covering half Russia's extent by the time of his death. In 1771-^> the materials on the Moscow and Novgorod areas were published, but the work was then discontinued. Lomonosov obviously saw the need for local regional study, not least of the newly reclaimed areas of Russia's central belt that were potentially of great economic significance. Only with the full investigation of known and unexplored natural resources was it possible to develop industry, especially metallurgical industry. This was true and basic economic geography, having as a first and necessary inquiry a statistical basis, to be given by

Vasilyevich

Lomonosov

67

'an economic lexicon of Russian products' (a project of 1763, Complete works, vol 9 (1956), 178), 'listing all the products of Russia in alphabetical order with the place of their origin and production, volume of production, quality of output, location of their export and import'. With all this there was to be a treatment of rivers, including their navigability, wharves, ferries and portage routes. Lomonosov was a supporter of the Russian geographers Kirilov andTatishchev who in the early and middle eighteenth century stressed the importance of geographical knowledge for the state. He suggested that each administrative unit {gubernia) should be described physically, politically and economically. There should be information on the population, hydrography and orography, flora and fauna, agriculture, industry and commerce, water and land transport. The physical characteristics of each locality were the natural setting for agriculture, industrial activity and the building of towns, in short a natural environment for economic activity. Special circumstances existed with some resources, such as ore mining, salt mining or extraction, or fishing. Local conditions must be studied: for example, on roads it was insufficient to know only distances as a complete study would include the nature of the terrain and the existence of any 'urochishche' (a term he used to mean any isolated exceptional feature in the countryside). Everything possible should be mapped, and he produced some interesting ideas on economic maps incorporating a variety of data. The hope was to send out geographical expeditions, in short to explore Russia, according to memoranda drawn up between 1759 and YjSh, but he did not live to see this done. However, a large expedition was sent out by the Academy in 1768-7^ and others followed. The seas surrounding Russia offered at least as great, perhaps an even greater, challenge to research workers. Lomonosov was anxious to see a credible theory of sea currents and an explanation of magnetism. In the last decade of his life he was an enthusiastic supporter of the idea of a Northern Passage, as the shortest sea route from Europe to America and India, partly for its military as well as its economic importance. The image of a 'Russian Columbus* hurrying eastward amid the ice floes first appeared in his ode of 17^7, and later in other odes of 1752 and 1760. He was inspired by the reports of various Russian expeditions and caught up in the controversy about the priorities of particular discoveries in the 1750s. Uncertainty of the best route to be followed led to various analyses of natural conditions, including ice formation, longitude determination on the open sea, the reasons for the Polar lights and other topics. A work for the Swedish Academy in I76O was the forerunner of his major work of 1763

(Kratkoye opisani raznykh puteshestvil po severnym moryam i pokazaniya vozmozhnogo prokhoda Sibirskim okeanom v Vostochnuyu Indiyu)(A brief description of various voyages on the Northern Seas and evidence regarding the possibility of reaching East India via

the Siberian Ocean). This was submitted to the Naval Commission in 1763 to induce the government to organize a large Arctic expedition. Based on the verbal evidence of Russian navigators and on foreign literary sources, it gave useful information on sea currents and winds of the northern seas.

68

Mikhail

Vasilyevioh

Lomonosov

In his study of Arctic Russia Lomonosov thought that the real problem of navigation was not hard frost but polar ice and icebergs. He divided sea ice into three types: first, 'sludge', salt ice of marine origin; second, ice floes, almost devoid of salt content, originating in estuaries and tidal reaches of rivers; third, icebergs of land origin, entirely devoid of salt. This is broadly the classification still in use. Lomonosov wished to see a thorough study of the Arctic coasts of Russia, for he thought that ocean currents and drifts must depend largely on the form of the coast. But he was fully aware of the influence of prevailing winds. Interested in the analogous Arctic coasts of North America, he faced the difficulty of basing generalised explanation on inadequate data. For his time Lomonosov was an outstanding geographer, eager to find explanations for complex problems of physical phenomena, well versed in physical geography, hydrology, geophysics, meteorology and climatology. His ideas on the structure of the earth were original and constructive. He put forward the theory of the drift of the poles and the movement of continents. Especially he contributed to comparative study, seeking analogous conditions in different parts of the world, as for example in the treatment of the Arctic coasts of Russia and America. He sought cause and effect relations in his study of physical geography, and fully recognised its diversity in unity, with its perpetual change and development. 'What makes nature all the more wonderful', he wrote, 'is that it is highly ingenious in its simplicity, producing from a small number of causes countless modes of properties, changes and phenomena'. (Complete works, vol 3 (1953), 335). At the end of his life he wrote that 'causes tend to combine and concatenate ... agreement between all causes in the most constant law of nature' (Complete works, vol 3 (1953), 576). Experiment and theory were scientific activities and his approach to science was summarized in his saying that To build a theory from observations and to correct an observation with the aid of theory is the best way of searching for truth.

(Complete works, vol h (1953), 163)

This was in accord with his earlier statement that 'mental reflections arise from dependable experiments repeated many times'. 3. INFLUENCE AND SPREAD OF IDEAS A man of such breadth of learning naturally became known to a wide range of people. In court circles he was known only as a successful poet, while in St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences many people regarded his wide range of study critically and some thought him to be an opinionated dilettante. But there were many scientists eager to praise his work, in particular Leonard Euler. Lomonosov was widely known among European scientists, and became an honorary member of the Bologna and Swedish Academies of Science. Russian scientists, including the mathematician C. Kotelhikov, the astronomer and geodesist A. Krasilnikov, the physicist and chemist K. Schshepin, owed much to his

encouragement. Lomonosov is generally remembered as a physicist and chemist, but his contribution to geography is no less distinguished. By the 1760s he had stimulated others to work in geography, among them I.I. Lepekhin, P.I. Richkov, F.I. Soimonov, N. Ya. Ozeretskovsky, and others. Another follower of Lomonosov was V.M. Severgin, an eminent mineralogist and authority on Russia's mineral resources. N.E. Dick, an historian of geography, indentifies a 'Lomonosov period' of some length in the history of Russian geography (Moscow 1976), from 17^0-90. During these fifty years geography developed rapidly in Russia, and research methods included the use of questionnaires and personal interviews. Between 1768 and 177^ the Acadamy of Sciences organized several geographical expeditions: among those who took part were P.S. Pallas, I.I. Lepekhin, I.A. Gildenstedt, S.G. Ghinelin and I.I. Georgi. The particular concern of the expeditions was to give a geographical description of each area, with special reference to industrial and agricultural expansion. From these expeditions various travel diaries and monographs were published, but the material was inadequate for a general regional survey. From 1760 to 1768 various governmental bodies undertook eighteen questionnaire surveys, broadly based but with an emphasis on agriculture and commerce. Also included was data on the composition of the urban and rural population, and on the location of industries. These surveys provided economic and geographical data for a number of geographical works, including Kratkaya

Rossiiskoi Imperii Geografiya Bahneister (Buckmeister 's short geography of the Russian Empire) of 1768 and the Geografichseki Leksikon Polunina (Polunin 's geographical

lexicon) of 1773. In both these works prominence is given to the description of towns and cities. From the 1760s to the 1790s these general land surveys covering almost all of Russia included topographical sketches. This had been advocated by Lomonosov, and the surveys used local governmental units as areas for study. Much of the material remained in archives or was only partially published, but two authors attempted a general survey of Russia in the 1780s. S.I. Pleshcheyer

published his Obozreniye Rossiskiu Russian

Empire)

Imperii

(Review of the

in 1786 and J.F. Huckman his

Prostrannoye

zemleopisaniye Rossikovo gosudarstva (An extended description of the Russian lands) in 1787.

Lomonosov died at the early age of 5^ at the height of his creative ability, having begun his scientific work only at the age of 32. The versatility, profundity and comprehensive nature of his work is remarkable, and some of his ideas were forerunners of those to be so scientifically fruitful in the nineteenth century. But perhaps the most remarkable feature of his life was the rise from humble origins to such prominence at a time when society was aristocratic and serf-owning. In Russia he has a name venerated in the history of science.

Mikhail

Vasilyevich

Lomonosov

69

1757

Bibliography and Sources 1. REFERENCES ON MIKHAIL VASILYEVICH LOMONOSOV Menshutkin, B.R., Zhizneopisaniye M.V. Lomonosova (The life of M.V. Lomonosov), Moscow (19I+7): available in English as Russia's Lomonosov: chemist, courtier, physicist, poet, Princeton (1952) Morozov, A.A., Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov,Leningrad (1959, 3 ed 1965) Grigoryev, A.A., 'Rol' M.V. Lomonosova v razvitii geografisheskikh nauk i estestroznaniya v Rossii' ('M.V. Lomonosov's role in the development of geographical and natural sciences in Russia')) Izv. Akad. Nauk Ser. Geogr. (1962), 115-20 Morris, A.S., 'Mikhail Lomonosov and the study of landforms' Trans. Inst. Br. Geogr., no 1*1 (1967), 59-61* Fradkin, N.G. 'M.V. Lomonosov i Razvitiye geografii* ('M.V. Lomonosov and the development of geography'), Izv. Akad. Nauk Ser. Geogr., no 3 (19T1*), 15-20 Dick, N.E., Deyatelrost' i trudy M.V. Lomonosova v oblasti geografii (M. V. Lomonosov's activities in the field, of, and works on, geography) , Moscow (1976) Sukhova, N.G., 'Fiziko - geograficheskiye vozzreniya M.V. Lomonosova', (M.V. Lomonosova's views on physical geography1), in Lomonosov: a collection of articles and materials, Leningrad (1977), 112-25 2.

'Oratio de generatione metallorum a terra moty' ('On the origin of metals and earthquakes'), pub. St. Petersburg 1759; ibid, vol 5, 295-31*8 1759 Meditationes de via navis in mari certus (Consideration of the greater accuracy of sea routes), ibid, vol 1*, 123-319 1760 'Tankar om Is-Bergens Ursprung uti de nordiska Haufen' ('On the origin of icebergs in the northern seas'), pub. 1763; ibid, vol 3, 1*1*7-59 1762 'Kratkoye opisanie raznikh puteshestviy po severnim moryam i pokazaniye vozmozhnogo prolhodu Sibirkim okeanom v Vostochnuyu Indiyu' ('A brief description of various voyages on the northern seas and the possibility of finding a route to the East Indies by the Siberian Ocean'), first pub. 181*7 in St. Petersburg; ibid, vol 6, 1*17-98 (also supplementary papers of I76I* and 1765, 1*99-538) " 176U 'Ispitaniye prichini severenogo siyaniya i drugikh podobnikh yavleniy' ('On the causes of the Northern Lights and similar phenomena'), first pub. in Budilovich, A.S., Lomonosov kak naturalist i filolog (Lomonosov as a naturalist and philoligist), St. Petersburg 1869; ibid, vol 3, 1+81-3 NOTE: From 1757-65, Lomonosov wrote a number of reports and memoranda which were published as documents 106-198 under the general heading Materialy po organizatsii geograficheskikh rabot (Data on the organisation of work in geography) in Complete works, vol 9, 1955. These deal particularly with the service geography, in its broadest conception, could provide for the government , with much of interest on the planning of exploration.

SELECTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS BY MIKHAIL VASILYEVICH LOMONOSOV The works of Lomonosov are available in Complete works Olga Andreyevna Alexandrovskaya is a Senior Research (Moscow and Leningrad), several volumes 1950-5. The Assistant at the Institute of the History of Science and dates given here are of the year when the work was Technology, U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences written: in a number of instances publication followed much later in his life or posthumously. At the end of each entry, a reference to Complete works is given. 17k2 'Pervye osnovaniya metallurgii ili rudnikh del' ('The elements of metallurgy or mining'), first pub. St. Petersburg 1763, with appendix, written in 176l, '0 sloyakh zemnikh' ('On the strata of the earth'); op. cit. vol 5, 397-631 17l*l* 'De moty aeris fodinis observato' ('On the free 1711 Born at Mishavinskaya, near Kholmogary, circulation of air in mines'), first pub. 1750; an old port in the Archangel province, ibid. , vol 1, 315-22 November 8/19 'Volfiananskaya experimentalnaya fizika' ('Wolf's experimental physics'), pub. 17l*6 and (enlarged) 1731-5 Studied at the Slavonic-Greek-Latin Academy, Moscow 1760, ibid, vol 1, 1*17-30 and vol 3, 1*29-1*0 171*6 'Sposob kak merit' gradus teploti na doe morskom 1736 Further studies at the Academy of Sciences. podo l'dom' ('A method of measuring temperature on the sea bed under ice'), pub. in Budilovich, St. Petersburg A.S., Lomonosov kak Pisatel (Lomonosov as a writer), 1737-1+0 In Germany, at Marburg and Freiburg St. Petersburg (1871); ibid., vol 3, 193-6 universities to study mining, but became 1753 'Oratio de meteoris vi electrica ortis' ('Air interested in research on physics and phenomena and electric power'), Torzhestvo chemistry Akademii Nauk ... prazdnovannoye publichnim Sobraniem (Academy of Sciences ... anniversary public meeting), November 26 1753, 1-50; ibid. 17I+O On June 6 married Elizabeth Zilch, vol 3, 15-131*' daughter of a Marburg brewer

Chronology

70 nhl

Mikhail

Vasilyevioh

Lomonosov

In May returned to St. Petersburg and worked on mathematical chemistry: began the catalogue of the mineralogical collection of the Academy of Sciences (published in I7U5)

I7I+2

Appointed assistant professor of physics at the Academy and worked on molecular theory

17^3

Under restraint for his controversial attitude, from May 17^3 to January 1 7 ^ : translated Wolf's Experimental physios from German (published 17U6 and 1760)

17^5

Became professor of chemistry at St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, and completed his work on air movement in mines and on physics with chemistry

17^8

Organized the first scientific chemical laboratory in Russia

1750

Various writings in prose and verse published by the Academy

1752

Advocated the production of mosaics in Russia: further studies on atmospheric electricity

1753

Visited Moscow and arranged to establish a glass factory in Ust-Ruditse

1751+

Presented his proposal to found a university in Moscow (opened 1755)

1756

Built a house on the Moika, in which he had a mosaics shop, a chemical laboratory and a workshop for optical instruments: worked on Boyle's law of the preservation of matter in the course of chemical conversion

1757

Appointed Counsellor of the Chancery, Academy of Sciences

1758

Given charge of the Geography Department at the Academy of Sciences: Moscow University published the first volume of his completed works

1760

Drew up a memorandum 'On the need to reform the Academy of Sciences': elected an Honorary Member of the Swedish Academy of Sciences

1761

Entrusted with the management of the Academy's school and university: discovered the atmosphere on Venus

1762

Worked on the northern sea route to the East Indies

1763

Elected an Honorary Member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts

176U

Elected a member of the Bologna Academy of Sciences

1765

Died in St. Petersburg on April U/15

Takuji Ogawa 1870-1941

USAO TSUJITA Takuji Ogawa was a distinguished geographer who founded the Geographical Department of Kyoto University and had a profound impact on the following generation of the Japanese geographers. He was especially noted as a geographer who integrated European geographical sciences with the old Chinese classics. In this respect he was unique in the history of geography in Japan. 1. EDUCATION, LIFE AND WORK Takuji Ogawa was born in 1870 in Tanabe, a small castled town on the west coast of Kii Peninsula, Central Japan. He was the second son of Nanmei Asai, the scholar of Confucianism at the School attached to the feudal lordship, so in his boyhood he was nurtured in a Confucianist' upbringing. After graduating at the local middle school he went to Tokyo, which had become the new capital of Japan only two years before he was born. In 1890 he entered the First High School, Tokyo, to take the preliminary course for the Imperial Universities, at that time intending to become a philosopher, and to have much the same career as his father. By accident he changed his intention. On 28 October 1891 the Nobi earthquake occurred in the vicinity of Nagoya City, and on his return to his home from Tokyo, the train journey was suddenly interrupted by earthquake damage. He studied the after-effects of this severe earthquake, which killed 7,273 people. At the devastated area he happened to meet Dr. Koto, Professor of Geology of Tokyo University, who had also come to investigate, and this encounter was the turning-point in his career which led him to become a

geologist. In 1893 he entered the Geological Department of Tokyo University and there he met Naomasa Yamasaki who was his senior by one year (Geogr. Biobibl. Stud. , vol 1 (1977), 113-17). Ogawa and Yamasaki were destined to become the leading geographers in Japan and also lifelong rivals in various ways. When Ogawa was still a student he was given the responsibility of helping his professor to write the regional geography of Taiwan (Formosa). In 1895 China agreed to cede this island to Japan, and information about Taiwan was demanded by the Japanese. In fact Ogawa wrote this work by himself, in spite of not having visited Taiwan. He researched and collected a great deal of material by referring to the Chinese literature as well as several European geographical books, including those of Ritter, Reclus and Richthofen. Ogawa's first geographical work,

Taiwan Shotoshi

(Regional geography of Formosa) was

published by the Tokyo Chigaku Kyokai (Tokyo Geographical Society) in 1896. Two years before this publication, when his name was still Takuji Asai, he beame an adopted son of Komakitsu Ogawa, a wellto-do banker with much learning of East and West, who was born in the same prefecture (Wakayama) as Takuji. Five years later in 1899, Takuji married Miss Koyuki (literally 'lovely snow'), the eldest daughter of Mr. Ogawa. She was modest and had a reputation for womanly virtue, and helped Takuji throughout his whole life. As soon as he graduated from Tokyo University, Ogawa won a post in the Geological Survey of Japan. At the time the staff of this office was preparing the

72 Takuji Ogawa 1:1,000,000 Geological Map of Japan. He was involved in this work, and especially in the so-called Japanese Alps, the mountainous area of Central Japan. In the fieldwork he observed the rare village pattern in the plain of the Toyama Prefecture: the villages had a scattered house pattern on the Tonami Plain, and he classified them later as 'homestead or Einzelhof villages. In 1900 he was sent to Paris, where an International Exposition was held. At this exhibition the Geological Survey of Japan exhibited rocks, minerals and fossils of Japanese origin. He served as an assistant organizer of the Japanese exhibit and soon was awarded the title of membre du Jury by the Exposition authorities. He had already mastered the French language in Japan, and had good English with some German. This facility in languages was the main reason for his assignment in Europe. To spend a year and five months in Europe was valuable experience for a young Japanese scientist. The journey to Paris by boat enabled him to see the coast of South Africa and Egypt. In Europe he visited several countries, including Spain and Italy. Most of his time was spent in France and Germany, but he stayed for almost one month in England, where he visited the Royal Geographical Society three times and met J.S. Keltie, then its Secretary. Wherever he went, he looked for bibliographical material on Northern China but without success, as he explained later. On the other hand, fortunately for him, as well as the International Exposition the International Geological Congress was held in Paris during the same year. Naturally he attended this congress with Naomasa Yamasaki and had the chance to meet several famous geo-scientists. He also joined in the excursions in the environs of Paris. On these occasions he became acquainted with A. Geikie, E. Suess, F. Richthofen, H. Wagner, F. Machatschek and other eminent geographers of the world. After the Congress he and Yamasaki made a trip to Austria and Germany together to honour the famous geographers there. In Vienna they were entertained by Professor Suess and in fact heard his last lecture. On this occasion Ogawa expressed his opinion on the structure of Asia to Suess, the author of the famous Das Antlitz der Erde. The generous old professor readily accepted Ogawa's suggestion and promised to correct the galleyproof of vol 3, mentioning Ogawa's name. In Berlin he had discussions with Richthofen, then the highest authority on the geography of China, and derived much benefit from these conversations. In 1902 and 1903 he was sent to China to investigate its geology and mineral resources. This time his travel was undertaken at the request of military executives, but despite his military duties he was able to do a surprising amount of geological research. In 190^ and 1905, for a period totalling six months, his research in China continued, but eventually he became more interested in the history and geography than in the geology of China. His knowledge of China, first apparent in his boyhood and stimulated in writing Taiwan Shotoshi, was revived enormously by several visits to China. In the years immediately following the RussoJapanese war Professor Ginzo Uchida, a famous historian of Kyoto University, was hoping to establish a Chair of

Geography as one branch of history in the Faculty of Literature. Uchida had perceived the importance of geography as an auxiliary discipline to historical science and had respected Ogawa's ability since his High School days. He especially valued Ogawa's rich experience and keen insight on China: therefore he invited Ogawa to accept the Chair of Geography of Kyoto University, established in 1907 as the first in Japan. Until then geography had been taught at various stages of education, but not in the universities. The teaching of geography in Tokyo Higher Normal School (now Tsukuba University) in which Yamasaki was involved, was of a high level, but it was pragmatic, designed to help teachers, rather than academic. In 1907, Ogawa was still in Korea, involved in important research, and could not return to Kyoto. Mr. Goro Ishibashi, Professor of Kobe Higher Commercial School, acted for a time as an assistant professor. In the next year Ogawa was appointed officially and became the first professor of geography in Japan. In 1909 Ogawa was given the D.Sc. degree by Kyoto University, the first degree in Japan given in geography. From 1908 Ogawa conveyed his vast knowledge to a limited number of students, drawing the essence of geography from his long experience of study and research at home and abroad. He taught both physical and human geography but he seemed to lay much stress on the latter, perhaps because his appointment was in the F acu lty of Literature. Ogawa's career as professor in the Department of Geography lasted for more than ten years. In 1921 he was transferred to the Faculty of Natural Science of Kyoto University to open the Department of Geology and Mineralogy. As the director of the newly established Institute, he still continued to give lectures to students of geography in the same campus. In 192I4 he organized an association of geographers which was named Chikyu Gakudan (Globe Study Group), with Goro Ishibashi and Shintaro Nakamura, a famous geologist who was greatly interested in geography. This association was the second earliest association of geographers in Japan. The Chikyu Gakudan predated the Nihon Chirigakukai (Association of Japanese Geographers), which was organized by Naomasa Yamasaki of Tokyo University in 1925. Chikyu Gakudan published Chikyu (The Globe) monthly. Ogawa and his associates hoped that their bulletin, Chikyu, would promote geographical knowledge among the Japanese, especially teachers in secondary schools. Ogawa welcomed papers from specialists in studies cognate to geography and every issue of Chikyu contained interesting articles. The association always had more than 250 members, but in 1937, after fifteen years duration, it came to an end through a financial crisis. It is remarkable that just ten years later, after Ogawa's death, the Jinbun Chiri Gakukai (Human Geography Association of Japan) was organized in Kyoto University mainly by Ogawa's students (including this paper's author). This could be seen as a revival of Chikyu Gakudan.

Jinbun Chiri Gakukai publishes its bulletin Jinbun

Chiri

(Human Geography) bi-monthly, and has about 2,000 ordinary members. Ogawa's influence is apparent in this association with its flourishing activities. Six months before the organization of Chikyu Gakudan, the Kanto Great Earthquake occurred on 1 September 1923. It was the severest earthquake ever experienced in Japan,

Takuji

with over 100,000 deaths in Tokyo and its environs. Ogawa immediately went up to Tokyo to investigate this earthquake and wrote the 'Study of Kanto Earthquake' in the next six issues of Chikyu. In these years, in addition to his professorship, Ogawa was actively engaged in a variety of enterprises, including the discovery of a stone statue of Buddha at Usuki in Northern Kyushu, the trial digging of a shell mound at Tsukumo in Okayama Prefecture and the editing of various geographical books, maps and atlases. In particular, the pub-

lication of Chiri Fuzoku Taikei (Systematic regional geography of the world including Japan) under Ogawa's

editorship was a major literary enterprise in Japan. It consisted of hi volumes, of which eighteen dealt with Japan and twenty-three with the rest of the world. Each volume included an introductory article by Ogawa. These volumes were the forerunners of lavish editions of geographical books published after the Pacific War. In 1930 Ogawa retired from Kyoto University at the age of sixty. His colleagues and students dedicated a Festschrift of their scientific papers to him in two large volumes of which the first was on physical geography and the second on human or historical geography. Even in his retirement Ogawa maintained a continuing love of geography and a restless scientific curiosity. He frequented the Japan Academy, of which he became a member in 1920, and various Institutes in Kyoto University; he was often seen at the Institute for Oriental Study attached to Kyoto University where he promoted the study of China. Ogawa was a connoisseur of Japanese old swords. Perhaps this interest originated from the study of distribution of iron ores and mineral deposits, so it may be said that this study of swords originated from his geography. Another hobby was 'Igo', Japan's most popular board game. Collecting almost all books related to this game, he studied the history of Igo carefully, and was awarded the title of 2-dan (second rank), vaguely equivalent to the amateur semi-championship standard. He liked also to read detective stories, especially those in English in Penguin editions, and used to Justify reading such novels by explaining that they were a useful form of training for writing academic papers in English. He died suddenly from heart disease on 15 November 19l*l, leaving five brilliant sons and one daughter. One of his sons was the first Japanese winner of the Nobel prize, Hideki Yukawa, the nuclear physicist of Kyoto University. His second son Dr. Shigeki Kaizuka is a famous orientalist and had been long time director of the Institute for Oriental Study in Kyoto. The fourth son Tamaki Ogawa is also a well known specialist in Chinese literature. Four of his sons became professors in Tokyo University or Kyoto University.

2.

GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT

a.

The published

work

Though initially a geologist, Ogawa devoted himself in his latter life mainly to geography: altogether his papers in both fields amount to more than two hundred. Of his geographical books, perhaps the most important is

his Jiribun Chiri Kenkyu (Study of human geography)

which included his two essays of great consequence,

Ogawa

73

'Geography as a science' and 'Man's influence on the earth' in the first section. We can assume from this work that Ogawa's main concern seemed to be the relation between man and natural environment, the never changing theme in geography. He wrote and spoke repeatedly of the importance of this theme. The author of this paper, one of several students at his last lecture at Kyoto University, remembers well that he stressed this problem even at the final stage of his professorship. In 1900, when he was still working as a geologist, he declared his opinion under the title of What is geography. His inclination to geography had already germinated at that time, and about 25 years later he offered a quasidecisive statement on the nature of geography. His paper 'Geography as a science' was issued in the Chikyu in 1925 and was transcribed in Jinbun Chiri Kenkyu in 1928. In this paper he reviewed firstly the development of geography and noted the important contribution by the explorers. In particular he mentioned the name of A. Humboldt, to whom he was devoted, as a great explorer who had contributed to the progress of geography. Ogawa had bought Humboldt's Voyages aux regions equinoxiales du nouoeau continent, 30 vols (1805-3M, formerly owned by a Russian nobleman and rare even in Europe, in Leipzig in 1919. Ogawa kept these books throughout his life with a feeling of loving admiration and Humboldt's maxim, 'the earth surface as a whole', remained a leading principle of his own geographical outlook. In spite of Ogawa's many-sided approach to human geography, he did not appear to put forward any new idea. On settlement geography however, there is some remarkable work, partly by Ogawa, in the four famous papers of chapters 3 and **, in Jinbun Chiri Kenkyu. In these he clarified the geographical meaning of habitat in rural Japan. Before these papers appeared historians and geographers had tried to explain the origins, functions and other aspects of Japanese villages, but their studies were limited to their native places or some restricted area. Such studies were useful but they could not establish general principles for research on the rural habitat of Japan. Fortunately Ogawa, a geographer as well as an historian, conversant with both Oriental and Western cultures, was able to observe Japanese villages as a whole. He could compare them with European and Chinese villages, past and present. He suggested that there are two village patterns in Japan. One is the 'Yamato' (Nara) type, an agglomerated or compact village, seen in traditional settled areas such as Nara Basin, formed in relation with ancient 'joori system' (checker-board land-division imported from China). The other was the village of scattered houses in comparatively newly developed regions, such as Toyama Prefecture, facing the Japan Sea. Ogawa named the latter 'Einzelhof type' village, comparable with those of Westphalia in West Germany. His theory of village types was discussed and amended by geographers later but fundamentally their studies are based on Ogawa's work. Clearly he was a pioneer of settlement geography in Japan. In the fourth chapter of Jinbun Chiri Kenkyu Ogawa deals with the regional geography of the Kinki District, where Kyoto, Nara and Osaka are situated. In this article he abandons the customary order of description of regional geography and considers the historical,

74

Takuji Ogawa

linguistic elements and even to some extent the folklore. In general his work induced a marked advance in the history of regional geography in Japan. Other major contributions on human geography

include his Shina Rekishiohiri Kenkyu (Studies of the historical geography of China), a two-volume work of

1928. In this hook he criticized the work of Richthofen, who accepted the 'Yu-King', an official description of China c. 1+50 B.C., as the oldest regional geography of China. Ogawa enlisted the help of his colleagues working on Chinese classics at Kyoto University, and through critical analysis of the text concluded that the 'Shan-Lai-Ching' was older. The other papers in Ogawa's 1928 volumes include 'A consideration of the pre-Ch'in barbarian tribes of northern China', 'The source of the Hwang ho' and 'Old maps of China'.

b.

Geography and other

studies

Ogawa's work extended to almost all branches of geography, but he paid little attention to economic and population geography, which his colleague, Dr. Ishibashi

cultivated.

Ogawa's Senso Chirigaku

(Geography of war)

in 193^ was the joint product of his geological research and his profound knowledge of history. In fact he thought of writing a 'History of the World War' in his later years, and collected documents related to wars in England, France and Germany when he revisited Europe in 1919. But his plan failed through lack of time, and instead he wrote on wars and politics in Japan and China in relation to natural environments. Another noteworthy book was his Chishitsu Gensho no

Shinkaishaku

(New interpretation

of geological

phenomena)

in 1930, in which he presented somewhat revolutionary explanations of earthquakes, vulcanism, crustal movement and the formation of the Japanese archipelago. In this book he said that his ideas of so-called new interpretation were flashed like inspiration or revelation when he was rambling in the wood of Shimogamo Shrine near his residence in Kyoto. Temperamentally he was somewhat impetuous, but his youthful nickname of 'Pegasus' was apt, for he was never afraid to penetrate unknown territory. His work was at times intuitive and not firm in its factual basis, but in his pioneer circumstances his eagerness to meet opportunities was of great value to Japanese geography.

c.

World view

In addition to the books which Ogawa published in his life-time, several important books were published after his death. One of these was Ichi Chirigakusha no

shogai (Life of a geographer), which was compiled by

his sons and appeared in 19^1. This was the autobiography, which he had written in the journal Chiri Kyoiku (Educational geography) from 1933 to 1937. Unfortunately it covers only the earlier half of his life from his birth to mature age, but for the period I87O-I90I4 it is indeed the living history of geography in Japan as well as a personal record of a great and versatile geographer. It ends on his way to China by the command of the Military Head Quarters in 190^, at the age of 33. Thereafter he was involved as a geographer and geologist in many political and economic developments including the requisition of the Fushun Coalfield in China, the proposal to begin opencast mining there, the new theory about

Kanto Earthquake and his work as professor in Departments of Geography and Geology. These are events on which his reactions would have been of great interest. Nevertheless the posthumous autobiography does much to reveal his point of view of the world and also his philosophy of life. In local or other detailed problems of geography, he was always conscious that the whole world was the background. In describing the historical geography of China, he referred to Greek mythology, to the Roman system of land-division, to Islamic cartography and to recent European researches, all of which he regarded as relevant. He was said to have often told his sons — at the dinner table — 'You should go to Europe and learn there', and on the other hand he compelled them to read Chinese classics as early as five or six years of age. 3. INFLUENCE AND SPREAD OF IDEAS Internationally, Ogawa was less known among geographers than Naomasa Yamasaki, the founder of Nihon Chiri

Gakukai (The Association

of Japanese

Geographers).

Except for intimate communication with European geographers in his youth, he seemed to have restrained himself from later contacts with them. Attending I.G.U. Congresses was not his main aspiration. On the other hand, Ogawa's pursuits and achievements seemed to be more far reaching than Yamasaki's. Though Ogawa had learning of great breadth he could concentrate his energies, as for example in his study of the historical geography of China. He did not write his papers with any official status, but he was able to establish personal relationship with Chinese cultural and political leaders. This deepened his understanding of China. Perhaps he was the first professor in the world to give lectures on the historical geography of China. This tradition is respected in Kyoto University, which has trained many Chinese scholars. Later Shikazo Mori and Takeo Hibino were his successors at Kyoto; and Kazutaka Un'no of Osaka University, and Akio Funagoshi, of Nara Women's University have also been devoted students of China. Ogawa's general devotion to, historical geography influenced some of his disciples, including Dr. Saneshige

Komaki who published Senshi Chirigaku

(Prehistoric

geography). Kaniuchi Uchida was also a leading historical geographer of the present Tsukuba University, while Jiro Yonekura, formerly a professor of Hiroshima University is not only the expert on land-division of ancient Japan, but also extended his research to India and Pakistan. Lastly mention must be made of Ogawa's extraordinary curiosity on maps. He was an avid collector of old maps during his years as professor. He gave them to Kyoto University, which in consequence has the richest collection of old maps among the Geographical Institutes in Japan. Some of Ogawa's students were so enthralled by map collection that they eventually became experts on cartography. Among them Dr. Nobuo Muroga, the former Professor of Kyoto University, is outstanding. Not only did he help Mr. Matsutaro Namba to compile Nihon no Kochizu (Old maps of Japan) , but he also achieved fame as a contributor to Imago Mundi, the international journal for the history of cartography. Another conspicuous figure for the study of old maps is Takeo Oda, Emeritus Professor of Kyoto University, joint author with Keiichi Takeuchi, Professor of Hitotsubashi University,

Takuji Ogawa

of Ptolemaios Sekaizu (World Map of Ptolemy) in 1978. Ogawa's influence and the spread of his ideas are summed up in the formation of the so-called Kyoto Gakuha (Kyoto School of Geography). The definition of Kyoto Gakuha is not yet clear. It is not a formal association, but refers to a group of eminent geographers, living in Kyoto and environs and known for their scholarship. In addition of almost all names above mentioned, Ichiro Suitsu, Professor of Kyoto University, Tsunenori Ukita, Dr. Saburo Noma and Takeo Tanioka, working for I.G.U., are certainly included in Kyoto Gakuha. They inherit and respect the traditions given to Japanese geography by Ogawa. The centennial anniversary of Yamasaki and Ogawa was celebrated at the same time in Tokyo, in 19T1- At the event Professor Suitsu delivered the lecture in memory of Ogawa and concluded it by the following words: Professor Takuji Ogawa tried hard to reach Humboldt's geography in order to found modern geography in Japan. He planned to bridge the two phases of the earth surface, natural and cultural, based upon Brunhes' concept of paysage geographique as faits de masse, being opposed to the idea of Ratzel's environmentalism. Most of the historical geographers in Japan have been influenced by his dynamic way of geographical thinking.

Bibliography and Sources 1. REFERENCES ON TAKUJI OGAWA Tsujimura, Taro, 'Tozai Ryokyo no Chirigakusha, Yamasaki Naomasa to Ogawa Takuji' ('Geographers of Tokyo and Kyoto, Naomasa Yamasaki and Takuji Ogawa'), Chiri (Geography), vol 15 (1970), no 12, 7-11* Ishida Ryujiro, 'Yamasaki Naomasa to Ogawa Takuji' ('Naomasa Yamasaki and Takuji Ogawa'), Chiri, (Geography), vol 15 (1970) no 12, 21-7 Yonekura, Jiro, 'Ogawa Sensei to Chirigaku' ('Professor Ogawa and geography'), Chiri (Geography), vol 15 (1970), no 12, 3^-Uo Suitsu, Ichiro, 'Ogawa Takuji Sensei to sonogo no Nihon ni okuru Rekishic iri* ('Professor Ogawa and historical geography thereafter'), Chirigaku-Hyoron (Geogr. Rev. Japan), vol hh (1971), no 8, 565-580 Yukawa, Hideki, Tabibito, Yukawa Hideki Jiden (A traveller 3 an autobiography of Hideki Yukawa), I960, 25-1*3 Obituary, in Chirigaku-Hyoron (Geogr. Rev. Japan), vol 18 (19^2), no 1, 97. Curiously the statement consists of only three lines, even though in the critical year of the Pacific War. 2. SELECTED REFERENCES BY TAKUJI OGAWA 1896 Taiwan Shotoshi (Regional geography of Formosa), Tokyo, 200p. 1928 Jinbun Chiri Kenkyu (Study of human geography), Tokyo, 282p.

75

1928 Shina Rekishichiri Kenkyu (Studies of the historical geography of China), Kyoto, UoUp. 1929 Zoku Shina Rekishichiri Kenkyu (Studies of historical geography No 2), Kyoto, 6l0p 1930 Chishitsu Gensho no Shinkaishaku (New interpretations of geological phenomena), Kyoto, 7H5p. 193U Senso Chirigaku (Geography of war), Kyoto, 266p. 19^1 Ichi Chirigakusha no Shogai (Life of a geographer), Kyoto, 269p. 19UU Hihon Gunto (Japanese Archipelago), Kyoto, 372p. Usao Tsujita is Professor Emeritus of Nara Women 's University, Nora, Japan3 and now resides in Kyoto

Chronology 1870

Born at Tanabe, Wakayema, May 28, second son of Namei Asai

1890

Entered First High School, Tokyo

1891

Became an adopted son of Komakitsu Ogawa, and changed his surname

1893

Student at the Department of Geology, Tokyo University

189U

Married Koyuki Ogawa

1896

B.Sc. of Tokyo University: became a research worker for the Geological Survey of Japan and wrote a regional geography of Taiwan

1900

Worked at the International Exposition Paris and travelled in Europe

1902-05

Periods of geological research in China

1907

Research work in Korea

1908

Appointed as Professor of Geography in Kyoto University

1909

Became Doctor of Science, Kyoto University

1912

Travelled in China (also 1916 and 1917)

1919

Visited European and American countries

1920

Became a member of the Science Council of Japan

1921

Appointed as Professor of Geology at Kyoto University

1921;

Organized the Chikyu Gakudan (Earth Study Group): wrote papers on the Kanto Great Earthquake of 1923

in

76

Takuji Ogawa

1926

Member of the Academy of Japan

1930

Retired from his chair at Tokyo University

19**1

Died at Kyoto, November 15

1970-71

Chivi (Geography) published a special issue on Yamasaki and Ogawa and centenary celebrations were arranged

Nicolae Orghidan 1881-1967

EUGEN NEDELCU The long and always active service of Nicolae Orghidan to geography has "been of great "benefit to Romania. Born at Brasov on 6 December l88l, he was one of the first pupils of Simion Mehedinfci {Geogv. Biobibl. Stud., vol 1 (1977), 65-72) at Bucharest University, where his fellowstudents included C. Bratescu, A. Dimitrescu-Aldem and G. Valsan (ibid, vol h (1980), 19-2*1; vol 3 (1979), 35-7; vol 2 (1978), 127-33). From 1906-08 Orghidan held a "bursary from the Romanian Geographical Society which gave him two years of study at Leipzig under Albrecht Penck. While there he made several excursions to the Alps and from that time his life was devoted to geomorphological work along with school teaching, for he never held a university post. On his return to Romania in 1909 he passed the qualifying examination for teachers in secondary schools, in which he was to spend the whole forty years of his professional life. His first published work, in 1910, was on the traces of glaciation in the Rodna mountains, the great crystalline massif in the north of Transylvania. He worked in several towns, beginning as a student teacher in Constanta, where he helped to found the archaeological museum: in 1912 he worked at Craiova and from 1916-18 he served at Ia§i. During a longer stay at Bra§ov, from 1919-31 he became a director and later inspector of school education and from 1931 to his retirement in 19^5 he taught at the Mihai Viteazul school in Bucharest and also served as inspector-general of education. Teaching and administration naturally occupied most of his working time at Bra§ov, but it was during his years there that his main researches on geomorphology

were carried out, some alone and some with his geologist friend, Hermann Wagner. Gradually, using his knowledge of both geology and geography, he built up his local studies into an analysis of the whole of the upper basin of the river Olt. The results of his field observations were published in various journals, some of them in a local review, the Trap Birsei, others in

the Travaux de I'Institut

de g&ographie of Cluj University,

and others again in the bulletin of the Romanian Geographical Society. Orghidan's researches included the Bra§ov depression, the upper valley of the Olt, the mountains of Buzau, Pergani, the platforms of Bran and of Poiana Marului. Though much of the work done was of a preliminary, indeed of a pioneer, character many of the conclusions were confirmed by later workers. From these studies interesting material emerged on surfaces of erosion, glaciated relief, karstic landforms, on the genesis and cyclical development of relief and on the hydrological network of drainage. The recognition of landforms was marked by a strong appreciation of the dynamic quality of geomorphology, explained with a clear nomenclature useful to other workers. Like his colleagues and friends in such research, notably Bratescu and Valasn, Orghidan appreciated his debt to Mehedinfci as the inspirer of geomorphological research in Romania. Impressed by the transverse Carpathian valleys, at once scenically dramatic and enigmatic, Orghidan devoted several years to analyzing them, both in the field and through appropriate reading. He was the first Romanian geographer to accept the view that they were antecedent, implying that the rivers had successfully pierced the mountains. The view held by most geographers of the

78

Nicolae

Orghidan

time, including Emmanuel de Martonne, was that they were the result of river capture. On this problem Orghidan left a final synthesis, 'Les vallees transversales de Roumania, etude geomorphologique', which was published two years after his death though he had seen and approved the final draft. During his last years Orghidan published a series of notes and papers on the Persani mountains (on which at his death there was a manuscript which was never published), on the karstic relief of the Dobregea, on the famous Iron Gate defile of the Danube (for which he regarded antecedence as an explanation), on the Ha£eg depression as well as many other studies showing his considerable eruditon. In all his work the clear conviction is that the terrestrial landscape is the supreme concern of geography, a conviction which he shared with his good friend Valsan. All his work is marked by a serious approach to problems, both in the field, in reading and in the discussion of the conflicting opinions held by other workers. Extreme care was given to field observation at all times. The clear and concise style, the natural and elegant expression was in accord with his serene character and equable temperament marked by discretion and modesty. These fortunate qualities are revealed notably in short sketches of various areas published in Astra, a review published at Bra§ov, in the short in the transgeographical monograph Tara Btrsei, lations of several chapters of A. von Humboldt's Anischten der Natur published in the Consinzeana series of geographical and historical works which he founded in Craiova. With all his other activities Orghidan was a keen supporter of various social enterprises, particularly the Romanian Geographical Society of which he was for many years a member of the editorial board. He also attended the monthly colloquia of geographers and the annual conference of geography teachers in Romania and he was associated with a number of other organizations, including the Romanian Institute for Geographical Research, the Romanian Geological Institute, the Romanian Academy and the Em. Racovita Speleological Institute. Blessed with a long and active life, Orghidan made many friends among his colleagues and pupils and was revered as one of the leading geographers of Romania.

Bibliography and Sources 1. REFERENCES ON NICOLAE ORGHIDAN Nedelcu, E., 'Le professeur N. Orghidan a ses 85 ans', Natura, no 6 (1966) 'Nicolae Orghidan, 1881-1967', Stud. Cere. Geogr. , vol lU/2 (1967), 2U1-3

1932 1933 1935 1936 1937 1963

1966

1969

six studies published in Tara Btrsei 'Urme de Ghe£ari pe Siriu', ('Traces of glaciation in the Siriu'), Bui. Soc. Rom. Geogr. , vol 51, 292-U (in Romanian) 'La region de Bragov. Considerations sur le relief, in Tara Btrsei, vol k 'Branul -le col de Bran', Bui. Soc. Rom. Geogr., vol 51*, 109-31 (French abstract 130-1) 'Darjui', Bui. Soc. Rom. Geogr., vol 55, 189-91 (in Romanian) Les Monts Baraolt, Bucharest 'Le bassin de la vallee Casimcea (Dobrega)', Trao. Inst. Spel. Em. Racovita 'Merkwiirdige strukturelle Karstformen in der Dobrega', 3 Int. Kong. Spel., vol 2, Vienna 'Dunarea si Portile de Foer 1 , Stud. Cere. Geogr., vol 13/2, 1+7-55 (in Romanian) 'Die Donau und das Eiserne Tor', Rev. G&ol. G&ogr., vol 10/1, 1*7-55 Vaile transversale din Romanias studiu geomorfologic, Bucharest, l88p., German summary, 177-82. Includes a preface by Vintila Mihailescu.

Eugen Nedelcu is professor of Bucharest. Translated T. W. Freeman

of geography at the from the French text

University by

Chronology l88l

Born at Bra§ov, December 6

1901

Student in the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, Bucharest University

1905

Graduated in Geography and German

1906708

Studied with Albrecht Penck at Leipzig University and made numerous field excursions

1910

Began publication with a study of the glaciation of the Rodna mountains

1912

Taught geography at the military school in Craiova

19lU

Established the Cosinzean series of works on geography and history, and joined the Editorial Board of the Romanian Geographical Society

1916-18

Taught geography at the military school in Ia§i

1919 2. SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS BY NICOLAE ORGHIDAN 1910 'Traces glaciaires dans les Monts Rodna', Arm. G&ogr. Antvopoge'ogr., vol 1 1929 1929-32 'Excursions dans l'environnement de Bra§ov',

Head of the grammar school at Bragov: began his work on the transverse valleys of the Carpathians Appointed as chief inspector for geography

Nioolae Orghidan teaching at Bra§ov 1931

Moved to Bucharest, where he was an inspector-general for school education

19^5-58

Worked with the research institute at Bucharest, and continued to publish his researches

1967

Died at Bucharest, July 25

79

Aleksei Petrovich Pavlov 1854-1929

MARIA MIKHAILOVNA ROMANOVA A. P. Pavlov was an eminent and versatile geologist and geomorphologist. He is the author of classical works in the field of stratigraphy, palaeontology and the tectonics of the Russian platform. One of the founders of Quaternary geology in Russia, he made a substantial contribution to the study of the history and phenomena of the Quaternary period. He also dealt with a wide range of problems related to geography, threw a new light on many fundamental questions of geomorphology, and is a leading representative of Russian and Soviet geomorphological thought.

1.

EDUCATION,

LIFE

AND WORK

Pavlov was born in Moscow on 13 November I85U into the family of a retired serviceman. Orphaned at an early age, he spent his childhood and youth with his stepmother in fairly modest circumstances. Pavlov was gifted in various ways; he was a talented artist and poet and had considerable musical ability and excellent diction. His interest in music was serious and deep. For a long time after leaving school he could not decide whether to become an artist or a scientist, but in I87U he entered the natural science department of the physics and mathematics faculty at Moscow University. Professor G. E. Shchurovsky, a notable geologist firmly committed to an evolutionary view of biology, encouraged Pavlov's scientific interests. Having graduated from Moscow University in geology with a gold medal in 1878 he taught chemistry and natural science until 1880 at a school in Tver (now Kalinin). In 1880 he became curator of the Geological and Mineralogical Museum of Moscow University. All through the subsequent U9 years of his

life until his death in 1929 he was associated with the university. In 188U, he defended his Master's thesis and in 1887 his Doctor's thesis, and from 1886 he was professor of geology at Moscow University. Pavlov was a talented lecturer who loved teaching and attached great importance to it. A man of exceptional erudition and varied education, he was well aware of the tasks set by his secondary and higher education. He believed that science and education are major factors in mankind's development and that political and socio-economic changes in the social system could only produce positive results if combined with a sufficiently high level of education for the people. He was active in the work of pedagogical societies and congresses and in measures aimed at improving the system of public education. Pavlov was a committed champion of women's education and gave lectures at the Lubyank Women's Courses until their closure in I889. From 1889 to 1899 he lectured at the Collective Courses which were similarly aimed at giving women access to higher education. He lectured not only at Moscow University, but also at the Peter (now K. A. Timiryazev) Agricultural Academy, at the Moscow Archaeological Institute, the Shanyavsky University and the Moscow Mining Academy. According to his pupil E. V. Milanovsky, Pavlov's highly interesting and eloquent lectures with their logical exposition incited the emotions, fired people with new sentiments, stirred the students' thoughts and attracted to research work considerable numbers of young scientists who were infected with the 'fire of enthusiasm' that burned in Pavlov's soul and inspired his tireless work.

82

Alekeei

Petvovich

Pavlov

Pavlov's scientific vork proceeded against a background of constant communion with the most outstanding geologists in Russia, Europe and America. He had already undertaken his first trip abroad to Austria and France in 188U for the express purpose of hearing lectures at the Sorbonne and establishing scientific contacts with A. Gaudry, M. Neymayr and other geologists. He was an active member of several sessions of the International Geological Congress: the third in Berlin (1885), the fourth in London (1888), the fifth in Washington (l89l), the sixth in Zurich (I89U), the seventh in St. Petersburg (l89T), the eighth in Paris (1900), the eleventh in Stockholm (1910), and the fourteenth Congress in Madrid (1926). Pavlov was invariably an active participant in the geological excursions which by tradition were organized before and after the congress sessions. In Switzerland he and A. Penck went on an expedition to the sites of former glaciations. He always delivered reports at congress sessions, participated in debates and was also involved in making the arrangements for congresses. At the fifth Congress he was a member of the Congress Bureau as Vice-President, at the sixth Congress he was elected a member of the Council, at the seventh he was a member of the Organizing Committee and Bureau and guided an excursion down the Volga. At the eighth and eleventh Congresses he was elected to the Bureau as Vice-President. In 1891, Pavlov delivered a report at the Congress of the American Geological Society. He made many personal acquaintances and established friendly relations with scientists in the West. The archives contain his extensive correspondence with foreign scientists. Pavlov was an active public figure. The varied forms of his social activity included the popularization of and propaganda for scientific knowledge by popular science lectures and courses, participation in scientific congresses and conferences, with work in Russian and foreign scientific societies. From 1883 on, for 1+T years, he was a member of the Moscow Society of Natural Scientists, holding the posts of Secretary, member of the Council, and Vice-President. He was also a member of the Petersburg Miner'alogical Society and the Russian Geographical Society. In 1895 > he became a corresponding member and in 191*+ a Fellow of the London Geological Society. In 1903, he was elected honorary Vice-President of the French Geological Society. He was also an honorary member of the Belgian Society of Geology. In 1926, he was awarded the Gaudry gold medal, the highest award of the French Geological Society. In 1905, he was elected corresponding member and in 1916 full member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. A. P. Pavlov died on 9 September 1929 in Germany at the spa of BadT8lz where he went for treatment. 2. SCIENTIFIC IDEAS AND GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT Pavlov is the author of outstanding works on stratigraphy, palaeontology and the tectonics of the Russian platform. He elucidated the relationship and demarcated in detail the Jurassic, Cretaceous, Palaeogene, Neogene and Anthropogene deposits of the Russian Platform and compared them with West European deposits. His works on the reconstruction of palaeogeographical

conditions in different periods of the geological history of European Russia are extremely important. He produced a picture of the physical-geographical transformations from the Early Palaeozoic period onwards. In a particularly detailed way he reproduced the physicalgeographical conditions of the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous periods in the lower reaches of the Volga. He made a substantial contribution to the study of the tectonics of the Russian platform. He established dislocations there in the form of swells and shifts, which contributed to a new understanding of the platform as a whole. In the course of his scientific career Pavlov was attracted to Quaternary continental deposits which until then had been very scantily studied. Pavlov's main interest in his study of Quaternary deposits lay in the elucidation of the genetic types of continental deposits, discussion of geomorphological questions, and soil and geological studies. The chronological and genetic classification of Quaternary deposits, which are perhaps the most complex of sedimentary formations, was just beginning in the 1870s. In 1889, Pavlov suggested the term diluvium for the first time. By this term he meant sedimentation products on the slopes, which had not yet passed into river valleys. He drew attention to diluvial processes, noting their importance in the formation of the relief and their grandiose scale. In the Volga country diluvial processes were crucial in the transformation of the relief of the Russian Plain, and diluvium is a widespread formation. In densely populated countries the study of diluvial processes is more difficult, for their development is hidden by man's activity. In 1909, W. M. Davis came to an understanding of diluvium, singling out this type described much earlier by A. P. Pavlov. After his trip across Turkestan's desert and semidesert areas Pavlov established one more type of continental deposits, which he called proluvium in 1903. Proluvium consists of deposits of temporary streams flowing from the mountains, which are represented by loamy-clay loess-like material. The identification of proluvium was very important, for it occurs widely in arid and semi-arid deposits. On Pavlov's initiative a special commission, which exists to this day, was set up at the Academy of Sciences to study the Quaternary period. He was its chairman from the day of its foundation until his death. This commission has done much to develop Quaternary geology in the U.S.S.R. Throughout his life Pavlov was interested in the history and phenomena of the glacial period, and in the genesis of glacial deposits. He was a poly-glaciologist: he advanced the idea of the triple glaciation of the Russian Plain which is generally accepted at the present time. Producing a palaeogeographical reconstruction of the climatic conditions of the Quaternary period, he pointed out that repeated glaciation was accompanied by 'waves' of cold, while inter-glacial periods were characterised by a moderate, humid climate. He worked out the question of the quantity and relative dimensions of glaciation, their boundaries, and he studied the palaeontologies! characterization of interglacial periods. Pavlov examined many basic questions of geomorphology, which at that time had not yet been separated into an independent science, among them the origin of the main

Aleksei Petrovioh Pavlov relief forms, the mechanism of oceanic transgressions, the formation of gently sloping troughs in the earth's crust, and classification of the main forms of relief. He examined many other aspects of geomorphology: (l) the origin of relief on the plains under the impact of exogenous factors; (2) the laws of river erosion, the formation of river valleys, gullies, the causes leading to the formation of assymetrical slopes in river valleys; (3) the age of relief; (h) ancient glacial phenomena; (5) landslides; (6) tectonic phenomena, their geomorphological manifestation; (T) Quaternary deposits, their genesis, the connection with the relief, etc. In his regional geological works Pavlov very often dealt with various geographical questions. In some cases, before undertaking a study of the geological structure of a region, he had to carry out geographical investigations. Pavlov made a substantial contribution to the study of the laws governing oceanic transgressions. In 1896 he suggested classifying the fluctuations of the ocean level as geocratic (determined by tectonic processes) and hydrocratic (reflecting changes in the quantity of water in an ocean). The study of the history of the Mesozoic seas of the Russian platform led him to the conclusion that the cause of the transgressions and regressions of the sea are tectonic processes, weak uplifts and the subsidence of the earth's crust. These movements create large platform negative structures — broad sloping troughs of continental sections of the earth's crust. At that time, the literature on the subject had no term for this very important tectonic element of platforms. In 1898, Pavlov suggested the term 'syneclise', which took firm roots in the literature. (The word 'syneclastic' is given in O.E.D. for 'of a curved surface': 'having the same kind of curvature (concave or convex) in all directions'). For many years the formation of river valleys was of special interest to Pavlov. The Middle and Lower reaches of the Volga country, where he worked for many years, are characterized by the distinct asymmetry of mature river valleys. Various hypotheses taking into consideration different causes were advanced to explain these regularities: astronomical (the influence of planetary rotation — the Baer-Babinet law), meteorological (the influence of the wind, insulation), the position of the basis of erosion, and others. Pavlov pointed out that none of the existing hypotheses exhausted the entire diversity of natural phenomena though each of them taken singly can be used to explain certain partial cases, and in some cases a combination of several causes must be allowed. Pavlov was particularly interested in A-symmetrical valleys and suggested how they might result from the lie of the strata: through erosion a slope in which the beds are slightly inclined towards the valleys will be a steep one, a slope in which beds are inclined away from the valley will be a gentle one. He noted that the gentle inclines of strata are observed almost everywhere on the Russian Plain. These inclines determine the direction of the movement of underground waters and, consequently, the distribution of springs along valley slopes. An incline characterized by an abundance of springs is complicated by landslides and

83

soil collapses, acquiring the nature of a steep bank. In studying Quaternary continental deposits, Pavlov could hardly ignore the question of the genesis of the modern relief of the Russian Plain and the role of the surface and underground waters in the formation of its relief. The question of the relation of Quaternary deposits to relief had not been worked out by the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Pavlov wrote that the modern relief of the Russian Plain was created by the joint operation of numerous factors. In the first place, it is the combination of the results of such seemingly different processes as erosion and accumulation which, in Pavlov's view, appear in their effective unity. He emphasized that the accumulation processes on the plains played and continue to play a very important part. The main features of plain relief are determined by erosion processes and the details of relief by accumulation. Pavlov attached much importance to the alluvial processes in river valleys and the diluvial processes on their slopes. The relief of the localities covered by a powerful glacial cover was determined by many factors, including the original preglacial relief, Ancient valleys masked by the moraine cover represent a system of drain pipes, as it were, along which underground waters move. Surface flows are subordinated to modern relief. He emphasised the importance of the geomorphological principle in mapping Quaternary deposits and the dependence of rock occurrence on relief. Pavlov already had an interest in questions of soil formation during the first years of his field investigations. In 1887 he turned his attention to the connection of soils with parent material and relief. Later on, in a number of his works, he devoted much attention to the connection of geological processes with soil formation and dealt with the character and distribution of soils in the areas he surveyed, and also with the importance of diluvial sedimentation processes for soil formation. He stressed that in compiling soil maps it is necessary to consider the specific features and character of the parent materials (including alluvial and other surface deposits), which serve as soil-forming constituents. Soil science in Russian developed in a somewhat different way than in the West where particularly close contact existed between soil science and chemistry. In Russia a very close tie was established between soil science and geology right from the beginning. A contribution to the development of this field, the foundation of which was laid by the works of V. V. Dokuchaev and N. M. Simbirtsev, was made by Pavlov and his pupils. At Moscow University Pavlov gave lectures to students specializing in agronomy and soil science, and involved his pupils in comprehensive geological-soil studies. He was a member of the Soil Committee of the Agricultural Society and took part in congresses of soil scientists. A. A. Yarilov pointed out in 1928, when soil science in Russian was being developed, that soil scientists should be kept in close and constant touch with the work of Pavlov and his pupils. The style of Pavlov's works is distinguished by precision, clarity and the definiteness of formulations and conclusions. In the words of his pupil E. V. Milanovsky, Pavlov's works produce a purely aesthetic impression even in their general composition, which is harmonious, clear-cut, internally co-ordinated

84 Aleksei

Petrovich

and balanced.

Pavlov

They are also attractively written.

3. INFLUENCE AND SPREAD OF IDEAS The author of several outstanding works on geology, Pavlov also made substantial contributions to geography, especially through his studies on relief and its dependence on local geological structure and rock characteristics. He also wrote classical works on Quaternary geology. He laid the foundations of the stratigraphy of Quaternary deposits, drew general conclusions on the history of the glacial period, worked out the genetic classification of Quaternary continental deposits and singled out new types of them. He introduced the concept of diluvium, specifying in a rather broad overall concept of alluvia one of the most important types of continental deposits. He introduced the concept of the proluvial process, which had never been explained before. His works in this field are of great interest to geologists, geographers and soil scientists. He left a large school of investigators of the Quaternary period. Pavlov introduced the concept of 'syneclise', singling out one of the major morphological elements of platform tectonic structures which is of great theoretical and practical importance. The concept of suffosion introduced by him has taken firm root in scientific usage. Pavlov's pedagogical activity was also important. He was the founder of the Moscow school of geologists. No other Russian geologist left behind him such a large school and so many pupils and researchers.

Bibliography and Sources 1. REFERENCES ON ALEKSEI PETROVICH PAVLOV Varsanofiyeva, V.A., A.P. Pavlov, Moscow (19^7) gives a full list of A.P. Pavlov's works and also references on his life and work Milanovsky, E.V., 'Pamyati Alekseya Petrovicha Pavlova' ('In Memoray of Aleksei Petrovich Pavlov'), Bull. Moscow Soc. Nat. Sci. , vol 8, 3-31 SELECTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS BY ALEKSEI PETROVICH PAVLOV 1887 'Samarskaya Luka i Zhiguli' ('The Samara River Curve and the Zhiguli Mountains'), Trans. Geol. Comm. , vol 2/5, 1-63 1890 'Delyuvii kak genetichesky tip posletretichnykh otlozhenii' ('Diluvium as a genetic type of post-

I898

1902

vospitaniya,

I89I+

yestestvoznaniya,

no 8, 3^3-50 '0 geologischeskikh prichinakh, obuslovlivayushchikh relyef ravninnykh mestnostei i razlichiye v forme sklonov rechnykh dolin' ('On the geological causes conditioning relief of the plain areas and differences in the form of river valley

slopes'), Diary of the Ninth Congress of Russian Natural Scientists and Doctors, no 10, 12-lU

no 6, 9*+-109

1909-10 '0 drevneishikh na Zemle pustynakh' ('On the most ancient deserts of the earth*), Diary of the

12th Congress of Russian Natural Scientists,

no 3,

302-30

19lU 0 geologicheskoi istorii Evropeiskogo kontinenta (On the geological history of the European continent), speech at the Annual Meeting of Moscow University on January 12 191^* in report of Moscow University for 1913, 77-12U

1922 Lednikoviye i mezhlednikoviye epokhi Yevropy v svyazi s istoriei iskopayemogo cheloveka (The glacial and inter-glacial evochs of Europe in connection with the history of Fossil Man), Academic speech at Petrograd, 52p.

Maria Mikhailovna Romanova is a research worker at the Institute of the History of Natural Sciences and Technology3

Moscow

Chronology I85U

Born in Moscow, November 13

I87U-78

Student at Moscow University

1880

Joined the staff of Moscow University

1883

First researches in the Volga region

1881+

Defended his master's thesis: visited France and Austria and met various geologists

1885

Attended the third International Geological Congress in Berlin and became interested in glacial deposits

1887

Defended his doctorate thesis and wrote on the Samara river, also on East Russian rivers during the glacial period

1888

Was present at the fourth International Geological Congress in London, and while in England attended excursions around London, Bath and Cambridge

1890

Wrote a paper on diluvium

1891

Was a Vice-President at the fifth International Geological Congress in Washington. Also attended meetings of the American

2.

Tertiary deposits'), Vestnik

'0 relyefe ravnin i yego izmeneniyakh pod viliyaniyem raboty podzemnykh i poverkhnostnykh vod' ('On the relief of plains and its changes under the influence of underground and surface waters'), Soil Science, vol 5, 91-1^7 '0 nachalnom prepodavanii geografii' ('Teaching of the fundamentals of geography'), Vestnik

Aleksei Geological Society and excursions to Yellowstone Park and the Rocky Mountains 189^

Joined Albrecht Penck on a tour of glaciated areas in Germany and Switzerland during the sixth International Geological Congress in Zurich

1895

Elected a member of the London Geological Society

1897

Was a member of the Organizing Committee and Bureau for the seventh International Geological Congress at St. Petersburg, and guided a tour of the river Volga

1900

Attended the eighth International Geological Congress in Paris and served as a member of the congress bureau and as a Vice-President. Shared in various excursions

1903

Elected Vice-President of the French Geological Society

1905

Elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg

1910

Vice-President of the eleventh International Geological Congress in Stockholm and toured Scandinavia

19l6

Elected a member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences

1926

Awarded the Gaudry gold medal by the French Geological Society and was present at the fourteenth International Geological Congress in Madrid

1929

Died at Bad-Tolz, Germany on September 9

Petroviah

Pavlov

85

Archibald Grenfell Price 1892-1977

J. M. POWELL By permission of the National Library of Australia. Sir Archibald Grenfell Price was a prominent Australian educationalist, geographer and historian. His international reputation was built on a relatively small number of major scholarly works, including valuable pioneering analyses of the historical geography of South Australia and well-received comparative studies of the social, political and environmental contexts of European settlement in the Australian, Pacific and Caribbean regions. Within Australia he contributed significantly to the national co-ordination of research in the humanities and social sciences, and vigorously promoted libraries and librarianship at state and federal levels. A brief period as a Federal Member of Parliament, of anti-socialist persuasion, reflected and consolidated Price's standing in influential circles within and beyond his home state of South Australia wherein he enjoyed a long and distinguished association with the University of Adelaide. Price is now strongly emerging from the shadow of the swashbuckling Griffith Taylor as another of the founders of academic geography in Australia during the inter-war and early post-war periods.

1. EDUCATION, LIFE AND WORK Archibald Grenfell Price was born in Adelaide of middleclass parents on 28 January 1892. After a private education at the elite St. Peter's College, Adelaide from 1899, he took the 'preferred' option of his day and left for England, where he read History at Magdalen College, Oxford and completed a Diploma of Education course from 1911-15. Exploration and surveying, quite

well represented in his immediate family background, encouraged an early interest in geography which was consolidated during his Oxford training. After his return to Adelaide he taught senior geography students at St. Peter's and became a highly successful author of geography texts. He was a house master from 1921-1*. His first major scholarly work, The foundation and

settlement

of South Australia,

1829-1845 (192*0, was

completed shortly before he took up his appointment as the foundation Master of St. Mark's College, the first residential institution at the University of Adelaide. It was essentially the latter appointment — which he retained from 1925 to 1957 — rather than an orthodox university teaching post which sustained his regular forays into the history and geography of pioneer settlement. He lectured on geography only occasionally during the inter-war period, but continued to produce successful geography texts, staunchly supported the South Australian branch of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, and greatly enriched the proceedings of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science with some wide-ranging historical-geographical research. In 1930 he was the John Murtagh Macrossan lecturer at the University of Queensland. In the depression years of the 1930s Price was increasingly drawn into political affairs. His pamphlets on the dangers of inflation and the spread of communism (1931), and especially his bold political initiatives as Chairman of the celebrated Emergency Committee of South Australia (1931-2), firmly established his credentials, not only in Liberal party circles.

88 Sir Archibald

Grenfell

Price

It is less well-known that, had he so desired, he might have been rewarded for these efforts by a choice between two plum political appointments, the Chairmanship of the Australian Broadcasting Commission and membership of the national Tariff Board. Price preferred St. Mark's, but was soon awarded the C.M.G. and a Research Fellowship of the Rockefeller Foundation, which allowed him to visit the United States and the Caribbean region in 1932-3. All of this was the prelude to a busy decade during which he was consulted on federal-state relationships, Pacific and other international affairs, the management of the Northern Territory, and education and library administration throughout Australia. The American Geographical Society published his research monograph, White settlers in the tropics, in 1939. Price was the Liberal member for Boothby, S.A., in the Federal House of Representatives, from 19^1 to 19*+3. In that crucial time he formed close associations with several national figures — notably with Robert Menzies and Harold Holt, Australian Liberal Prime Ministers, but also with Arthur Calwell the prominent Labour man. Calwell, ultimately the party leader, and Minister for Immigration 19^5-9, was largely responsible for radical changes in Australia's post-war immigration policy, including a massive increase in 'assisted passages' and a dramatic growth of Southern European immigration. The extent of Price's influence on these developments requires further investigation.

brought it into the social sciences. His surviving papers suggest that two primary and connected motivations directed him towards an involvement in professional geography: a highly personal sense of patriotic dedication to the young Australian nation, and a deep idealistic commitment to the British Empire and Commonwealth. Possibly in his pursuit of this latter commitment, he was influenced by the work of Herbertson and Mackinder at Oxford. He was also attracted directly and indirectly by the exciting 'holistic' views of J. C. Smuts (1870-1950) and others who were so pervasive in the intellectual milieu of the early interwar period. Price was certainly impressed by the broad educational value of geography, hitherto a neglected subject in Australia, and like so many British Commonwealth enthusiasts he approved of its insistence on global, comparative perspectives. And because Price's astonishing versatility and tenacious commitment to public service matched his boundless curiosity, his selection of research themes is as much a reflection of his own personality and social context as it is of any conscious responses to contemporary themes and theories within the subject itself. That may be overstated. His early sorties into human geography proceeded from a thorough historical training; a desire to know and to communicate more about his home state, and the national and international problems and opportunities facing the Australian people as a whole. Although he was not well-disposed to the 'environmentalist' notions of Taylor and others, his early works exposed the weaknesses in the standard interpretations of South Australian settlement history by demonstrating their neglect of physical and economic factors. For example, he illustrated that gross misunderstandings concerning the South Australian climate, which is generally 'Mediterranean' in type, persuaded the British settlers to select modes of production which were commercially unsound and environmentally damaging. On the other hand, he was always more interested in the creative capacities of individuals and groups, and

During and immediately after the Second World War, Price's interest in the Australian aborigines and in New Guinea intensified to include some useful comparative 'management' studies covering Australia, New Zealand and North America, and the dynamic focus of his work was clarified by a more sustained emphasis on the 'moving frontiers' of people, plants, animals and disease, especially in the Pacific region. Possibly this was assisted by his appointment, on the instigation of Griffith Taylor, to the small part-time staff of Adelaide's Department of Geography; he held that position from 19^9 to 1957. Although St. Mark's his Founders and pioneers of South Australia (1929) continued to exercise the major claim on his energies, nicely balanced his Foundation and settlement of South his unstinting service on the Adelaide University Council, Australia {l92h) with a strong humanistic emphasis on from 1925 to 1962, and on the Council of South 'life studies' of certain key individuals. These two Australia's R.G.S. during the same period, did almost works provided the basis for his D.Litt., awarded by as much to ensure his place in Adelaide's powerful and Adelaide University in 1932 (the first in that state), peculiarly close-knit Anglo establishment. He was and although the same depth of originality was scarcely president of this Society from 1935-8 and led an sustained, a similar search for useful, even-handed, expedition to the Australian interior looking for the lucidly-presented syntheses characterised his school remains of Leichardt, an explorer lost in 18U8. He texts and his wider-ranging geographical works in later also served as chairman of the Council of the (new) years. National Library of Australia in Canberra from i960 to Price was obviously not enamoured of the type of 1971, of the Australian UNESCO Committee for Libraries Social Darwinism which influenced so many contemporary in 196U, and of the Advisory Board of the Commonwealth geographers in the inter-war period and yet, like Literary Fund from 1953 to 1971; in addition he was the Griffith Taylor, he could not fail to be attracted by first elected Secretary of the Humanities Research the idea of a 'science of settlement' to clarify the Council from 1956 to 1959, and also served as vicevexatious problem of the diminishing 'ecumene'. Such chairman. In each of these appointments he served a science might assist in the resettlement of European with distinction in the creative extension of cultural refugees, the old problem of culture contact and, not life in Australia. He was knighted in 1963. incidentally for a man of such political persuasions, the better survival of the British Empire. But Price was much closer in his predilections and perhaps in 2. SCIENTIFIC IDEAS AND GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT some of his motivations to Percy Maude Roxby, Herbert Price was essentially an humanities person, though there John Fleure, Isaiah Bowman and John Kirtland Wright was a strong practical thrust to much of his work which than he ever was to Taylor, Huntington and their ilk,

Sir Archibald

Grenfell

Price

89

and his scholarly humanistic attachment to his own home region was reminiscent of Vidal de la Blache. Of course it would be misleading to place him in any such grouping and it is still difficult to assess the impact of the wider academic world on his thinking, especially since he never held an orthodox university teaching post.

businessmen in supporting the financial stringency measures advocated by the Bank of England's expert, Sir Otto Niemeyer, in opposition to the Scullin (Federal) government and the actions of J. T. Lang, the Socialist Premier of New South Wales. Scullin and Lang were soon defeated in bitterly-fought elections which Price (1978, p.UO) saw as victories against the communist tide and proof of the Australian people's 'British traditions and their imperial affec3. INFLUENCE AND SPREAD OF IDEAS tions'. Then, in 195^ (Social challenge, p.l79) 5 he There is a social context to the professionalization of returned to the theme of federal imperialism, recomany subject which is peculiarly difficult to overestimate in discussing the foundation years. Australian mending the Alaska-style purchase of Dutch New Guinea academic geography in the inter-war period was a generally as a bulwark against Indonesian ambitions and the probable penetration of Chinese communism into the neglected and undervalued field, despite the efforts of region. Griffith Taylor. Its very survival during that time depended in no small measure on the generous patronage Three late volumes summarized his varied contribof such distinguished figures as A. G. Price — and utions (which were normally more temperate) — The equally, of course, on the high regard in which Price's Western invasions of the Pacific and its continents work was held in Australian political and scholarly (1963), The challenge of New Guinea (1965) and Island circles. During the early post-war expansion of continent (1972), the most loosely-organized and university geography Price was well-known as an innodisappointing of the three. Without question White vative teacher, and he emerged as a father-figure to settlers in the topics (1939) remains his most notable several younger academics, some of whom were dangerously piece. It was well edited, taut and balanced. It new to the Australian scene. represented an excellent advertisement for the subject's 'synthesizing' claims, a useful and timely analysis of Price was above all a significant Australian a vast array of inaccessible specialist works — adminfigure during his lifetime, "but his major published istrative, climatic, economic, geological, literary, works were certainly enduring and broadly influential. medical and social — and it made its mark internationHis texts greatly improved the visibility and respectally. Price's own enthusiasm, abilities and opportunability of school geography. His many works on ities were nicely suited to the production of this work, exploration and pioneer settlement strengthened the which is so representative of the better achievements bond between history and geography and thereby laid the of pre-war geography. His undoubted sympathy for the basis for some productive co-operation in later years. indigenous peoples was frequently displayed, and more Australia's connections with New Guinea andxhe wider boldly enunciated than in some of his other works, but Pacific region were imaginatively sketched out, and in the very emphasis on white settlers raises obvious this context especially Price outlined several themes questions. As Pelzer (19^5), also Bowman (1937), which subsequently proved highly attractive to other and Taylor (1950) indicated, land in the tropics might researchers in the region — the relationships between also be seen as a reserve for the future expansion of white and non-white peoples; the patterns of imperialthe indigenous or non-white people; furthermore, many ism and the associated 'moving frontiers' of people, indigenous agricultural methods were well adapted to diseases, exotic plants and animals. local environments, and the introductions of the white Price's staunch imperialistic ideals were exhibitsettlers brought only confusion and disorientation; ed more or less undiluted in most of his works until and finally, Asiatic colonization had on the whole his declining years. He loyally defended Australia's proved far more successful than that of the whites and retention of the British connection and sometimes might therefore have far better claims to neglected supported the White Australia Policy in rather unareas. academic style: for example, in Australia comes of age (19^5, p.137), he cautioned against the proposed relaxation of the immigration policy and insisted that due weight should be given 'to human biology as well as to political factors such as British citizenship, for science had shown that coloured peoples varied in their suitability for mingling with white'. IndianBritish inter-marriage was reported to have yielded generally poor-quality characters, and if Australia had to open her doors, 'a good type of Chinese seemed likely to prove the most satisfactory coloured immigrant' (p.138). Similarly he applauded the successful efforts of Prime Minister Billy Hughes to restrict Japanese ambitions in the Pacific and to advance Australia's national security by gaining additional control over New Guinea in a new type of 'federal imperialism' which shocked President Woodrow Wilson (and perhaps his adviser Isaiah Bowman?). Again, in 1931-2, as Chairman of the powerful Emergency Committee of South Australia he joined the bankers and

Price shares so many of the pre-occupations of his fellow Australians, and the kind of geography in vogue until, say, i960, offered many opportunities for the exploration of those pre-occupations. The subsequent fragmentation of human geography would not have appealed to him, yet it is intriguing to speculate that the current demand for similar 'holistic' treatments is more likely to be met by 'fringe-dwellers' of Price's type than from within the inhibiting confines of today's geography departments. Notwithstanding such grand syntheses Price's ability to work diligently at several scales was an inestimable quality which places him in the front ranks of contemporary human geography, and this should not be overlooked in any serious assessment. His attention to detail in the archives and in the field was usually exemplary, and his regional studies of South Australia, the Northern Territory and some of the minor Pacific Islands are still'widely used by teachers and researchers.

90

Sir Archibald

Grenfell

Price vol 36, 57-65 'Francis Cadell', in W. Wannan (ed), The heather in the south, Lansdowne Press, Melbourne, 12U-1+6 1969 The skies remember. The story of Ross and Keith Smith, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, xix and 155x>. 1972 Island continent. Aspects of the historical geography of Australia and its territories, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, xix and 283p. 1966

Bibliography and Sources

REFERENCES AND SOURCES ON SIR ARCHIBALD GRENFELLb. School texts 1918 A causal geography of the world with maps and PRICE diagrams, Rigby, Adelaide, vi and 170p.; Marshall, Ann, 'Sir Grenfell Price: an appreciation', 9th edition 1930 in F. Gale and G. Lawton (eds), Settlement and 1921 South Australians and their environment, Rigby, encounter. Geographical studies presented to Adelaide, 60p.: 6th edition 1928 Sir Grenfell Price, Oxford University Press, 1928 The world, a general geography for Australasian Melbourne (1969), xiii-xviii schools, with L. D. Stamp, Longmans, Green and Co., Pelzer, Karl J., 'Geography and the tropics', in London, 708p. (Toronto 1950; 2nd rev. ed. Toronto Griffith Taylor (ed), Geography in the twentieth 1953). century, Methuen, New York (1950), 311-M Obituary notices: Adelaide Advertiser, 21 July 1977; c. Exploration Proc. R.G.S. Australasia (S.A.), vol 79, 1978, 63 1928 'Sturt's voyage down the Murray. The last stage', (by G. W. Symes); Proc. Austr. Acad. Humanities, Proc. R.G.S. Australasia (S.A.) , vol 28, 1*6-52 1978, 39-^0 (by 0. H. K. Spate); Geogr. J., vol ikk, 1929 'Address on Captain James Cook', Proc. R.G.S. 1978, 180-1 Australasia (S.A.), vol 29, 22-9 1930 'Extracts from the journal of a voyage in His Majesty's ship "Buffalo" from England to South 2. SELECTIVE AND THEMATIC BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS BY Australia', Proc. R.G.S. Australasia (S.A.), ARCHIBALD GRENFELL PRICE vol 30, 21-73 1936 'Explorers by sea and land', with W. R. Birks, in a. Historical geography and local history Centenary history of South Australia, R.G.S. 192k The foundation and settlement of South Australia Australasia (S.A.), Adelaide, 30-U6 1829-1845, Preece, Adelaide, xii and 260; 1939 'The mystery of Leichardt: the South Australian facsimile edition Libraries Board of S.A., 1973 government expedition of 1939', Proc. R.G.S. 'The settlement of South Australia', Australasian Australasia (S.A.), vol 39, 9-^8 Assoc. Adv. Sci. , vol 17, Adelaide, 1+39-^8 1957 The explorations of Captain James Cook in the 1925 'Geographical problems of early South Australia', Pacific, as told by selections of his own .journals, Proc. R.G.S. Australasia (S.A.), vol 25, 57-80 1768-1779 (edited)', Limited Editions Club of N.Y., 1926 'South Australian efforts to control the Murray', Adelaide, xvii and 292p. (reprinted 1958, 1969, Australasian Assoc. Adv. Sci. , vol 18, Perth, 1971) khk-56 1958 "The exploration of South Australia', in R. J. Best 'The work of Captain Collett Barker in South (ed), Introducing South Australia, Melbourne Univ. Australia', Proc. R.G.S. Australasia (S.A.), Press, Melbourne, 32-6 vol 26, 52-66 i960 'The winning of Australian Antarctica. Sir Douglas 1928 'Historical geography of the Northern Territory Mawson's B.A.N.Z.A.R.E. voyages', Proc. R.G.S. to 1871', Australasian Assoc. Adv. Sci., vol 19, Australasia (S.A.), vol 6l, 13-20 Hobart, 282-93 1961 'Captain James Cook's discovery of the Antarctic 1929 Founders and pioneers of South Australia, Preece, continent?', Geogr. Rev., vol 51, 575-7 Adelaide, xi and 266 p. Mawson 's 1933 'Experiments in colonisation', in J. H. Rose et at. 1962 The winning of Australian Antarctica. B.A.N.Z.A.R.E. voyages 1929-1931, based on the (eds), Cambridge history of the British Empire, Mawson papers, Angus and Robertson for the Mawson vol 7, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Institute for Antarctic Research, xvii and 2Ulp. 207-U2 1966 'Further notes on Captain Cook's possible sighting 1935 'Early South Australian maps in London', Proc. of the Antarctic continent', Geogr. Rev., vol 56, R.G.S. Australasia (S.A.), vol 35, 82-92 283-5 1936 'Pioneering difficulties in South Australia', in Centenary history of South Australia, R.G.S. d. Problems of tropical settlement and culture contact Australasia (S.A.), Adelaide, 57-70 1930 History and problems of the Northern Territory, 'Prospectus and flotation of South Australia, Australia, Ascott, Adelaide, 67p. (Macrossan 1829-1836', in Centenary history of South Lectures, Univ. Queensland) Australia, R.G.S. Australasia (S.A.), Adelaide, 1933 'Pioneer reactions to a poor tropical environment. UU-56 A journey through central and north Australia in 'Short bibliography of South Australia', in ibid, 1932', Geogr. Rev., vol 23, 353-71 396-hOl 193^ 'White settlement in Saba Island, Dutch West Indies, 'Geographical problems in the founding of South 193*+', Geogr. Rev., vol 2h, U2-66 Australia', Proc. R.G.S. Australasia (S.A.), 1.

Sir Archibald

1935

1936 1939 19^0 19M

19^9

1951 195l* 1959

1963

1961*

1965

"The white man in the tropics', Med. J. Austr. , vol 1, 106-10 'White settlement in the Panama.Canal Zone', Geogr. Rev., vol 25, 1-11 'Historical notes on the Northern Territory', in Centenary history of South Australia, R.G.S. Australasia (S.A.), Adelaide, 95-101 White settlers in the topics. American Geographical Society, New York, xiii and 311p. 'Refugee settlement in the tropics', Foreign Affairs, vol 18, 659-70 'Australian native policy. A review of three recent studies', Geogr. Rev., vol 3*t, U76-8 'The comparative management of native peoples — America, New Zealand, Australia', J. R. Austr. Hist. Soc. , vol 30, 293-8 White settlers and native peoples. An historical study of racial contacts between English-speaking whites and aboriginal peoples in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, Georgian House, Melbourne (reprinted 1950, 1972), 282p. 'The geopolitical transformation of the Pacific and its present significance', Proc. R.G.S. Australasia (S.A.), vol 52, 1-12 "The social challenge' , in Australian Institute of Political Science, Northern Australia: task for a nation, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 179-96 'Moving frontiers and changing landscapes in the Pacific and its continents', Presidential Address, Section P, A.N.Z.A.A.S. Austr. J. Sci. , vol 19, 188-98 The Western invasions of the Pacific and its continents. A study of moving frontiers and changing landscapes, 1513-1958, Clarendon Press, Oxford, viii and 236p. The importance of disease in history. Libraries Board of S.A., Adelaide, 15p. (George Adlington Syme Oration, Australian College of Surgeons) "The Australian tropics — the history and problems of New Guinea', Hysterisis, 1*1-5 The challenge of New Guinea. Australian aid to Papuan progress, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, xii and l80p. (Tri-Ocean Books, San Francisco 1966)

e. Educational, administrative and political 1931 The menace of inflation, Preece, Adelaide, 26p. (2nd edition also 1931, 31p.) Progress of communism, Preece, Adelaide, 29p. 193^ 'State and provincial disabilities in the Australian and North American federations', Austr: Q., vol 6, 6l-71 1937 'Libraries in South Australia. Report of an inquiry commissioned by the South Australian government into the system of management of libraries maintained or assisted by the state', S.A. Pari. Pap., No. 39: facsimile edition Adelaide 1969, 106p. 19^5 Australia comes of age. A study of growth to nationhood and of external relations, Georgian House, Melbourne, 159p. 19^9 'Contemporary party policies: the Liberal Party', with C. G. Kerr, in A. C. Garnett (ed), Freedom and planning in Australia, Univ. Wisconsin Press, Madison, 282-95

Grenfell

Price

91

The humanities in Australia. A survey with special reference to the universities (edited), Angus and Robertson for the Australian Humanities Review Council, xix and 3l8p. 1967 A history of St Mark 's College, University of Adelaide, and the foundation of the residential college movement, Council of St Mark's College, Adelaide, xiv and 112p. Helping literature in Australia: the work of the Commonwealth Literary Fund, 1908-1966, Government Printer, Canberra, hhv. (intro. by Price) 1978 'The Emergency Committee of South Australia and the origin of the Premiers' Plan 1931-2' , South Australiana, vol 17, 5-^2 (manuscript written in 1965) 1959

3. ARCHIVAL SOURCES Papers of Archibald Grenfell Price are held in the State Archives of South Australia, Adelaide. They extend to approximately 15 linear feet. There is also archival material in the National Library of Australia. Dr J. M. Powell is Reader in Geography at Monash Clayton, Victoria, Australia.

University,

Chronology 1892

Born in Adelaide, South Australia, January 28

1899

Pupil at St Peter's College, Adelaide

1911-15

Magdalen College, Oxford, graduated with Honours in History and obtained the Diploma in Education

1917

Married to Kitty P. Hayward, 20 January

1921

Published South Australians environment, Adelaide

1921-2^

Served as house master at St Peter's College, Adelaide

192U

Published Foundation and settlement South Australia, Adelaide

1925

Became first Master, St Mark's College, University of Adelaide and member of the university council. Also became a member of the council of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (S.A.)

1929

Carried out first serious fieldwork in the tropics, including Indonesia, Burma and Ceylon

and

their

of

92

Sir Archibald

Grenfell

Price

1930

Was John Murtagh Macrossan lecturer in Queensland University

1931

Served as chairman of an emergency committee in South Australia and became increasingly concerned with politics: wrote two pamphlets, 'Progress in communism' and 'Menace of inflation', of which the latter sold 30,000 copies

1932

Awarded the D.Litt. of Adelaide University for his books and capers on South Australia

1932-33

With a Travelling Fellowship from the Rockerfeller Foundation, visited the centre of Australia, Darwin and the Caribbean islands: was awarded the CMG for his Emergency Committee work

193*+

Published his first paper on tropical settlement beyond Australia

1935-38

While President of the R.G.S. of Australasia (S.A.) he led an expedition to the Australian interior in search of remains of the explorer Leichardt (lost in 18U8). Continued to write papers, mainly on the historical geography of South Australia and the Northern Territory

1939

Published White settlers

in the

tropics,

New York 19^1-^3

In parliament concerned with post-war immigration planning

19^8-50

Part-time lecturer in geography, Adelaide University: John Lewis gold medal of the R.G.S. of Australasia (S.A.), 19^9; President of the Society 1950

1951-52

Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Adelaide University

1953-71

Chairman of the Advisory Board, Commonwealth Literary Fund

1956

Foundation fellow and vice-chairman of the Humanities Research Council, Australia and secretary to 1959

1957

President of section P, Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science, Dunedin meeting. Retired from the Geography Department and from St Mark's College in Adelaide University

1959-71

Treasurer of the Humanities Research Council, 1959-62: Chairman of the Council of National Library of Australia 1960-71: retired from most positions by 1971

1977

Died in Adelaide, July 20

Erwin Josephus Raisz 1893-1968

LEON YACHER Erwin Josephus Raisz was horn in Hungary hut spent most of his life in the United States working as a cartographer. He wrote on a variety of matters for a diverse audience, and he drew a large number of maps, some of which are used today. 1.

EDUCATION,

LIFE

AND WORK

Raisz was born on 1 March 1893, in Locse, Hungary (present-day Levoca, in eastern Czechoslovakia). He was the son of Josephos and Rose (Balla) Raisz. His father was a civil engineer who often took his son on assignments, and introduced the boy to maps and their use. Raisz's father travelled widely and was interested in both the world and contemporary affairs. He died while Raisz was in his early twenties. By 191^» Erwin Raisz had received a degree in civil engineering and architecture from the Royal-Polytechnicum in Budapest. After serving as first lieutenant with the Imperial Sappeurs of Austria-Hungary between 1915 and 1918, he began work in Budapest for an engineering firm. On the advice of an Hungarian friend named Kautsky, a fellow architect, Raisz decided to leave Hungary: they both arrived in the United States in July 1923. Soon after, Raisz took a position with the Ohman Map Company in New York City, which he held for two years. In that same year, 1923, he entered the graduate school at Columbia University, majoring in Geology, and in 1921* received a Master's degree. On 2k December 192U, he married Marika Georgette Patai, an instructor at Columbia, and on 13 November 1925 their only child, Lawrence Gedeon, was born. Raisz continued his formal studies in geology at Columbia University, work-

ing towards the degree of doctor of philosophy. This he completed in 1929 with a dissertation, entitled 'Scenery of Mount Desert Island: its origin and development'. This study constituted a geomorphological history of a little known part of Maine. Douglas W. Johnson was the senior adviser of Raisz' dissertation committee; Charles P. Berkey was a second member of the committee. During this period, Raisz drew maps for faculty members at Columbia University, illustrated books for publishers, and held an instructor's position at Columbia from 1925 to 1931. Significantly he was the first to offer a course in cartography at Columbia University (1927). At that time, few other institutions offered such a course. While at Columbia University, the department changed its name from the Department of Geology to the Department of Geography, Geology and Mineralogy. In 1931 Raisz joined the recently established Institute of Geographical Exploration at Harvard University. This body was from 1931-50 supported by its Director, Dr. A. Hamilton Rice, who in 1923 had helped to establish a training school for explorers at the American Geographical Society. Rice, who had a medical training and in time became Professor of Geographic Exploration, taught navigation at Harvard and led seven expeditions to the jungles of South America during the interwar period. For twenty years, to 1950 when the Institute closed, Raisz taught cartography there and was responsible for the collection of maps, considered to be the largest in New England. During this time, Raisz produced hundreds of maps, dozens of articles, -four books, and two atlases. After 1950, Raisz worked at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and taught as a visiting professor at Clark University and the Universities of

94

Erwin Josephus

Raisz

Virginia, Florida, and British Columbia. He also lectured at the University of Rio de Janeiro. In addition he drew maps for the Environmental Protection Section of the Office of the United States Quarter Master General (during World War II). Raisz was sponsored for membership of the Association of American Geographers on 18 March 1939. His supporters were Douglas Johnson (Columbia University), and Kirk Bryan (Harvard University), and his membership became effective in 19^0. Raisz listed his specialities as cartography and geomorphology. His regional areas of interest included the United States, Mexico, Cuba and Europe. He was a member of other organizations, most notably the Royal Geographical Society, the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping, and the National Council of Geographic Education. Raisz organized a cartography group within the Association of American Geographers in 19^9, and was its first Chairman until 1951*. In 1957 Raisz was appointed the first map supplement editor of the Annals

of the Association

of American Geographers.

He was

frequently honoured by civic and professional groups. Of significance was the National Council for Geographic Education's Goode Prize Award (19^7); the Society of Cuba presented Raisz with its Gold Medal in 19^9, the Association of American Geographers honoured him with the Meritorious Achievement Award (1955), and he received the Distinguished Service Medal of the Geographic Society of Chicago in 1959. He was a member from 1929 of the Kappa Chapter of Sigma Xi. He travelled widely, crossing the United States several times, while also visiting Latin America, Europe and Asia. At the time of his death on 1 December 1968 in Bangkok, he was en route to present a paper at the International Geographical Congress meeting in New Delhi. At this time he was also helping to compile the National

atlas

of the United

States.

2.

SCIENTIFIC IDEAS AND GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT

a.

The Contribution

to

science

Having been educated mainly in geology, Raisz' early work consisted largely of drawing landform maps. He was accurate, fast, and prolific in representing segments of the earth's surface on paper. His fine drawing ability was complemented by an excellent memory. He would often draw while travelling, and during stops he would draw from memory, in detail, what he had seen on the journey. Raisz was versatile in his work. He was concerned with statistical mapping, and published several articles demonstrating new methods of representing statistical data on maps: for example, he produced distribution maps of disease, poverty, and illiteracy for his Atlas of global geography. He was well informed in mathematics, and was fluent in several languages. This facilitated his work with projections (introducing new map projections), and with the history of cartography. Raisz recognized the important role cartography had to fulfil. He knew of the paucity of cartographic offerings in academic environments, and the lack of a guide which instructors could use in the classroom. As a result Raisz published General cartography in 1938, the first such textbook in the English language. The book included topics ranging from the history of car-

tography, scales and projections, lettering, and design, to surveying concepts, and topographic and thematic maps. In 19^8 the second edition was published (which is still in use today). In 1962, he published Principles of cartography. Other major contributions include his atlases of Global geography, of Cuba, the World, and of Florida (of which several thousand were purchased by the State of Florida, Department of Education). Each atlas included colour maps in much detail, complemented liberally with text. His atlases frequently included other types of drawings — mostly graphs and block diagrams. He perfected block-pile maps (introduced by William Morris Davis) which was documented in 'Blockpile system of statistical maps' (Econ. Geogr., vol 15 (1939), 185-8). He also introduced the value-by-areacartograms in 'The Rectangular statistical cartogram' (Geogr. Rev., vol 2h (193*0, 292-6). Many of his maps, published privately, depicting landform features, were used in classrooms by different age groups. Raisz was best known for these landform maps. His drawing style explained the landscape, allowing for easy interpretation of landform features. Raisz felt strongly that the drawn delineation of landforms should involve symbolization, thus taking a step further the work of his contemporaries, among the better known being William Morris Davis, Armin K. Lobeck and Guy-Harold Smith. The landform map seems to be an American cartographical contribution, though few cartographers have pursued it, perhaps because extensive landform and physiographic training together with drawing ability are required. Landform maps, such as those drawn by Raisz and Lobeck, portrayed the landscape qualitatively; that is, the shape of the land was of major concern, and not its numeracy. The style advanced by Raisz and others was unique. Nowhere else may it be found. Most common were other methods of portraying the landscape, such as plastic shading, layer colouring, or the use of crude, simplified symbols. The quantitative approach reveals the landform by way of the topographic map. In Europe the most common methods of portraying the landscape included the use of the hachure, the 'woolly worm' or illuminated contour-lines giving a terrace effect. Although Raisz contributed to the development of statistical mapping, numerous geographer-cartographers also introduced a plethora of methods to show geographical data. Similarly, the continuous fascination for projections among cartographers brought forth several new projections, including those by Raisz, which he called Orthoapsidal. However, most of these projections were overshadowed by the interrupted Homolosine projection which had been introduced by J. Paul Goode in 1919. Other similar notable introductions included the interrupting of Aitoff's projection, by Vernor C. Finch, and the Eumorphic projection, by S. Whittemore Boggs. During World War II, Raisz prepared a 'universal' set of azimuthal equidistant projections for the Map Division of the Office of Strategic Services.

b.

Ideas on Geography and Other

Sciences

Raisz' interests were many and varied. He was drawn to topics other than the physical environment, and was particularly interested in advancing the understanding of cartography. Raisz considered cartography to be a complex field of study closely related to geography, but with strong links to art, history and mathematics.

Erwin Josephus

He was keenly aware of the changes time had imposed on the cartographer's craft. During his later years he concentrated on methods and applications advancing new developing ideas, such as the use of aerial photographs. He lived during World War II which had affected society to such a degree that there was a great demand for maps which showed contemporary events, and at a time when the number of maps being published was rapidly increasing. He remained abreast of new developments and was interested in the role that various types of air photography could play in map making. At the time of his death, he was investigating the use and value of Gemini photographs in cartography. He was well aware that the computer was being applied in cartography, but viewed such emphasis with scepticism. He was concerned with the loss of reality in having maps produced by the computer. He saw that computer maps were being produced by skilled technicians with little training or interest in geography or cartography. He did not live to see the present status of computer applications in cartography, and some of the maps produced by his contemporaries. He felt very strongly that every geography department should include in its curriculum a course dealing solely with cartography. 3. INFLUENCE AND SPREAD OF IDEAS Raisz never held a major professorship. His primary duties at Harvard were not in teaching, and so he had little contact with students or the opportunities to be a member of doctoral degree committees. Raisz influenced many with his enthusiastic approach to the field. Detailed drawings complemented his lectures. He was considered to be one of the leading cartographers in the United States. His papers were read before meetings of members of the Association of American Geographers, the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping and the International Geographical Congress, and his four atlases were consulted internationally. General cartography was a major contribution which facilitated the phenomenal growth which took place in cartography in mid-century United States. In this book Raisz synthesized a widely scattered cartographical literature. He developed new techniques and implemented them in his text: principally he included cartograms, the block-pile method of portraying statistical data, and discussion of the Orthoapsidal projections. Despite the fact that Raisz closely linked cartography to geography, he nonetheless felt that cartography was unique among the sciences. It may be that Raisz influenced future generations of cartographers by distinguishing specializations in training available to the cartographer: geocartographer — trained in geography and mainly responsible for small scale and thematic mapping; topocartographer — trained in engineering and interested in large scale mapping, mainly general types; aerocartographer — trained in photogrammetry and using air photos to construct a map; and cartotechnician — specializing in photographic processes, engraving, printing, and art. Raisz was essentially a pragmatic man. His work significantly helped to shape the field of cartography in the United States. The fact that he did not work with many students at the graduate level may in part

Raisz

95

explain why he is not more widely recognized.

Bibliography and Sources 1. REFERENCES ON ERWIN JOSEPHUS RAISZ James, P. and Jones, C.F. (eds.), American geography inventory and prospect, New York (195M Robinson, A.H., 'Erwin Josephus Raisz', Ann. Assoc. Am. Geogr., vol 60/1 (1970), 189-93 Robinson, A.H., Sale, R. and Morrison, J., Elements of cartography, k ed., New York (1978) Raisz, Lawrence G., personal communication (1980) Harvard University Library, archival holdings (1980) Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., Assoc. Am. Geogr. records (1981) 2.

SELECTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS BY ERWIN JOSEPHUS RAISZ

a. Articles and books 1929 'The scenery of Mount Desert island: its origin and development', Ann. New York Acad. Sci., vol 33, 121-86 1931 (with Deforest Stull) Simplified home geography activities book, Chicago 'The physiographic method of representing scenery on maps', Geogr. Rev., vol 21, 297-301+ 1933 'The aerial survey of Hungary', Geogr. Rev., vol 23, U91-2 Trailside notes, mammoth to old faithful, Washington, D.C., Department of the Interior, National Park Service 193^ 'Rounded lakes and lagoons of the coastal plains of Massachusetts', J. Geol. , vol 62, 839-^8 'The rectangular statistical cartogram', Geogr. Rev. , vol 2 It, 292-6 1936 'Rectangular statistical cartograms of the world', J. Geogr. , vol 35, 8-10 "The high Uintas*, Appalachia3 vol 21, 58—6U 1937 'Outline of the history of American cartography', Isis, vol 26, 373-90 'Charts of historical cartography', Imago Mundi, vol 2, 9-16 (with Joyce Henry) 'An average slope mat) of southern New England', Geogr. Rev., vol 27, U67-72 1938 General cartography, New York 2 ed., 19^8 1939 'A history of French cartography', Legion d'Honneur, vol 9, 150-8 'Block-pile system of statistical maps', Econ. Geogr. , vol 15, 185-8 19^1 'Geographical distribution of the mineral industry of the United States', Mining and Metallurgy, vol 22, 158-66 'The Analemma', J. Geogr., vol ho, 90-7 'The Paulina mountains, Oregon', Apvalachia, vol 7, n.s. , 195-7 19^2 'Draw your own blackboard maps', J. Geogr. , vol Ul, 262-1+ 19^3 'Orthoapsidal world maps', Geogr. Rev., vol 33,

96

19^

19^5 I9U6

19^7 19^8

191+9

1950 1951

1953 195^

1956 1962 1963 196H

Erwin Josephus

Raisz

132-1* 'Map projections', in Hammond's atlas, Maplewood, N.J. 'Our lopsided earth', J. Geogr., vol U3, 81-91 Atlas of global geography, New York "The Olympic-Wallowa lineament', Am. J. Sci. , vol 2U3-A, U79-85 'Map projections and the global war', The Teaching Scientist, vol 2, 33-9 'Landform, landscape, land-use and land-type maps', J. Geogr. , vol U5, 85-90 'Cartography in 19^6', The American annual, Encyclopaedia Americana, 12 3-1* 'Globes', Yearbook, National Council for the Social Studies Geographic Approaches to Social Education, 105-16 (with Gerardo Canet) Atlas of Cuba, Harvard U.P., Cambridge, Mass. 'Land-type maps', C.R. Congr. Int. Geogr., Lisbon, 1U3-6 'Maps and new inventions', The book of knowledge annual, New York, 2U5-52 'Maps in school', The Instructor (May), 7, 76, 85 'The cartophile survey of New England', Imago Mundi, vol 8, UU—5 'The use of air photos for landform maps', Ann. Assoc. Am. Geogr., vol hi, 32U-U0 'Direct use of oblique air photos for smallscale maps', Surveying and Mapping, vol 13, 1*96-501 Suitability factors of illustrative media, Technical report no 2, Charlottesville: Office of Naval Research and Virginia Geographical Institute, University of Virginia 'Landform maps', Petermanns Geogr. Mitt., vol 100, 171-2 Mapping the world, New York Principles of cartography, New York 'Ein Versuch zu Gestaltung eines idealen Globus', Der Globusfreund, no 12. 20-U (et al.) Atlas of Florida, University of Florida Press, Gainesville

Not included are numerous book reviews, newspaper articles and maps, and contributions to encyclopaedias. b. Maps 1929 Diagrama Fisiografico de Cuba, Habana 1930 Physiographic diagram of the New York region, New York 1936 "The growth of Harvard University, 1636-1936', Harvard University Tercentenary Gazette, Sept. 11 1937 China, Japan, Malaysia, Central Asia, India (several maps), Harvard-Teaching Institute, Cambridge, Mass. Physiographic map of Virginia, New York 1939 Landforms of the United States, Boston Block diagram of the Guyana highlands, Institute for Geographical Exploration, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 19^1 Pattern of world agriculture. Department of Agri culture, Washington, D.C. 19^5 University series desk maps, Maplewood, N.J. n.d. 'World in ArmadiDlo projection', privately printed in Boston

There are also three series of landform maps privately published in Boston. n.d. Hudson valley, Tennessee, Africa, North America, Michigan, Utah, Venezuela, World n.d. Central America, Greater Antillies, England, Italy, Japan n.d. Canada, Near East, United States, northwestern United States, Alaska, Mexico, North Africa, Europe, China Many more maps were produced by Raisz during his career. Leon Yacher is an Assistant Professor at Southern Connecticut State College, New Haven, Connecticut 06515

Chronology 1893

Born at Locse, Hungary, March 1

191^

Graduated in civil engineering

1915-18

Military service with the Imperial Sappeurs

1918-23

Arrived in U.S.A. and entered Columbia university

192U

Awarded the Master's degree

1925-31

Instructor at Columbia university: in 1927 offered the first Cartography course at Columbia

1929

Awarded the Ph.D. degree

1931

Worked (to 1950) at the Institute of Geographical Education, Harvard University

1938

Published his General cartography (2 ed. 19^8): attended IGU Congress, Amsterdam

1939

Became a member of the Association of American Geographers

19^3-^

Worked as a civilian for the U.S. Navy

191+7

Taught at Clark University (to 196l): received the Goode award from the National Council for Geographic Education

19^9

Received a gold medal from the Society of Cuba: organized the Cartography group at AAG: visited Spain and Portugal, where he attended the IGU Congress at Lisbon

1952

Taught at the University of Virginia: attended IGU Congress, Washington

1955

Given the Meritorious Award of AAG

Erwin Josephus Raisz 1956

Attended the IGU Congress in Rio de Janeiro, lectured at the university, toured Brazil and Venezuela

1957

Taught at the University of Florida (to 1962): appointed map editor for the

Annals of the Association Geographers

of American

1959

Received the Service Medal of the Geographic Society of Chicago: visited Jamaica

i960

Attended the Norden IGU Congress, based on Stockholm and toured Scandinavia

1962

Visited Europe:

1963

Taught at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver: visited Greece, Turkey and eastern Europe

1961*

Attended the IGU Congress in London, toured England, Spain and North Africa:

of

cartography

published

publication of the Atlas

of

Principles

Florida

1965

Visited Europe

1966

Toured the Caribbean and Mexico

1967

Visited Venezuela and also Eastern Europe

1968

Died in Bangkok, December 1

97

Gregor Reisch C.1470-1525

KARL HOHEISEL 1.

EDUCATION,

LIFE

AND WORK

Gregor Reisch — sometimes spelled Reysch or Rusch of Balingen — was born about IU70 (there is no accurate date) in a place named Balingen, which is located at the northern boundaries of the Schwabischen Alb (Swabian Jura), and was probably the offspring of poor people. Since it is believed that he wanted to become a clergyman it may be assumed that he prepared for the university early, in the manner that was customary during that time. The only thing known about his early life is the date of his matriculation: 25 October llt87, in Freiburg/Breisgau, as a devious of the diocese in Konstanz (Constance). Only one year later he received his bachelor's degree and held an unsalaried lecturer's position. In the following year (lU8°) he obtained the full qualification to teach at the faculty of arts and letters. However, he was only awarded the Master of Arts degree after he had agreed to repay the examination fees later. One of the young M.A.'s teaching responsibilities was to explain and comment on the works of natural science written by, or attributed to, Aristotle, which had been known since the Middle Ages. It is quite probable that Reisch used the paraphrases of Albert the Great (c. 1200-1280), who had given the Occident its entire knowledge of ancient natural science (very often in an Arabic form) enriched by his own observations and commentaries of great historical and critical value. Early in his teaching Reisch saw the need for a handy and modern text book of his own for the faculty of arts and letters. According to the poem of dedication by Werner von Themar, the well-

known tutor of nobles in the Palatinate and humanist from Heidelberg, major parts of this book must have been ready for print as early as lU95. Even though the work was published in 1503 (traces of earlier prints have been refuted) the Margarita philosophica (A synopsis of philosophy) was compiled in its essential parts probably between IU89 and lU95• His poor standard of life (in Freiburg, the M.A.'s of the faculty of arts and letters received no annual salary, and the students' contributions were very small) may have forced him to accept temporary employment with the Counts of Zollern. It is probable that Rei.sch matriculated in Ingolstadt in li+9^, on the same day as the young Franz Wolfgang, whose mentor he was. It is not known what studies Reisch undertook besides his tutorial obligations. It is probable that he returned to Freiburg from Ingolstadt, perhaps to find refuge in the Carthusian monastery, where he had once lived as a penurious student and young M.A., together with a few other scholarship holders. Even before the turn of the sixteenth century he must have officially joined the Carthusian Order, and probably he undertook studies in theology besides teaching in the field of arts and letters. His studies must have been completed by 1501 when he gave up his regular teaching activities as he was called that year to be prior at Buxheim near Memmingen; in 1502 he returned, as abbot, to the Freiburg priory. He can hardly have had time to be both a teacher and a prior, though as a prior he was known to be well versed in mathematical problems and those of the natural

100

Gregor Reisch

sciences. He was famous as an authority in the Hebrew language, on which he gave private lessons to favoured students. His two most famous students later became renowned in the history of geography. Martin Waldseemuller (11+70-1521), who enrolled in Freiburg at the time when Reisch would have been working on his Margarita, always remained in close personal contact with Reisch. Johannes Eck (lU86-15^3) came to Freiburg as a Master of Arts at the time when Reisch became a prior of the Freiburg Carthusian monastery. In the first year as a prior Reisch taught him mathematics and cosmography and tutored him in difficult problems of the Hebrew language and of theology. Eck's book

Introductorium breve cosmographicum ad Ptolemaei tabulas utilissimas (Brief introduction to cosmography and the useful tables of Ptolemy) written in 1506

reflects Reisch's teachings. Besides inspiring Eck's interest in geographical studies (fashionable at that time) Reisch certainly inspired Eck's courses on the elementary principles of geography and astronomy given to students (1506, 1508 and 1510) in the Pfauenburse at Freiburg, based on the Introductorium. Eck abandoned geography after 1510, when he became professor of theology in Ingolstadt. Reisch, too, was drawn further and further away from his academic endeavours due to his duties in the monastery and with the Order. His Margarita, having been included among the

libri

admissi

(authorized

textbooks)

in several human-

istically reformed universities long before Jacob Wimpheling (ll+50-1528) had recommended the book (1522) as a text in Heidelberg, had to be reprinted at least eight times during the author's lifetime. Reisch would not delegate the task of bringing these reprints up to the latest scientific standards to anyone. He even found the time, during his extensive inspection trips to the South German sub districts of his order, to review thoroughly the libraries of the monasteries he inspected, and generously assisted scientists to procure rare manuscripts and prints that were required. Moreover, in the execution of his assignment by the Vicar General, he gathered sources of information on the history of the Carthusian Order. Therefore, in 1510, only one bulky folio volume was published in

Basel, entitled Statuta Ordinus Cartusiensis of the Carthusian Order), under his name.

(Statutes

From the beginning of the new idea of humanism, Reisch professed himself a follower. When in 1510 Emperor Maximilian I elected this learned scientist and puritanical monk to be his scientific consultant and spiritual adviser, Reisch became a member of the emperor's humanistic circle, which included Celtis, Peutinger, and Pirckheimer. Reisch had no chance to employ his mathematical and natural-scientific knowledge (well recognized by the emperor) in the process of the reformation of the calendar, but he was consulted as an expert, and often as an arbiter, in the so-called 'Reuchlin Controversy' between 1510-1515 and in the general confessional quarrels that developed soon thereafter. He adhered very closely and convincingly to his original creed; his scientific reputation and also his ethical integrity were highly praised by both friends and adversaries. According to a phrase coined by Erasmus, Reisch's word had the 'weight of an oracle throughout the German lands'. After the emperor died, Reisch returned to the

refuge of his monastery and tried to save those under his responsibility from contact with the new creed. In 1523 he suffered a stroke. His fellow monks took their doomed brother with them on their flight from the riotous peasants to Freiburg; there he died on 9 May 1525. It is believed that he was entombed in the monastery. 2. SCIENTIFIC IDEAS AND GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT The geographical thinking of Reisch can be discerned from the Margarita. Although he refers in that book to cosmographi or cosmographia (cosmographer and cosmography, respectively) on (for example) water distribution (beyond his scanty hints) in relation to the configuration of the earth's surface, his aim was not to speak in terms of one single science but in the general educational way of the 'artists'. As the average age of his students of that field was far below that of today's high school graduates, it is safe to say that he wanted to speak as a pedagogue. Therefore, the Margarita offers a brief excerpt from philosophy, on the topics of instruction in the faculty of arts and letters from the elementary studies up to the examination for a Master's degree. Lucid phraseology, the question-and-answer form, and numerous illustrations pronounce its textbook character. The results of new research are not included. The presentation is through the traditional artes liberales (liberal arts), which had expanded in scope since the Middle Ages, so that the artes reales (free arts) of the quadrivius (the four top-level sciences of the antique) could provide an initial basis for the.study of philosophy proper. Reisch took part in this development only hesitantly when he followed the quadrivium with two books (among others) of a typically philosophical character on the principles of the formation and the origin of the phenomena of nature. On the other hand, the function of the free arts as the instruments of the holy writings found his fervent approval — for instance, on the problem of the 'oberhimmlischen Wassers' ('supra-celestial waters') or the position of hell, purgatory, and paradise — an approval, however, of retorgrade tendency, typical of a humanist. All the geographical science that Reisch deemed indispensable for the studies in the three top-level sciences (theology above all), he dealt with, mostly under the subject of 'astronomy'. Only in retrospect is it possible to speak of 'geography' for in the Margarita geography appears merely as unidentified matter of science. Astronomy deals mainly with the stars (as shown by its name) but must also deal with the celestial globe and the spheres it includes. Accordingly, Reisch deals at first with the outermost globe 'which encompasses the entire universal mechanism*, then systematically descends, incidentally trying to reconcile classical and biblical concepts of the universe by extension of the seven classical spheres down through eleven concentrically interspaced celestial spheres of the so-called ethereal world, into the sub-lunar space, which holds the four elements: fire, water, air and soil, from where he displays — one might say — a general geography with mostly mathematical accents.

Gregor Reisch

a.

General geography

Fire and air are arranged in concentric circles around the centre of the universe. Water, on the other hand, had surrounded the material ball of firm earth that rests in the centre of the universe, forming a fine mist during the act of Creation. Later, by the word of the Creator, water was separated into the waters above and the waters below the firmament. The latter condensed into a globe which coalesced with the ball of firm earth into another loosely spherical body that is now composed of the two elements water and earth. According to an attached drawing this must be understood to mean that the ball of firm earth floats on or in the globe of water, forming dry, firm land only where the relatively small cap emerges above the surface of the water. Reisch here makes himself the spokesman of a tradition which shows him to be rather out of touch with the latest views of his time. This tradition assumes that, in contrast to a cosmography based on Aristotle, there are two central points to the globe. The geometrical centre of the whole globe of earth and water combined represents the centre of the world. But water is assumed to be heavier than dry earth, so the centre of gravity of this globe shifts along the axis that passes through the centre of the globe and the centre of the ball of earth towards the latter's water-surrounded edge. Since the mass of water by its nature gathers towards the centre of gravity, the ball of the earth is in a state of constant oscillation. The water, however, not only impinges on the cap of firm land but also penetrates the land itself (because of the structure of its surface) in depths that cause the formation of inland waters, such as the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, although, as the Bible confirms, 'the deeps (of the water) will never engulf the solid earth'. The earthen ball is not solid. As far as it is possible to judge from human observation, the earth resembles an animal with bones (the veins of rock) and entrails. Through subterranean corridors and caves rivers are connected with the water reservoir. Within the earth also is the four-storied nether-world. Even in Reisch's era the problem of the configuration of land and water could not be logically discussed on the basis that the earth had two central points without running into insoluble difficulties and even contradictions, and it would seem that Reisch, in the progress of his work, was diverging more and more from the basic model, without however discarding it or even reviewing its usefulness. To determine the size of the globe (of soil and water) he puts the initial figures of Ptolemy and Eratosthenes side by side and arrives at a circumference of 5>^00 (converted 7,5^0) and a diameter of 1,718 U/22 (converted o. 2,1+05 9/20) German miles. Neither the highest mountains (none is higher than 15 Greek 'stadions', a. 2,500 metres) nor the deepest oceans (no ocean deeper than 30 Greek 'stadions') — a happy contrast to figures of older calculations that sometimes arrived at absolutely unrealistic figures — would affect the spherical shape of the globe. In relation to the universe, earth dwindles down to a merely mathematical point; only if it were possible to penetrate the earth right through its central point would it become evident that the centre of the earth is

101

really the centre of the universe, since a stone thrown into the penetrating shaft would come to absolute rest, approximately halfway along the length of the shaft, because a (seemingly) further falling of that stone would result in its ascent under its own power. There is a certain contrast between the ancient geographers, who were interested in the earth as a whole (being mathematicians) and Reisch, whose interest concentrates on the earth as the Lebensraum (environment) of man (a more theological approach). Oceans, rivers, swamps and dense forests, as well as inaccessible mountains, and wild beasts confine man to his immediate environment and prohibit the taking of even an approximate census enumeration. This physical/geographical way of observation that appears to develop is not followed through. The term 'climate' means the solar irradiation, dependent on the inclination of the earth's axis; Reisch's five zones are defined merely as solar concepts. The idea that the surface of the earth influences the atmosphere, an idea which certainly modified the concept of three uninhabitable and two inhabitable zones even for the ancient geographers such as Strabo, cannot be found except perhaps in his idea that the two polar zones and the dry zone between the tropics are unfit for permanent habitation but not absolutely prohibitive for man. Directly under the equator, the temperatures desirable for permanent settlement are the optimum in his opinion; he believes it to be quite possible that the long lost paradise should be located in this very zone. His main argument for the monotonous temperatures at the equator, the equal length of day and night, is based on astronomical explanations. As a humanist Reisch did not want to commit himself on the size and distance of the paradise and its four streams, a problem that had occupied the studies of mediaeval scientists. Reisch then, using the solar concept, distinguishes zones by the greatest length of diurnal periods. Like the ancient cosmographers, he lists, beginning with the Meroe parallel in Egypt, seven climatic belts of diminishing widths, for which he records their diurnal periods, seasons, cast and inclination of shadow, and other data. The seventh climatic zone, extending through the legendary 'Montes Ripaei', has a mean diurnal period of sixteen hours and, in the belief of the ancient scientsts, was open toward the north. Reisch, following Albert the Great, adds an eighth zone (which he leaves nameless) that stretches from 52° to the North Pole. His General geography finally deals with the problem of the antipodes. Since the belt of firm land reaches farther to the east and south than Ptolemy had originally assumed, the people in the easternmost parts of earth have antipodes in the outermost west. As he already indicates by his cautious phrase of antiwodes diei possunt (what could be called 'antipodes') he is speaking of inhabitants not farther removed than 180° but of people of the same zone, of Antichthonen (belonging to earth) or Peridken (pre-Doric people around Sparta). Reisch did not know of the antipodes in the strict sense of the term, for the extent of firm land known in his time did not reach far enough to the south. Regardless of his bonds with ancient tradition (the concept of the double centre logically precluded the idea of antipodes) Reisch presents himself quite clearly

102

Gregor Reisch

as the protagonist of a 'geography' "based on empirical deduction, who does not mind subjecting himself to criticism by unnecessarily using provocative words like 'antipodes' and "broaching a theory that had already been disallowed by Pope Zachariah.

b.

Special

geography

At the end of his section on general geography, Reisch opens his 'special', in effect 'regional' geography by

a map of the world: terrai habitabilis marisque configurationem in piano describere (plain description of the configuration of land and oceans). This

'regional geography', intended to clarify all said so far, gave Reisch a further possibility of subdividing the surface of the earth (besides division into zones and climates). The basis of this is the map of the world which is attached to all editions of the Margarita authenticated by Reisch. It is a replica of the best contemporary map, the wood-engraved map of the Ptolemy edition of Ulm dated lU82; it shows the earth on the scale of 1:55»500,000, using the modified conic projection of Ptolemy. In marginal legends Reisch comments on a picture of the world that has been extended beyond Ptolemy, noting that Africa extends nearly down to the U0° S. In chapters UO-52 of his seventh volume he merely gives a compilation of the territories and countries shown on the map. We shall adhere to that text only and shall disregard the analysis of the picture on the map (which was not in fact drawn by Reisch). The 1515 edition contains two maps of the world. Besides the one previously mentioned, there is the famous 'Zoana Mela' from the shop of his student and friend Martin Waldseemiiller. His initials appear in the Persian Gulf. A new feature appears, and the newly discovered lands in the west, 'Zoana Mela' and 'Paria seu Prisilia' (the present day South American continent), are really noteworthy. The narrative does not refer to the map. After Reisch's death, the maps of the Margarita were taken into safe keeping by Orontius Finaeus. Reisch deals consecutively with the three traditional continents of the earth, Europe, Asia and Africa. Like Ptolemy, who proceeds from west to east, he begins in Europe with Spain and the provinces. For the region of Galicia, reference is made to the pilgrimage to Compostella, and for Castile, the lover of astronomy, King Alfons X, is mentioned. From France, he proceeds to Germania magna (the land of the Teutonic people), which like all humanists he sees as bordered by the river Rhine, the Danube, 'Sarmatia' (the territory east of the river Elbe and north of the ancient Roman Empire, including today's Russia), and the North Sea. In the same tabular way, he deals with Italy, the Balkans, and 'Sarmatia'. Great Britain (the map reads 'Anglia') and Ireland are mentioned only at the end, in the schedule of islands. Asia is partitioned into western Asia and one northern and one southern region. When dealing with western Asia (today's Near East) he mentions the foundation of the Church by John the Apostle, and also refers to the Turkish foreign rule. Otherwise, the narrative yields nothing but the decoding of all letters used in the map as abbreviations to save space. Dealing with the northern region of Asia, particular refer-

ence is made to the hidden river that connects the Caspian Sea with the Arctic Ocean, and to 'Serica' (the land of silk). Almost the only writing on the south region consists of a quotation of one of the prophesies of Isaiah and a reference to the Land of Canaan, the 'Promised Land' of the Bible. The complementary remark that the details on position, fertility, and shape and on rites and mentality of the inhabitants should be available from the works of Pliny the Elder, Strabo, and Ptolemy is assumed to apply also to the other two continents. By far the scantiest information he offers is on Africa. He merely enumerates ten North African empires and the Egyptian major cities of Alexandria, Damiette, Heliopolis, Chayrus, and Thebais, attaching a few notes on ecclesiastical history. Ethiopia at the world's outpost gives him the opportunity to mention the known fabulous creatures such as the barking, snake-eating Troglodytes, and the 'Augiles' (men whose eyes grew in the chest). Apparently those monsters were of such an importance that Reisch gathered them all on one picture which was included, unchanged, in Minister's Cosmography. A brief list of the most important islands concludes this 'geography' and leads to the last part of his text on astronomy, i.e., the scientific study of stars. America is not even mentioned anywhere in the text.

c.

Geographical

facts

in other

books

In other writings Reisch deals with facts which are, by our standards, part of geographical science: the phenomena of the earth's core, in particular, geology and earthquakes; the origin of rivers; the salinity of the oceans; the tides; phenomena of light and air, precipitation and wind; and also flora and fauna. Reisch always studied those problems in their philosophical aspects, though he neither connected them as parts of a geological/geographical interdependent system nor combined them under a superior, general concept such as 'geography' or 'cosmography'. When Robert Ritter von Srbik included aspects of the ninth volume into the 'geography' of the Margarita, he ignored the author's intentions.

3. INFLUENCE AND SPREAD OF IDEAS Reisch composed his Margarita at a time when geographical studies became an item of interest to the general public, in view of the latest discoveries. He did not disregard the expansion of the geographical world concept; he tried his best to integrate the new finds into his cartographical system. No proof exists that those maps with their previously mentioned marginal legends could have been imposed on him. Nevertheless, he had no real liking for modernism. Even if he did show a fairly liberal and progressive view of the antipodes (or 'antichthones') and also showed his willingness to sacrifice theories to the impact of newly-gained facts, he still treated those facts quite traditionally and in the sense of the theory of elements, predominantly under astronomical considerations, never making a break-through to a clearly identified concept of geography. All the same, he sent out some very important geographical impulses. His wish for a knowledge of earth beyond a mere philological decipheration of superficial

Gregor Reisch

concepts and complexes inspired his favourite students and correspondents Eck and Waldseemiiller. For a considerable time the Margarita was the textbook for the universities (especially those in Southern Germany), which were being reformed in accordance with humanistic principles in the sixteenth century. The impulses which he sent out are not easy to assess but by his effort to find reconciliation between the Bible and traditional geography he laid the foundations of German geographical studies. It was from his handbook that the founders of German geography, Melanchthon (lH97-156o) and Miinster (1U88-1552), acquired their basic knowledge (Geogv. Biobibl. Stud., vol 3 (1979), 93-7, 99-106). And the inclusion of the most modern Ptolemy map of 1U82 into the Margarita demonstrated for the first time to students and interested teachers the recent discoveries of the time. As, regrettably, each government thoroughly guarded exact cartographical data of newlydiscovered territory, it took some time for good maps to become publicly accessible. In spite of this prevailing attitude, it soon became apparent that the initially planned number of books to be printed of the Margarita's first edition would not nearly meet the demand. At the same time cartography took a turn towards its own rapid development outside the faculty of arts and letters. The Margarita was to become an important influence, even in cartography, for in 1512, without the approval of Reisch, Waldseemiiller's treatise on De aompositione astrolabii (Preparation of astrolabs) included the first outlines for a mathematical network of mapping. Reisch, in his passages on geography, never pretended to know everything. He was absolutely sure of the difference between expert/scientific and generallyeducational ways of demonstration and raised the scientific consciousness of the otherwise encyclopaedic and fact gathering oriented faculty of arts and letters. As a textbook author he was (all things considered) a major authority of his time. After geographical science finally disengaged itself in the sixteenth century and in the beginning of the seventeenth century, forever from the system of the artes liberates, the influence of the Margarita dwindled. As an exponent of artistic learning he can be called a final peak representative of his contemporary academic geography, having developed tentative bridges to the geography of the era after his own which, under the influence of the Reformation, moved in a direction that could not be foreseen in Reisch's lifetime.

Bibliography and Sources 1. REFERENCES ON GREGOR REISCH Liliencron, Freiher Dr. R.v., Uber Inhalt der allqemeinen Bildung in der Zeit der Scholastick (On the content of general education during the scholastic period). Festrede gehalten in der offentlichen Sitzung der koniglich-bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Miinchen zur Feier ihres 117. Stiftungsfestes am 26. Marz I876, Miinchen 1876, hip.

103

Gunther, Siegmund, 'Altere und neuere Hypothesen uber die chronische Versetzung des Erdschwerpunktes durch Wassermassen' ('Older and newer hypothesis on the drift of the earth centre of gravity due to water masses'), Studien zur Geschichte der mathematischen und physischen Geogravhie, vol 3, (Halle/Saale) I878,' 129-215 Wieser, Franz von,'Zoana Mela, Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Erdkunde in den ersten Dezennien des 16. Jahrhunderts' ('A Contribution on the history of geography during the first decades of the l6th century'), Zeitschrift fttr Wissenschaftliche Geogravhie, vol 5, (Wien) 1885, 1-6 Hartfelder, Karl, 'Der Kartauserprior Gregor Reisch, Verfasser der Margarita philosophica' ('The Carthusian prior Gregor Reisch; author of the Margarita philosophical), Zeitschrift fur die Geschichte des Oberrheins, vol 5, 1890, 170-200 Mayer, Hermann, 'Johannes Eck in Freiburg', Schau-insLand, vol 35, (Freiburg) 1908, 1-21 Bouard, Michel de, 'Encyclopedies Medievales. Sur la "connaissance de la nature et du monde" au Moyen Age' Revue des questions historiaues, vol 112 (Paris) 1930, 258-301+ Stadke, Hildegard, Die Entwicklung des enzyklovadischen Bildungsgedankens und die Pansophie des J. A. Comenius (The development of the educational thought and the 'Pansophie' of J.A. Comenius), Philosophische Dissertation, Miinchen, 1930, 1-Uh Miinzel, Gustav, Der Kartauserprior Gregor Reisch und die Margarita philosophica (The Carthusian prior Gregor Reisch and the Margarita philosophica), Freiburg, 1937, 87p. Srbik, Robert Ritter v., 'Die Margarita philosophica des Gregor Reisch (+1525). Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaft in Deutschland' ('The Margarita philosophica of Gregor Reisch (+1525). A contribution on the history of natural science in Germany'), Denkschriften der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche KLas'se, vol 10U, Wien, 19^1, 83-206 'Zur Geographie der Margarita philosophica des Gregor Reisch (1525)' ('On the geography of Gregor Reisch's (+1525) Margarita philosophica'), Petermanns Geogr. Mitt., vol 90, 19UU, 99-102 Gericke, Helmuth, Zur Geschichte der Mathematik an der Universit'dt Freiburg im Breisgau (On the history of mathematics at the University of Freiburg/Breisgau), Beitrage zur Freiburger Universitats-und Wissenschaftsgeschichte, vol 7 (Freiburg) 1955, 88p. Henningsen, Jiirgen, '"Enzyklopadie". Zur Sprach- und Bedeutungsgeschichte eines padagogischen Begriffes' ('"Encyclopedia". On the history of the language and the meaning of a pedagogical term'), Archiv fur Begriffsgeschichte, vol 10, 1966, 271-362 Buttner, Manfred, Die Geographia generalis vor Varenius. Geographisches Weltbild und Providentialehre (The Geographia generalis before Varenius. Geographical conception of the world and doctrine of providence). Erdwissenschaftliche Forschung, vol 7, Wiesbaden, 1973, 2 5 1 P . 'Die wechselseitigen Beziehungen zwischen Weltbild und Glaube vom Mittelalter bis zur Neuzeit (Geographie und Theologie)', ('The reciprocal relationships between the conception of the world and belief

104

Gregor Reisoh

during the Middle Ages through modern times'), Tagung der Evangelischen Akademie, Bad Herrenalb, 16-18 January, 1976, Proceedings, vol 1, 30-71* Hoheisel, Karl, 'Gregorius Reisch (ca. 1U7O - 9. Mai 1525)', in Manfred Buttner (ed), Abhandlungen und

Quellen zur Gesahichte

der Geographie und

2. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE WORKS BY GREGOR REISCH 1503 Margarita philosophioa (A synopsis of philosophy), Strassburg, unpaged (for other eds. see Sfbik, 19^1, 106; primarily cited here is the photomechanical reproduction of the 1517 Basel ed. from the Series Thesauri 1, Dusseldorf)

1510 Statuta Ordinis Cartisiensis (Statutes of the Carthusian Order), Basel 1970 Becker, Udo (ed), Margarita philosophioa. die erste Enzyklop'ddie aus Freiburg urn 1495. Die Bilder der 'Margarita philosophioa' des Gregor Reisch3 Prior der Kartause (A synopsis of philosophy. The first encyclopedia from Freiburg a.1495. The pictures of the 'Margarita philosophioa' by Gregor Reischs Prior of the

Lio. theol. comparative translation D. Gurgel3 The editor assistance Rev. David Abingdon

published and explained, Freiburg,

Dr. phil. Karl Hoheisel is professor of religion at the Universit'dt Bonn. The from the German text is by Professor Klaus Weber State College3 Ogden} Utah, U.S.A. also has pleasure in acknowledging the in preparing the English text given by the T. R. Wilcox, M.A. of the Baptist Church,

Chronology C.IU70

Born at Balingen

c.ll+83

Began training for the preisthood in the diocese of Konstanz

1^87

Was a student in Freiburg

1^89-0.1^9^

Worked on the

1U9H

Taught at Ingolstadt

c.1500

Became a Carthusian monk at Freiburg and left the University of Freiburg

1501

Was a prior in Buxheim

1502-25

Was a prior in Freiburg

1503

Margarita

Published the first edition of

Margarita philosophioa philosophy)

Published the Statuta Ord. (Statutes of the Carthusian

1510-19

Was adviser and confessor to the Emperor Maximilian I

1525

Died at Freiburg on May 1, while still a prior, in flight from the 'Peasant Revolt'

Kosmologie,

vol 1, Paderborn, 1979, 59-67

Carthusians), 59p.

1510

(A synopsis

of

Cartusiensis Order)

Rollin D. Salisbury 1858-1922

WILLIAM D. PATTISON Rollin D. Salisbury was a major figure in the successful campaign by American geologists to establish a 'higher geography' early in the twentieth century. He was head of the first department of graduate studies produced by the campaign at the University of Chicago, (1903); and he was a charter member of the Association of American Geographers, the national learned society that originated in the same movement (190k). He served later as Vice President of the Association (1908) and President (1912). By 1920 he had trained about a third of those members who could claim to be geographers by virtue of their doctoral degrees. Salisbury was a contemporary of William Morris Davis, whose interest in a 'higher geography', like Salisbury's, was rooted in his devotion to the study of landforms. When the American Geological Society was founded in 1888, landform research was perhaps the youngest field represented in the organization. Both men, already conspicuous as contributors to the field then, remained active in that society throughout their careers, and in Section E (Geology and Geography) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Both held university posts as geologists for many years, Salisbury at Chicago, Davis at Harvard. Of the two, Salisbury had the advantage of continuing influence on geologists generally through the Journal of Geology, of which he was editor for landform research and related subjects from its first issue in 1893 to the end of his life. Throughout his career, Salisbury was closely associated with a man who may have been the greatest geologist of his time, Thomas C. Chamberlin (181+3-1928).

Chamberlin, whose fame rested primarily upon his speculations concerning the origins of the earth and the solar system, was first making, his mark as a geological thinker when, in 1878, the young Salisbury arrived as his student at Beloit College in southern Wisconsin. Chamberlin's published work of that period on the glacial history of Wisconsin led shortly to his appointment to the U.S. Geological Survey as Chief of the new Glacial Division. In l88l Salisbury graduated from Beloit and began the collaboration with Chamberlin which lasted for more than twenty years, during which Salisbury became a faculty member at Beliot in his own right and Chamberlin moved onwards to become president of the University of Wisconsin. Salisbury became the indispensable second-incommand to Chamberlin in 1882, when both joined the founding faculty of the University of Chicago. Chamberlin came to Chicago to assume the headship of the Department of Geology and to bring into existence the Journal of Geology. In the ensuing years both enterprises flourished, largely thanks to Salisbury's managerial attention. The cooperative authorship of the two men received a new impetus at Chicago, culminating in their Geology, a great teaching work in three volumes (190^, 1906), that supplanted the reigning nineteenth century texts of Dana and Le Conte. Meantime, in the move toward a 'higher geography1 at Chicago, Chamberlain was at first the principal source of initiative, declaring his hopes in a letter as early as 1893. It fell to Salisbury more than anyone else to act on the aspiration, finally winning a commitment from the University through the authorization of the Department

106

Rollin

D.

Salisbury

of Geography a decade later. 1. EDUCATION, LIFE AND WORK Rollin Salisbury was born on a farm near Spring Prairie in Walworth County, Wisconsin, on IT August 1858. His boyhood was one of frugality and hard work, not unlike that of many other farm boys who went on to win distinction in an expanding urban America. He apparently owed much of his widely admired habit of thorough preparation and performance to the example of his father, a severe and precise man who had been a school teacher in upstate New York before migrating to Wisconsin. Rollin attended a country school to the extent that farmwork would allow during the years of his boyhood. He left home for Whitewater Normal School in I87I* at the age of sixteen for the training provided there for teaching in Wisconsin's schools. Completing his preparation at the age of nineteen in 1877» he took up the life of a village school master (at Port Washington) but taught for only a year, having resolved after a few months to seek a college education. Beloit College was his choice — hardly a remarkable one for him him since it was the nearest of the 'hilltop colleges' for ambitious young men that had sprung up throughout the Midwest, and located only one county away from his boyhood home. As an institution founded by Congregational and Presbyterian churches, furthermore, it was compatible in moral tone with his upbringing. As it happened, the young Salisbury was ready for college just when the 'hilltop colleges' were bringing the methods and point of view of the natural sciences into the curriculum, to vie with the traditional programmes of preparation for the ministry and the law. It was Beloit's good fortune to have attracted, as a representative of the new thought, Thomas Chamberlin. Salisbury discovered in Chamberlin someone who was not only a teacher of science, introducing laboratory and field work into Beloit's education, but also a practising scientist leading a vigorous research life. He was then State Geologist of Wisconsin, active in unravelling questions of local earth history ranging from those of the state's Pleistocene formations to those of its lead and zinc ores. It was in his search for an explanation of the latter that Chamberlin first displayed, in rigorous and sustained application, the 'method of multiple working hypotheses' on which he later wrote an essay that brought him celebrity in scientific circles. As a student eager to join in the scientific adventures of Chamberlin, Salisbury attracted his favourable attention. He became his apprentice while still a student. Young Salisbury also fared well in the traditional liberal arts course, excelling particularly in elocution. He won an oratorical contest for the colleges of Wisconsin in 1880 and a year later, shortly before his graduation, took a prize in a six-state collegiate competition. As it happened, the latter contest brought him into contact, probably for the first time, with Jane Addams (1860-1935). Less than a decade later she founded Hull House in Chicago, a social settlement which became a model for many others. Later she ran the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931. A part of the lore surrounding Salisbury in later years was that he chose lifelong

bachelorhood after Miss Adams had rejected his proposal of marriage. After graduation, and a final summer helping on the family farm, Salisbury became Chamberlin's assistant with the United States Geological Survey. Only a year later, he was appointed Chamberlin's successor on the Beloit faculty. This appointment opened for Salisbury a preChicago decade of career building in which he established himseif as a scientist and teacher. He first came to general notice as scientist in the Sixth Annual report of the United States Geological Survey (188^-5), where a paper by Chamberlin and himself, "The driftless area of the Upper Mississippi', appeared. Among the paper's features was an argument for the applicability, in the heart of North America, of Richthofen's hypothesis for the eolian origin of loess. For the academic year 1887-8, he obtained leave from Beloit to go to Germany, where he took courses in petrology and meteorology from Professor Rosenbusch, at Heidelberg. Even before settling down to his studies there, he found and traced a great terminal moraine from Denmark to Russia, on which an article was published after his return to Beloit. As a teacher at Beloit, Salisbury developed the style that would later make him a campus-wide favourite at Chicago: the conduct of classes in which exceptionally clear and originally developed expositions shared time with long, suspenseful episodes of questioning directed at isolated students. Everyone at Beloit took at least one course with 'Saul', whose teaching spread across botany and zoology as well as geology. He was remembered by one student as 'tall, dark-eyed, the picture of life and energy ... Ca teacher whoD made us think for thinking was ever his teaching slogan'. He went on, 'the future lawyers, journalists, and teachers were certainly getting a fine training in the art of expression, and the pre-medics [in] diagnosis'. Near the end of the pre-Chicago decade, Salisbury cast his lot for renewed closeness with Chamberlin by accepting an offer from him, as President of the University of Wisconsin, to leave Beloit for a professorship in geology. Although he held the post for only one year (1891-2), Salisbury was initiating at this time the career for which he is remembered, that of a university man. He brought his identity into focus at Wisconsin by associating himself specifically with 'geographic geology', a field then understood to embrace not only glacial geology but also the study of 'geographic forms' in general, including the surface features of whole continents and their seacoasts. He taught at both the undergraduate and graduate levels with this emphasis, meanwhile launching a programme of research in New Jersey on Pleistocene formations. This investigation, which he got underway during vacations, was commissioned by the State Geologist of New Jersey, who had been impressed by his reconnaisance work in northern Europe. Salisbury's life at Chicago was divisible, in itself, into decades, the first of which began in the autumn of 1892, when he and Chamberlin took their part in meeting the first students to attend classes at the University of Chicago. The following years saw a substantial completion of his activities as an original scientist. Continuing the New Jersey assignment, he now had graduate students with whom he could divide the investigative

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labour, his hypotheses guiding and being guided by their in geology. Built upon them, in theory, were lifefield work. The result was the mapping of glacial drift significance studies, drawn from biology, history, with a detail and accuracy not before attempted, and a political economy and, most importantly, geography. production of significant State reports and United States Without exception, Salisbury made appointments to the Geological Survey folios. This project was interrupted Geography faculty (in these years, John Paul Goode in in 1895 by an opportunity for glacial study on the west 1903, Harlan H. Barrows in 190^, Ellen C. Semple from coast of Greenland. Taking ship as geologist with an 1906 as a visitor and Walter S. Tower in 1910) for expedition sent to bring Lieutenant Peary home from two perceived strength at the life-significance level. years of Arctic exploration, he brought high latitude While the Department of Geography passed through glaciers and glaciation under a close scrutiny that its early stages of growth under his administration, later yielded much-admired textbook descriptions. Salisbury continued to teach geology, taking particular pleasure as before in field outings. As in earlier These were the years when Salisbury perfected his years principal teaching sites were located on the approach to university-level teaching. Partially his outskirts of Chicago and in southern Wisconsin, where efforts took written form, especially in the pages of Devil's Lake and the Dalles were most studied. In the Journal of Geology, where he appeared as author of the summers, though, he now led parties to the Bighorn interpretive summaries under such titles as 'SuperMountains and elsewhere in the Rockies. Sooner or glacial Drift' and 'Agencies which transport materials later, nearly all of the field instruction was reflected on the Earth's surface'. Partially his pedagogical in publications, as was his laboratory work with drive found an outlet in the classroom, where his most topographical maps. popular courses were his introductory physiography and his advanced general geology. He also partially In his third Chicago decade — the final ten years applied himself to the problem of teaching from topoof his life — Salisbury allowed himself to turn more graphical maps in the geological laboratory and to to the Department of Geography than at any time before, guiding direct observation in the field. He was at and he set the Department on a course which influenced his happiest when leading classes on field excursions. American geography to the present day. In what could not have been an easy transition, he curtailed his During this time Salisbury was consolidating a outdoor pursuits while installing himself as elder view of 'higher geography' as a teaching field to be counsellor and wise presence in the Department, now led by geologists. More precisely, he was coming to rededicated as a research enterprise. First, he see 'higher geography' as two intimately related fields, established a programme of field instruction distinct both aiming at public enlightenment of appreciation: from geology's. It was mainly staffed by younger men one made up of physical-base studies, a conglomerate and directed toward problems of life response, especially that went beyond 'geographic geology' to include human response, to physical earth conditions. Second, instruction on the waters and atmosphere on the earth, he instituted a student-staff weekly seminar, led by and the other made up of life-significance studies, himself, in which the current research of participants concentrating especially on the relevance of physical was analyzed and a general definition for geographical conditions to human affairs. He almost certainly research was sought. thought of himself as fostering both when he helped to organize the Geographic Society of Chicago, delivering From this training ground came several leaders of its first lecture, becoming its first president (1898-9), the next generation of American geography. They were and contributing its first bulletin, The geography of the first Chicago generation to be qualified by doctoral Chicago and its environs, (1899). research beyond the 'geographical geology' with which Salisbury himself had begun, and in which such earlier In his second Chicago decade, Salisbury 'found students of his as Nevin Fenneman and Wallace Atwood himself in a life of prodigious work. Already with had done their doctoral work. Three members of the his hands full by ordinary standards, as managing editor new breed — Wellington Jones (191*0, Charles Colby of the Journal of Geology, from 1893, managing head of (1917) and Robert Piatt (1919) ~ were chosen to the Department of Geology, and Dean of the Ogden augment the Chicago faculty, each sustaining the Salisbury Graduate School of Science from 1899, he added, in 1903, tradition in later years while reinterpreting it in his the headship of the new Department of Geography. own way. A fourth, Carl Sauer, who went to Michigan Despite the weight of these responsibilities and a and then to California, transformed the tradition no sizable teaching load, he found time in the immediately less than they, while always feeling that he was most ensuing years to complete two large-scale publishing faithful to it. assignments. The first was his part in the production of the three-volume Geology (l90lj, 1906), a work in In 1919 Salisbury relinquished the headship of which the short, pithy statements characteristic of Geography under circumstances characteristic of the man. his style were blended with the elaborate, flowing On the one hand, he had by then thoroughly satisfied sentence structure of Chamberlin. The second assignhimself that Harlan Barrows was qualified to succeed him. ment, long under contract, came to fruition in On the other hand, he had determined that the time had Physiography (1907), a presentation in book form of his come for him to take full charge both of the Department highly popular course of the same name at Chicago. of Geology and the Journal of Geology, thereby relieving This book was followed by two high school editions Chamberlin (at 76, still with a book and many articles (1908, 1910). ahead of him) for full-time scholarship. Three years As Head of the Department of Geography, Salisbury later, in the midst of his formidable administrative was in a position to institutionalize his idea of and editorial duties and nearly at the end of yet another proper education in the 'higher geography'. Precedence annual round of teaching, Salsibury suffered a coronary went to the physical-base studies, offered mainly thrombosis. While the faculty and students of a

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university and the membership of two learned professions waited, hoping to learn of his recovery, Salisbury died on 15 August 1922.

2.

SCIENTIFIC IDEAS AND GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT

a.

Scientific

contribution

However highly some people may have esteemed the scientific work of Salisbury, it was too limited in scope to warrant the respect in which he is held today. The contributions to science for which he is most remembered are not primarily those of a scientist but rather of an ardent missionary who disseminated the spirit of science. Fortunately, Salisbury took one opportunity to declare his credo in that role: an address that he gave in December 1917 as Chairman of Section E of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His character, as developed in the talk, was that of a man profoundly committed to (l) educating for disciplined habits of inquiry, (2.) training for clarity in the spoken and written word, (3) affirming the importance of nature as physical landscape, and (h) expounding historical interpretations of nature, whether or not thus conceived. From the "beginning of his teaching at Beloit to his final classes at Chicago forty years later Salisbury strove to induce and enforce disciplined inquiry. Almost never resorting to extended lecturing or to simple quizzing on assigned readings, he applied the 'problem method' in the classroom. For him the essence of good education was the ability to deal with evidence, and accordingly he dwelt on questions for which evidence was to be weighed, and a tentative decision reached 'with a full recognition of its tentative character'. Whether or not he was entirely justified in his policy of selecting a few promising students for persistent oral examination, sometimes addressing them with dozens of questions in a single hour, the drama of his classroom confrontations contributed lastingly to an image of the 'higher geography' as an enterprise that would not tolerate off-hand opinion or careless thought. As an untiring proponent of lucid expression he was famous for his injunction that every sentence in a manuscript should be so clear that it could not only be understood, but that it 'could not be misunderstood'. His own prose was admirably concise and direct. His editorial interventions were conscientiously applied to submissions to the Journal of Geology and to a large number of student papers. His impress on American geography may have been greatest, on this score, during the closing decade of his life, when he undertook the critical review of seminar presentations and doctoral dissertations in the Department of Geography. 'I never learned so much about writing', said Carl Sauer, 'as from the queries (as to content) and revisions (as to diction) that he gave me'. It does not seem excessive to speculate that Salisbury went through something akin to a religious awakening when, as a student at Beloit, he had been drawn into a reconceptualization of the familiar landscapes of his childhood by the tutelage of Thomas Chamberlin. However this may be, he never gave up his deep attachment to landscape interpretation,

once acquired. He associated nobility and moral uplift with it, going so far as to propose an analogue between it and the reading of poetry (while intimating that the latter was less manly). From this orientation of belief sprang much of the inspiration that he was able to communicate to others, perhaps especially to school teachers, whom he reached mainly during summer sessions, and among whom he had an enthusiastic following. It should be added that an air of self-righteousness was also present in his devotion to landscape 'revelations', and that this was probably communicated as well. In his unreserved embrace of historical interpretations of nature (with or without limitation to landscape), Salisbury was consciously extending what he called 'the enlightening doctrine of organic evolution'. It was, to him, 'the doctrine which ... has done more than any other to develop the modern spirit of progress and research'. If there was an unusual force to his conviction, it may have arisen from his awareness of alternatives, owed to his position as Dean of the Ogden School of Science. Salisbury was in touch with the fundamentally divergent orientations to knowledge of these contemporaries: (l) mathematicians, whose demonstrations and proofs depended on internal consistency rather than confirmity to an empirical reality; (2) astronomers, whose models were increasingly abstract (a tendency known to have troubled Chamberlin); and (3) physicists and chemists, whose hypotheses, though based on empirical observations, were assumed to be valid without regard to historical context. Only with biologists and with his fellow geologists did he hold in common an empiricism, concretely developed in historical frames of reference.

b.

Ideas held on qeoqraphy and other

sciences

Early in his career 'geography' meant to Salisbury as it did to others of similar professional education, something specific in empirical reality: the land, or physical features of the earth's surface. The geographer, accordingly, was a scientist who took this sector of reality as his object of study. These ideas may have been acted upon mainly by university geologists, late in the nineteenth century, but they had a wider currency among intellectuals of the time. It was to be expected that some group — most likely the geologists — would go on the offensive, seeking an even wider acceptance by attempting to reform the thinking of the organizers of public geographical societies and, no less, educators in the public schools. When the geologists mounted an initiative in these two directions, men other than Salisbury were at first prominent. William Morris Davis took the lead on the public society front, writing in the first issue of the magazine of the new National Geographic Society (1888), to herald a geography that was said to be 'entering a deductive stage, like that already reached by paleontology'. He had in mind, he explained, the study of surface features as 'the present stage of a long cycle of systematically changing forms, sculptured by processes still in operation'. Although Salisbury may already have had some doubts about Davis's cyclical interpretation, he undoubtedly approved the effort to challenge conventional thinking by the claim of primacy made for landform research. When a decisive move was initiated on the schools

Eollin

front, a declaration was made with which Salisbury is known to have fully agreed, although he was not a party to it. In 1892, university geologists were given a chance to produce a recommendation for the future of American school geography. Harvard and Chicago, in the persons of Davis and Chamberlin, dominated a Conference on Geography which had been invited by the prestigious Committee of Ten on Secondary School Studies to make such a recommendation. Their report laid great stress on clearing a way in the high school curriculum for a 'CtrulyD geographic line of studies, which may be characterized as that which relates to the physical environment of man'. Geography as a determinate sector of reality was at this point officially broadened to include atmospheric conditions and the waters of the earth's surface. The significance for Salisbury of the report to the Committee of Ten was immense. Its subsequent circulation in print and its public defence by Chamberlin (at an international symposium in Chicago) imposed a definite obligation on the ChamberlinSalisbury enterprise which Salisbury was to be left to see though, more or less alone. The report introduced the idea that the university-style geographer might have a large educational responsibility; and by adopting the expression 'the physical environment of man', it went far toward defining the responsibility in terms of an alliance of physical-base and lifesignificance studies. Over the next twenty years, Salisbury could be observed working out, at Chicago, the report's university-level implications. As Salisbury went forward, the Chicago version of 'higher geography' emerged. The field — which was cultivated during those first twenty years or so primarily as a teaching venture — gradually took its place under a multi-department distribution of expectations. In the physical-base studies, the Geology faculty held an almost exclusive franchise from the beginning. For instruction on human responses to physical nature a Geography faculty was available from 1903 onward, but for several years prior to that time and for many years afterward, teaching along this line was offered by a handful of instructors in courses in sociology and anthropology, history, and political economy. For life responses other than human, there were always instructors of an appropriate frame of mind in zoology and botany. During his final decade, as the Department of Geography added teachers to the faculty and an increasingly research-oriented mode of operation was adopted, Salisbury arrived at a conception which had been long in the making. In 19l6, at the dedication of Rosenwald Hall, a new building for Geology and Geography, he declared that 'Geography (as distinct from physical geography) is the science which deals with the relations of the physical environment to life and its activities'. This was the position promulgated in his student-staff seminar, and expressed in the curriculum of his graduate students. Geography had become for him, at last, a field beyond geology, of which geological study was not, strictly speaking, a part, but for which geological knowledge was a sine qua non. This is to say, 'higher geography' had come to be confined to an array of life-significance studies. In pursuit of them, the lead was to be taken by the Depart-

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ment of Geography, where concern with human affairs ranked first. Perhaps in theory geography still shared this responsibility with sociology and anthropology, history, and political economy, but in fact the voices in those departments that had been given to congenially environmentalistic interpretations had become almost stilled. The Department of Geography now stood out more than ever before at Chicago as the home of a distinctively environmentalistic school of social thought. However, if geography was at this point separating itself from the social sciences generally at Chicago, it was maintaining or even improving its relations with zoology and botany. A naturalist to the last, Salisbury was completely dedicated to a belief in the rights of zoogeography and geographical botany to recognition alongside human geography, and to their assignment to those two departments. He had the great satisfaction of supporting and encouraging, in botany, the rise of Henry C. Cowles as the organizer of an extensive programme in plant ecology.

0.

The world view

At the presentation of a portrait of himself, late in life, for which a subscription had been raised among his former students, Salisbury had this to say: No work which I have ever done or attempted to do has given me so much real satisfaction as the attempt to be of help to young men and women whose lives will go farther into the future than mine. To be of service in helping them, even a little, to larger success and to greater influence and usefulness, and to feel that they in turn will help a younger generation in a similar way, and that the push in the right direction now will go on gathering momentum through the generations and the ages to come — and you know that geologists entertain no small idea of the length of time when generations are to go on — is one of the great inspirations of life. To me it has been the greatest. In these few words, with their emphasis on the future, much of Salisbury's world view was captured. The same forward-looking disposition had found expression less than a year earlier when he was called upon to speak about the work of the Department of Geography at the dedication of Rosenwald Hall. On historical geography he said, 'The light it may shed on the course of future events will be grasped at once by those familiar with historical problems'. On economic geography he reflected, 'since we live in the present and are to live in the future, knowledge of present resources and conditions, and of their bearing on the life and activities of the future, is vital to the welfare of mankind'. Salisbury's father-like interest in students, his concern for the future, and his great institutional loyalty were brought together in his bequest for fellowships, a provision in his will setting aside a substantial share of his estate as an endowment for student aid. He had at his disposal not only a bachelor's savings from his salary but also the income from successful textbook writing, much of which he had invested in town lots and mineral lands. Of the resulting accumulation, he designated $125,000 for the endowment, its yield to be

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given out annually as fellowships in geology and geography. The fellowships continue to be awarded today. Unquestionably, Salisbury thought the world needed the steadying hand of men of his sort. In his ideals for the 'higher geography' that he wanted to create for posterity, there are frequent indications of this conviction as when, in discussing the Department of Geography's approach to the conservation of natural resources, he said, 'Studies in this line are in progress which may in time contribute to a mode of dealing with this problem saner than that which was adopted precipitately ... in a public way when its importance was first realized'. Again, it was in a tempering spirit that he would contrapose himself to Davis at annual meetings of the Association of American Geographers. As one reminiscence has it, 'The two men were of very different temperament ... Salisbury big and massive, direct and laconic of speech ... Davis almost petite, prim, nimble in movement and discourse ... I think we learned from Salisbury a distrust of systems, I'd like to say an open horizon; at least that is what he tried for'. Salisbury was far more cosmopolitan than the reputation of Midwestern American academic geography might lead one to expect. He was a frequent host to scientists from other nations, in his capacity of dean of Chicago's science establishment. The effects of his studies in Europe — including those in languages — lasted for a lifetime. At the International Geological Congress held in Washington, D.C., when he was still a young man he was asked to interpret to the American audience the substance of the papers presented in French and German. He was reported to have done this with so much skill as to draw the comment that the resume was often more graphic and clearly expressed than the original. However, accuracy demands that one should also recognize, in Salisbury, the limitations of a naturalist's mind. His coolness or even indifference toward humanistic studies exposed him to parody in the pages of Chimes, a novel by Robert Herrick satirizing early twentieth century life at the University of Chicago. Although the identity of Salisbury is obscured in a character taken from two professorial originals, Herrick's assessment of him as a man removed from the grand humanistic tradition is patent enought. For his own part, Salisbury did say that he could think of no great intellectual waste than that of 'time CspentD on languages which no longer live'. And he was given to quoting, with disconcerting assurance, 'History is always interesting, but rarely instructive'. 3. INFLUENCE AND SPREAD OF IDEAS While Head of the Department of Geography at Chicago, Salisbury was uniquely situated for the exertion of influence on American professional geography. Of all of the persons working during that time in the interests of university-level geography — as understood by geologists — only he had the direction of a department of graduate studies set apart for that purpose. Not until two years after he had passed the captaincy of the department to Harlan Barrows was a comparable unit founded in the United States, the Graduate School of

Geography at Clark University under Wallace W. Atwood. Atwood, hardly less of a protege of Salisbury than Barrows, had gone from Chicago to the Geology Department at Harvard on Davis's retirement (1912) and from there to Clark. A tally taken in 1917 showed that Chicago graduates were on the faculty of more than half of the American institutions of higher education then offering work in geography, and that they were distributed nationwide among state and municipal normal schools. In the next year, the first of them — Nevin Fenneman — achieved the presidency of the Association of American Geographers; over the next quarter-century one-third of the presidents came from their ranks. All, having been at Chicago during the Salisbury years, were necessarily carriers of the Salisbury influence. The sense of mission felt by the alumni of the Salisbury department can perhaps be best appreciated in the light of these remarks by Thomas Chamberlin, made in 1917: [The founding of the Department of Geography! has been more than the mere establishing of an additional department. It has been the rejuvenation of an old science. The effort has been to develop a department with a new point of view, with a new assemblage of working data and with a new purpose. To begin to put this claim in perspective, it must be seen that the 'new geography' emanating from Chicago was in fact standard for the more aggressive university thinking of the time; it represented the American geologist's vision of a successor to conventional geography, with its identity-giving tie to travel and exploration. This was the vision that had brought Davis and Chamberlin together in 1892 and that, in 1905, had found articulation in Davis's announcement to the Association of American Geographers of a foundation principle of geographical knowledge: the 'relation between an element of inorganic control and one of organic response'. Common acceptance of the principle accounted for the near-equivalence of Salisbury's idea of an alliance between physical-base studies and life-significance studies and Davis's dualistic notion of physiography and ontography. While sharing with many others this.paradigm — the first of American professional geography — Salisbury made contributions which, taken together, were -peculiar to himself. Of greatest importance was his success in supervising the transition of the Chicago department from a trial venture into a going concern. By the time he stepped aside, the department had become a stable centre of research and graduate education, deserving recognition as the second of two major sources of professional legitimation for the 'new geography', the other being the Association of American Geographers. In an era when advanced degrees were still a relative rarity in the United States in any field of knowledge, his department had been responsible for the award of twenty-four master's degrees and eight doctorates. Scores of nondegree geography students at the graduate level had by then taken work in the department, not to mention those specializing in other fields. Of a piece with this basic contribution to professionalization was the favourable image given by Salisbury to

Rollin the name 'geography' through his standards of intellectual integrity and excellence. He set a brilliant example of academic responsibility, in which a deep interest in the progress of students was combined with sternness in the application of pedagogical judgment. These qualities, with his commitment to careful reasoning and clear writing and his reserved attitude toward the construction of systems, were hallmarks by which his colleagues at the University of Chicago and others learned to judge the 'higher geography' in general. The influence of Salisbury on later geographical thought, like that of most others of his generation, was severely constrained by the collapse of the first professional paradigm. However, in one of the two concurrent and competing streams of thought that took its place in the 1920s and 30s, much of his outlook was conserved, to be transmitted to the geography of the present day. Of the two streams — one locational/ chirographic and the other ecological/environmental — the first was the one upon which he and nearly all of his contemporaries failed to have any appreciable effect. By the time this tradition was resolved into the purely chorographic doctrine of Richard Hartshorne, in his The nature of geography (1939)> Salisbury had become, in its terms, an almost irrelevant predecessor. Twenty or so years later, when the tradition was rethought and reduced to locational analysis by the principal authors of geography's 'quantitative revolution', his contributions were again made to seem hardly to matter.

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geographers. In this and other Salisbury-related respects, the Sauer heritage has been a vital force in American professional geography to this day. Proponents of the economic reform had come into their own by the end of the 1920s, becoming dominant for a while not only at Chicago but also in such other leading departments of the post-Salisbury years as Clark, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nebraska. Theirs was a commerce-and-industry geography in which questions of monetary income, sales transactions, and productive efficiency were uppermost; the earth environment was interpreted as a market-related resource; and the geographers themselves favoured connections with business schools and economics departments. Their eyes were on the present and the relatively recent past. Barrows, while demonstrating his divergence from the old paradigm by reorienting his inquiries from a search for environmental influence to an examination of man's adjustment to environmental conditons, maintained to the end of his career that in his economic orientation he had extended, not refounded, the enterprise at Chicago. This conviction of continuity, historically supported by Salisbury's record of recruiting for Chicago from the economics departments of other universities, did not diminish as Barrows turned to problems of the public management of water resources in the 1930s. Considering that Barrows' thinking has been consciously carried onward in the work of his student Gilbert White on environmental hazards and resource management, and that this line of 'action research' has been consistently followed by White's students, in turn, one may say that through at least one offshoot of the economic reform the Salisbury influence has entered contemporary professional geography. As an exceptionally vigorous branch, it has affected geographical thought internationally.

In the ecological/environmental stream, even though Salisbury's thinking was newly assessed, his reputation survived in honour. This was the tradition that Salisbury and his peers had rescued from an obscurity — as geography — owed to the locational/ chorographic bias of nineteenth century schooling, and had adapted to their own special interests. For those adhering to the tradition in the generation after theirs, the problem at hand was how to redirect it for the sake of intellectual viability-. As efforts were made by them to improve on the old paradigm — the geologist's view of man-environment relations — two approaches to reform emerged, one cultural and the other economic in conception. The former came under ^ 1. REFERENCES ON ROLLIN D. SALISBURY the leadership of Carl Sauer at Berkeley, the latter 'Presentation of the portrait of Professor Rollin D. under several geographers, none more conspicuous than Salisbury, Rosenwald Hall, February 8, 1917' , Harlan Barrow at Chicago. University Record, N.S. , vol 3 (1917), 12U-138 For Sauer, the key discovery of his reform Chamberlin, T.C., 'Memorial editorial: Rollin D. movement was that 'environment is a term of cultural Salisbury', J. Geol., vol 30 (1922), U80-1 appraisal', which is itself a 'value' in culture Wrather, W.E., 'Obituary: Rollin D.Salisbury1, Bull. history. Looking back, near the end of his own life, Am. Assoc. Petrol. Geol., vol 6 (1922), 563-6 he lamented that in the education he had experienced Chamberlin, Rollin T., 'Memorial of Rollin D.Salisbury', under Salisbury 'cultural geography was an unknown Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., vol 1*2 (1931), 126-38 concept' and that nothing had been said about Densmore, H.D., 'Rollin D.Salisbury, M.A. LL.D., a Friedrich Ratzel, about his travels in the United States, biographical sketch', Wisconsin Mag. Hist., vol 15 or about his Kulturgeogravhie. None the less, Sauer (1931), 22-1*6, 119-UT credited Salisbury with setting him on a road of lifeVisher, S.S., 'Rollin D.Salisbury and Geography', long investigation marked by cultural assumptions. He Ann. Assoc. Am. Geogr. , vol 1*3 (1953), 1*-11 and his followers were led into a close association with Pattison, W.D., 'Rollin D.Salisbury and the founding cultural anthropology, a strong interest in nonof geography at the University of Chicago*, in industrial societies, and a curiosity extending far into Blouet, B.W., ed., The origins of academic the human past. Sauer's school, more than any other geography in the United States, Hamden, Conneticut, contingent in later American geography, remained faith"(1981)", 151-63 ful to Salisbury's belief in the indispensability of zoogeography and geographical botany to the training of

Bibliography and Sources

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2.

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Salisbury

PRINCIPAL WORKS OF ROLLIN D.SALISBURY

a. Writings based on original field work 1885 (with T.C. Chamberlin) 'On the driftless area of the upper Mississippi Valley', U.S. Geol. Surv. 6 Annu. Rep. , 199-322 1888 'Terminal moraines from North Germany', Am. J. Soi., vol 35, UOI 1891 (with T.C. Chamberlin) 'On the relationship of the Pleistocene to the pre-Pleistocene formations of glaciation', Am. J. Soi. , vol Ul, 359-77 I896 'Salient points concerning the glacial geology of north Greenland', J. Geol., vol h, 769-810 1898 "The physical geography of New Jersey', New Jersey Geol. Surv. Final Report, vol U, 1-170 1899 (with W.C. Alden) 'The geography of Chicago and its environs', Bull. Geogr. Soo. no 1, Chicago, 1900

1918

'Geology in education', Science, vol hi, 325-35

New Series,

3. ARCHIVAL SOURCES Papers of Rollin Salisbury, occupying five linear feet and stored in eleven boxes are in the University Archives, Department of Special Collections, Joseph Regenstein Library, University of Chicago. They consist of correspondence, lectures and notes, speeches, legal and financial papers, clippings, reviews and memorabilia, notebooks and photographs. William D. Pattison is professor University of Chicago

of geography at

the

6UP.

(with W.W. Atwood) "The geography of the region about Devil's Lake and the Dalles of Wisconsin', Wisconsin Geol. Nat. Hist. Stat. Bull, no 5, State of Wisconsin, Madison, 151p. 1902 (with others) "The glacial geology of New Jersey', New Jersey Geol. Surv. , Final Report, vol 5, 802p. 1903 (with E. Blackwelder) 'Glaciation in the Bighorn Mountains, Wyoming', J. Geol., vol 11, 216-33 1917 (with C.N. Knapp) 'The Quaternary formations of southern New Jersey', New Jersey Department of Conservation Final Report Series, State Geologist, vol 8, 2l8p.

b. Textbooks and laboratory guides 190U-06 (with T.C. Chamberlin) Geology, New York, 3 vols: vol 1, Geologic processes and their results, 65^p.; vol 2, Earth history: genesis-Paleozoic, 692p.; vol 3, Earth history: Mesozoic3 Cenozoic, 62hv. 1907 Physiography, New York, 770p. 1908 Physiography: briefer course, New York, 531P. 1908 (with W.W. Atwood) 'The interpretation of topographic maps', U.S. Geol. Surv. Prof. Pap. no 60, G.P.O., Washington, 8Up. 1909 Physiography, 2 ed. rev., New York, 770p. 1910 Elementary physiography, New York, 359p. 1912 (with H.H. Barrows and W.S. Tower), Elements of geography, New York, 6l6p. 1913 (with H.H. Barrows and W.S. Tower), Modern geography, New York, lil8p. 1913 Studies in geology: a laboratory manual based on topographic maps and folios of the U.S. Geological Survey, New York, 68p. 1913 Laboratory exercises in structural and historical geology: a laboratory manual based on folios of the U.S. Geological Survey, New York, 76p. 1913 The interpretation of topographic maps: a laboratory manual ... to accompany beginning courses in physiography, New York, 6hx>. 19ll+ (with T.C. Chamberlin) Introductory geology, New York, 708p. third ed. rev., New York, 6l6v 1919 Physiography, c. Addresses 1915 'Some, matters of history', address at dedication of Rosenwald Hall, University of Chicago Magazine, vol 7, 175-8

Chronology I858

Born near Spring Prairie, Wisconsin, August IT

197*+

Entered Whitewater Normal School, Wisconsin

1877

Having graduated at the Normal School, taught in a primary school at Whitewater, Wisconsin

I878

Entered the Beloit College and came under the influence of Thomas C. Chamberlin

1881

Graduated from Beloit College and entered the service of the U.S. Geological Survey as assistant to Chamberlin

1882

Appointed to the teaching staff of Beloit College, for geology, zoology and botany

1883

Produced his first publication, on 'Chemical analyses'

1885

With Chamberlin, wrote the paper on the driftless areas of the Mississippi valley

1887

Had a year's leave from Beloit, which he spent in Heidelberg mainly in the study of minerology and petrology under Professor Rosenbusch. He also studied the Pleistocene formations in northern Germany, on which he presented a paper in 1888

1891

Left Beloit College and the Geology Department of the University of Wisconsin and assumed the direction of Pleistocene studies for the New Jersey Geological Survey

1892

Became professor of geographic geology at the University of Chicago and supported Chamberlin in developing the Department of

Rollin

Geology there. From this time he extended his fieldwork from Wisconsin to the Chicago area 1893

Became managing editor, and also editor for geographic geology, of the newly

established Journal of Geology

1895

During the summer, was a geologist on the Peary Relief Expedition to Northern Greenland

1898

Became first president of the Geographic Society of Chicago

1899

Appointed Dean of the Ogden Graduate School of Science, University of Chicago: began the summer expeditions to the Rocky Mountains, where he directed studies of glaciation by advanced graduate students

1903

Became the first head of the Department of Geography, University of Chicago, where his courses were greatly appreciated

190U

Became a Charter Member of the Association of American Geographers. In the University of Chicago, his only colleague was J.P. Goode.

1906

Began to engage visiting lecturers, of whom the first was Ellen Churchill Semple (to 1925)

1907

The first doctorate in geography was granted to F.V. Emerson

1908

First president of the Association of American Geographers: tried unsuccessfully to attract Isaiah Bowman to Chicago

1910

W.S. Tower joined the Faculty at Chicago: Carl Sauer was a student in the department

1912

Became President of the Association of American Geographers

1913

As director and general sponsor of geography at Chicago, he decided that he had become somewhat remote from its people, so he inaugurated the allDepartment seminar

1911+

W.D. Jones joined the Faculty

1917

Served as chairman and vice-president of Section E — Geology and Geography — of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. C.C. Colby joined the Faculty

1918

Assumed the editorship of the Journal

Geology

of

D. Salisbury

US

1919

Made his last appointment to the Faculty, of R.S. Piatt, and resigned as head of the Department of Geography to become head of the Department of Geology

1921

Partly through his was established as for graduate study under W.W. Atwood: recognition of the Chicago

1922

Compelled by a coronary attack on May 31 to abandon teaching and all other university duties and died on August 15 at Chicago

influence, geography an independent subject at Clark University this was the first such subject after that at

Otto Schluter 1872-1959

MANFRED SCHICK In his The makers of modern geography Robert E. Dickinson includes Otto Schluter as one of the major representatives of the 'first generation after Bitter'. With the establishment of the methodology of settlement geography Schluter made a contribution which has proved its usefulness in concrete regional application above all — but not only — in Central Europe, and continues to challenge ongoing work. Through his numerous additional activities Schluter also contributed to geography's winning of respect beyond its own disciplinary boundaries. 1. EDUCATION, LIFE AND WORK Otto Schluter was born on 12 November 1872, in Witten on the Ruhr. His father, Reinhard Schluter, was a lawyer and notary from Cleve on the lower Rhine, and his mother Berta (nee Keller) came from a family of civil servants and lawyers in Westfalen. The young family moved in 1878 to Essen, where Otto received his first lessons from a private tutor and later attended the Humanistic Gymnasium from the autumn of l88l to his graduation in the spring of 1891. Schluter would later often recount to his students how clear and vivid the classes of his geography teacher had been, especially in clarifying the views of Carl Ritter and the works of Oscar Peschel. The scope of this interesting material ranged from the coastlines of the fjords and delta formation to anthropology and the history of the age of discovery. Schluter began his studies at the university in Freiburg in the fields of German and history. His deep appreciation of the German language

is reflected in the clarity of style which characterizes his later works. In his fourth semester at the university Schluter transferred to Halle, where under the influence of Alfred Kirchhoff's highly inspirational lectures he devoted himself entirely to geography. Kirchhoff's influence on Schluter was only slightly exceeded by that of the philosopher Benno Erdmann, who made a lasting impression on the young student. This took the form of a permanent interest in philosophy, especially that of Immanuel Kant. Evidence of this interest can be traced in his works on methodology. Schluter received his Ph.D. in Halle at the beginning of 1896 with a dissertation entitled 'The Study of the Settlement of the Unstrut Valley from the Gate of Sachsenburg to its Mouth'. After passing his oral examination in November 1895, he moved to Berlin to further his specialized training under Ferdinand von Richthofen. He continued his education in constant association with von Richthofen, carried further his regional studies of north-east Thiiringen, and developed a new approach within anthropogeography, culminating in a genetic morphology of the cultural landscape which will be discussed below. His energetic support of cultural geography led to the establishment of a balanced relationship in regional geography between its physical and cultural components. This period in Berlin lasted until 1910, and can be designated as the first creative period in Schluter's career. During these years he conducted, besides the necessary excursions through north-east Thiiringen, numerous student trips in Central Europe and the Alps, including trips to Brittany and Auvergne in 1900 and to

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SchlUter

Bosnia and Dalmatia in 1903. From 1898 to 1900 he was an assistant in the Geographical Society in Berlin, and was involved in the preparations for the Vllth International Geographical Congress in 1899. Schluter became a recognised teacher (Eabilitation) at the university in Berlin in 1906, and shortly afterwards a part time assistant professor (Dozent) in the newly founded Academy of Commerce (trade institute). In 1910 he moved to Bonn in order to work on the preparation of an historical atlas of the Rhineland. This work, however, was interrupted early in 1911 hy the offer of a professorial chair in Halle as successor to Alfred Philippson. Schluter married Margaret Heyer in December 1907 and they were ultimately to have three sons. The second creative period in Schluter's life covers the years 1911-51, in which he served (with interruptions) as the director of the geographical seminar — later geographical institute — of the university in Halle. Although he became an emeritus in 1938, he nevertheless continued temporary teaching activities; for example after his successor Adolf Welte was drafted for military service on the Eastern Front (where he was killed later), also after Karl Dietzel's brief period of substitution, and again after the expiration of Oskar Schmieder's professorship, from 19*+^ to the beginning of 19^5. After the war Schluter stated to the Minister of Culture of Sachsen-Anhalt that he was willing once again to take on teaching responsibilities, but only if geography could be the student's major discipline. In this way he made sure, in the winter of 19^5-6, that at least one university in Soviet-occupied Germany could once again offer a full range of courses in geography. By 1951, when Ernst Neef provisionally took over the direction of the institute, Schluter had carried the full responsibility for geographical instruction in Halle for over forty years. He laid particular stress on the skills of field observation. This precise establishment of the facts could then be followed by the attempt at explaining what brought them about. He demonstrated again and again that it is possible to draw conclusions about origins on the basis of form in the same way in both the natural sciences and in the humanities. Of the 59 dissertations which he supervised, the majority — as could be expected — had cultural-geographical themes. Yet as proof of Schluter's understanding for the methodology of other branches of geography as well, the following dissertations, completed under him, may be named: G. Wiebeck, 'Towards a methodology of map comparison' (1938); H. Bodler, "The coast of the English Cuesta landscape' (1937); H. Erichson, 'The significance of mangrove vegetation for the formation of alluvial lands' (1921); P. Hirth, 'Irrigation methods over the entire earth' (1921); P. Raoul, 'Precipitation conditions in Togo' (1933); J. Mielke, 'Temperature variation from 1870 to 1910' (1913); H. Bohnstedt, "The thermal continentality of the North European climate' (1931); M. Schick, 'The geographical distribution of the monsoon' (1935). The loss of so many of his students in both world wars was particularly painful for Schluter. Walter Geisler, who received his Ph.D. in 1918 with a study of the settlement geography of Danzig, may be named as an example of this group: he was killed at the age of 53

during the defence of Berlin. Family tragedy came too, for in I9I+I Schluter lost his two youngest sons, of whom Fritz had just completed his dissertation on 'The Basic Outlines of the Development of the Old City in Halle' in 19^0. This second period brought a refinement of Schluter's research methodology, in which among other things he interpreted the place of economic geography within his system (1913, 1919), outlined the significance of transportation geography (1930), and demonstrated his analytical approach to the cultural landscape through a detailed study of bridges throughout the world (1928). He produced maps and textual interpretations of the state of the Central European landscape during past epochs, especially of the time around 500 AD. Later he published numerous regional studies of the Rhineland and Central Germany as well as his classification of the coastlines of the earth. Along with Schluter's research and teaching during his second creative period, his activity as the chairman of the Sachsen-Thiiringen Geographical Organization from 1915 to its prohibition after the war in 19^5 should be mentioned. The publications of this organization (and also its individual monographs), which he edited, contained the best of the dissertations completed under his supervision. These publications also include a complete bibliography of the geographical literature and that of cognate disciplines on Central Germany. Schluter made numerous contributions to the extensive book reviews which were also a part of these publications, and he ultimately wrote over 30,000 lines of reviews, which appeared both here and in other journals. In 1935 he began to publish the atlas of Central Germany, which came out in several sections and for which he had to coordinate the work of numerous colleagues. It is difficult for one not familiar with the details of this project to appreciate the magnitude of his achievement in procuring the continuation of work on this atlas after 19^5, in regard to both its financing as well as the actual scholarly work. His detailed discussion of the cartographical aspects of regional planning in the Central German industrial region (1932), which is of interest even today, is a demonstration of how much he valued the connection with practical affairs. His suggestion, submitted in an extensive letter of \ January 1919, to the Central German Commission for Regional Geography, that an institution should be founded for the regional geography of Germany, also pointed to the future, although this was not realized until 2 February 19^1. This Department of Regional Geography (the official name was changed several times) proved subsequently to be useful for research in the universities. In the Central Commission itself Schluter was for many years a dominant figure. In addition, in Halle, he carried out the suggestion of a student that a Master's Degree (Diplom) for geography as well should be created. To be sure, the first two Master's theses (H. Arnold, 'The delimitation of the urban landscape', and H.-G. Steinberg, 'Merseburg: a study in urban geography') were still concerned entirely with the present because a technique for making prognoses had not yet been developed. Nevertheless, in regional planning a beginning had been made. After the president of the respected German Leopoldina Academy of Naturalists in Halle — the physiol-

Otto SchlUter ogist Emil Abderhalden — was transferred to the western part of Germany in the summer of 19^5, Schluter provisionally took over the direction of this organization and resolutely defended its existence at this difficult time. He was honoured for this service by the presidency. This began the last period in Schluter's life, from 1951 when he became an emeritus professor, to his death. His creative power now unrestricted, he was able to finish his research on the ancient landscape of Central Europe (the condition of the landscape around 500 AD). The three volumes of text which accompanied the map he completed in 19^0 appeared in 1952, 1953 and 1958. Schluter was active in the continuing discussions about the progress of the professorial dissertation (Habilitation) of his last student (M. Schick, 'The concept and nature of climatic boundaries') up to its completion in May, 1959. The establishment of boundaries over the surface of the earth and their corresponding cartographic delimitation fascinated him into the last year of his life, for it was his good fortune to retain his intellectual powers to his final days. He received several honours in his last years, including an honorary doctorate from Leipzig University in 1952, the presidency of the Leopoldina Academy in 1952 followed by honorary membership two years later, the Carl Ritter medal of the Berlin Geographical Society in 1953 and the Franz von Hauer medal of the Vienna Geographical Society in 1956. In 1956 he also became an honorary senator of the Halle-Wittenberg university. 2. SCIENTIFIC IDEAS AND GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT To understand Schluter's significance it is necessary to recall the concept of the task of geography around the turn of the century. Since F. von Richthofen's inaugural address in Leipzig in 1883 geography had dealt with the 'earth's surface and those things which have a causal relationship with it'. According to this Darwinistic environmentalist theory, on which practically all of the geographical schools — such as those of W.M. Davis, H.R. Mill and P. Vidal de la Blache — were based, physical geography had as the subject of its study a concrete object, while anthropogeography, on the other hand, dealt only with the tracing of the physical-geographical influence on man and his work. Thus it was logical that in his dissertation in 1895 on the study of settlement in the Unstrut valley Schluter treated only the history and the conditions (including the physical site) of the settlement process, and not the settlement itself. This point seemed to him a cardinal shortcoming, which he overcame by ascribing to settlement geography its own material object. In his pioneering work 'Comments on Settlement Geography' (l899) he showed that every locality, unlike an individual plant or animal which can be removed from the landscape without altering it, should be seen as a component part of the landscape. Therefore 'Anthropogeography, like physical geography, must proceed on the basis of concrete phenomena and strive to understand them on the basis of all of their aspects' (p. 67). Although Friedrich Ratzel had implied similar ideas in Vol II of his Anthropogeography. he failed to supply the systematic structure of this branch of the discipline. This structure was then

117

completed by Schluter. He realised his ideas for the first time in the work 'The Settlement of North-East Thuringen' (1903), and includes there the following important statement: The geography of human settlement studies man's various places of residence first of all entirely naively as material objects, and has the task of studying them in terms of their site, size, form, mutual interrelations, and their relationship to the remaining parts of the earth's surface. As soon as the first step from the simple establishing of facts and description of the phenomena to a causal, genetic understanding is taken, however, the circle of concepts within which settlement geography operates is immediately considerably enlarged. This is because behind the settlement represents the totality of human life, the social as well as the individual, the physical as well as the mental, the intellectual as well as the sphere of feelings and wilful intentions, and it is by no means immediately clear what cause must above all be considered decisive for the explanation of the settlements, and to what extent relations in human society therefore deserve to be included in settlement geography. Only on the basis of many-sided and extensive research can it be determined which elements should be considered here and which disregarded, and it would be entirely incorrect to attempt to establish any sort of restrictions ... out of the fear that the scope of research might extend beyond the field of geography, (pp. VII-VIIl) Schluter considered it absolutely necessary that nongeographical fields should be explored. The fact that he was not servilely bound to the fixation on visible objects which is often attributed to him is demonstrated by the example of his interest in questions of thermal continentality, which is obviously not visible (l93l). Further examples of this are provided by his statement in the first sentence of his 'Comments on settlement geography' to the effect that geography deals with the spatial organization of phenomena, while the phenomena themselves are studied in much greater detail by botanists, zoologists, mineralogists, and others, and also by the classical formulation in 'The relationship of geography to the natural sciences and humanities' (1913-11+ or 1920, p. 151): That which we call ... the object is contained not only in the concrete phenomena, out of which this object needs imply to be 'read', but is also created simultaneously by our minds through objectifying. Hartshorne's comment, in 1939, that Schluter did not give consideration to the site is incorrect, for he regarded the site as 'one of the geographical elements of the settlement' {Geogr. Z. vol 5 (1899), 65-8U). The fact that Schluter gave anthropogeography a material object of research reveals his refusal to study only the influence of nature on man. He does not question the value of such studies, for 'in this way valuable knowledge is brought to light', but they allow

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Schluter

for the disintegration of that living reality, 'the study of which contains geography's unique quality' (l899, p. 67). Whether the influence is stronger from man or from nature must be determined in each individual case. Schluter convincingly expressed his rejection of one-sided determinism in 'The major standpoints in anthropogeography' (1906); here he argued against those who considered the favourable climate and morphology to be responsible for the emergence of the advanced Hellenic culture, and maintained that in Greece 'Hellenic culture developed only once and was for the next 2000 years not followed by anything at all resembling it' (p. 588). On the other hand, he later opposed any form of counter-determinism which overestimated the influence of human society, in that he established the differences in the arrangement of the settlement net in limestone and red sandstone areas which nevertheless shared a common type of social structure. In his important methodological publication The goal of human geography, which also appeared in 1906, Schluter re-emphasized his rejection of anthropogeography as a science studying only dependent relationships: '... we desire the following: the restriction of the object of study, but full freedom and lack of bias in our consideration of it' (p. 12). He adopted the term Kultur-geographie, coined by E. Kapp, for the three fields of settlement, transportation, and economic geography (p. 28, 31), and created the morphology of the cultural landscape. Schluter proceeded analogously to geomorphology which, not content exclusively with the study processes, also dealt with the effects of these processes on the landscape: he described the component parts of the landscape created by human activities, and explained their origin (in part using historical sources). Fixed objects (such as roads and patterns of roads) must be explained in relation to their effect in shaping the landscape for each individual period and culture; the moveable objects (e.g. transportation of goods) are to be traced back to man's spread, activity, and movement, with which the functional aspect acquires importance. It should be possible to explain traces of earlier times in the present landscape through their genetic development, for example the precise extent of the three-field system and the settlement type associated with it. R.E. Dickinson (1969) has given the best and most to-the-point discussion of these ideas of Schluter: The views of Schluter are logical and give a definitive field of operation, with a distinct field of problems, and a constantly changing situation through the continous changes of the structure of human societies and the changing nature of their demands on their habitat. In the work mentioned above 'The major standpoints in anthropogeography' Schluter called for the first time for precise evidence of the quantitative' relationship between cause and effect (p. 615). In his paper presented at the Geographical Conference in Nurnberg in 1907 ('On the man-nature relationship in anthropogeography') he proves the possibility of this type of evidence and connects it with philosophical considerations of the relationship between natural science and history. Here he comes, through the relationship

between laws and facts, to the following conclusion, which is valid for any empirical investigation: The view that natural science is interested only in laws is, although widely shared, entirely incorrect. If natural science possessed only general laws, which moreover could all be traced back to a single principle, then it would possess nothing at all. Laws by themselves are empty. They possess only a necessary relationship, and not reality, for the general form of a law could be stated in the following way: every time a particular thing occurs, then something else must necessarily follow. Thus the law deals only with the contingency if a particular thing occurs, and says nothing at all about the fact that something occurs in the first place. The law acquires substance only by being connected to facts. The conclusion he draws from this for theoretical anthropogeography, taking into consideration the parallel between the mental and the physical, led to the result that in the examination of the man-land relationship the reaction of man may take two possible directions (he explains this using the example of migration into a marshland). This is not the only occasion where it is apparent that for Schluter geography deals with man not as an individual, but rather as a larger community (1911, p. ^09). This is also expressed in his typology of settlements, in which he developed further the concepts of A. Meitzen (1903-18) in a decisive way. The great significance accorded by Schluter to the role of man is equally demonstrated by his inclusion of man's works into his concept of landscape (1913-lM. The natural landscape (Naturlandschaft), on the other hand, he defined as that condition of the landscape which would result if all human activity were to cease. That condition of the landscape existing prior to the intervention of human agents, which Schluter felt could not be reconstructed, he named the primaeval landscape (Vrlandschaft). This picture was changed through the clearing of forests and the drying of swamps into the varied pattern of forest and open land of the socalled ancient landscape (Atlandschaft) (1938). Of the numerous ancient landscapes which Schluter could have studied he chose the time c. 500 AD, in effect the century following the retreat of the Romans and before the beginning of the large-scale forest clearing of the Middle Ages. He studied the area of Central Europe from the Swiss Jura to the Memel and from Jutland to the Hungarian lowland. Schluter's care in this undertaking is demonstrated by his description of his sources, which included old maps, historical reports and sources, place-names, traces from the preand early history of old settlements as well as the consideration of the natural conditon of the soil, the climate, the physiography, arid the topographical and geographical locations! relationships. The continuity of the settled area which he assumed did not preclude the shift of a settlement within the area. The results of this forty-year research project are presented in a unique map of the area of settlement in early historical times, the extent of the forest around 900 AD, forest

Otto SchWter clearance before and after 900 AD, the extent of forest-heathland and marshland around 900, and former swampland as well as sea marshes. This map, on a scale of 1:1,500,000, is a masterly achievement not only in a scientific, but also in an aesthetic sense. Together with the accompanying texts which explain the map, it represents a milestone in the development of a complex historical geography and offers a sturdy foundation for subsequent historical-geographical regional studies. 3. INFLUENCE AND SPREAD OF IDEAS Schluter exerted considerable influence on the geographical thought of his time. The development of settlement geography in Japan above all owed much to Schluter, as explained to the author by Osamu Nishikawa. The morphological concept of the cultural landscape was introduced into France by Jean Brunhes {La Geographie humaine, 1910), who later in his 'regions historiques'

(Geographie humaine de la France I, 1920, p. U83ff.)

established the human influence on the formation of areas. In Germany Schluter's concept was followed by nearly all geographers. Among the few exceptions to this were Alfred Hettner, who fluctuated too much in his views, and in his early work Siegfried Passarge,

who still in 1927 (in The earth and its

economic

life)

did not include a discussion of man. The most outstanding scholars who built further on Schluter's idea of the morphology of the cultural landscape include Norbert Krebs (1923), Otto Maull (1925), Wilhelm Credner (1926), Albrecht Penck (1928), and Hugo Hassinger (1933). In their works dealing with this topic from a physiognomical standpoint the functional consideration also received ample attention. Hermann Lautensach gave touching recognition in 1952 to the fact that in 1921 he acquired a new methodological approach to geography through his contact with Schluter's ideas and writings dealing with genetic cultural morphology and the concept of landscape. In 1933 Hettner's former student Leo Waibel, for whom the Americas were to become a new homeland, praised Schluter's 'physiognomic approach for geography as a great advance' and stated that the agricultural formation which he defined (1927) was based on earlier work of Schluter. Even Theodor Kraus developed his mental (geistige) landscape (i.e. small social-psychological spatial units) using the example of the external appearance of the cities Wurzberg and Cologne, which were destroyed during the Second World War (1951). Schliiter's idea of exploring the effects of religion on the landscape was taken up

in studies by L. Mecking (Culture and landscape in Japan, 1929), H. Lautensach (Religion and landscape in Korea, 19^2), P. Fickeler ("The imprint of religion on the landscape throughout the world', 19^+7), W. Tuckermann ('The imprint of Protestantism on a part of the Black Forest', 19^9), H. Hahn ('Denominational influence in Hunsriick', 1950), H. Bleibrunner ('Religious influence in Lower Bavaria', 1951), and above all P. Deffontaines

in his book Geographie et religions

(3 ed., 19^8).

In Estonia Schliiter's example was fully followed by E. Markus when he maintained that every form taken by a particular part of the earth corresponds to a very definite constellation of forces, in which 'man, in a causal framework, exercises a teleological activity' (1936, p. 90). In the United States the attempt was

119

made by Carl Sauer after the First World War, in view of the trends in Germany, to encourage research on the landscape and its unity (especially in 1925 with 'The morphology of landscape'). In Michigan his students, calling themselves chorographers, believed that they were following the path laid out by Siegfried Passarge, but in reality they still depended on Schluter's ideas. The influence of his approach is demonstrated well in Jan Broek's study of the temporal sequence of the human occupation of the Santa Clara Valley. In Chicago, however, Wellington Jones raised doubts about making judgements about the landscape in relation to its 'lookishness'. This criticism died down after the elements of the landscape began to be interpreted more according to their function. The fact that morphogensis also corresponded to Schliiter's intentions, had up to that point been disregarded. Some of the authors named up to this point had already made mention of the genetic approach, and it was precisely genetic cultural morphology, especially research into the formation of villages and agricultural fields, which later scholars, basing themselves on Schluter, carried fundamentally further, from R. Gradmann and R. Martiny, through H. Mortensen, H. Dorries, W. Briinger, K. Scharlau, G. Niemeier, A. Krenzlin, W. Muller-Wille, and H. Jager, down to M. Born. The concern mentioned above with the spatial relevance of social-psychological phenomena was expressed in Britain in the works of R.E. Dickinson (1939) and E.W. Gilbert (l9*+8), and in Germany by, among others, H. Aubin (1952), W. Hartke (1952), and P. Scholler (1953). In the light of the fact that the necessary investigation of the influence of differing social structures on the landscape goes back to Schliiter's ideas, it is superfluous for us to consider whether such investigation of the different effects of human groups should be carried out within different branches of the discipline, e.g. settlement, economics, or transportation (E. Otremba, 1961), or indeed whether it was necessary to develop a separate field of social geography (H. Bobek, 1962). As other examples of the far-reaching influence of Schliiter's ideas the following may be mentioned: H. Valentin's studies of the English coast, which remain fragmentary because of his early death, were based on Schliiter's classification of seacoasts. (The author of this biographical essay had the opportunity of telling H. Valentin that Schluter had expressed high recognition for his first major work on seacoasts (1952)). Also worthy of note are H. Louis' classification of deepand shallow-water coasts, as well as the attempts at classification and interpretation of C.A. Cotton (Scientific Monthly, 195'+), and B.Z. Milojevic (Paris, 1965). M. Schick (1966-8) was able, by adopting Schliiter's complex method for the evaluation of old maps, to make considerable progress in his research on the mountain Melibokus by using Ptolemy's Geographikae Hyphaegaesis (instructions in geography). In his map of the ancient areas of settlement in Central Europe Schluter was able to distinguish the different epochs of forest clearance by delicate screen shading in green. Developing this method yet one step further, R. Kaubler in Halle was able cartographically to depict clearances in those areas which had once again become forested (l96l). Evidence exists in the ridged fields (Wolbacker)

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SchliXter

which can still be identified in the woodlands of Northwest, South, and Central Germany. These fields are much harder to recognize than those of a similar nature which are so numerous in certain areas of England as 'ridge and furrow'. In conclusion it may be said that Schluter's method for studying anthropogenic influence on the landscape precisely in the case of a quickly changing society is eminently important and lasting. The tracking down of the harmonious spatial interaction of a great number of individual phenomena in space, and the treatment of these problems according to Schluter's methodological model was especially successful in the work of J.G. Grano (1928), H. Hassinger (1936-7), F. Huttenlocher (1953-1+), and E. Neef (1950 ff.). In this way Ernst Neef was Schluter's direct successor not only in official position, but in the development of ideas as well.

Bibliography and Sources 1. OBITUARIES AND REFERENCES ON OTTO SCHLUTER Dickinson, R.E., 'Otto Schluter', in The makers of modern geography, London, 1969, 126-36 Lautensach, H., 'Otto Schluters Bedeutung fur die methodische Entwicklung der Geographie' ('Otto Schluter's significance in the methodological

development of geography'), Petermanns Geogr.

Mitt.,

vol 96 (1952), 219-31 Kaubler, R., 'Otto Schluters Bedeutung fur die geographische Wissenschaft' ('Otto Schluter's significance for geography'), Die Erde, vol 95 (1961+), 5-15 Kaubler, R., 'In memoriam Otto Schluter', Petermanns Geogr. Mitt., vol 103 (1959), 21+1-3 August, 0., 'Otto Schluter', Kartog. Naoh. , vol 10 (i960), 65-71+

1912

'Deutsches Siedelungswesen' ('German systems of settlement'), in Hoops, J. (ed), Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde, no 1, 1+02-39, 1+82, 5^3 f, no 2, 1+53 f, no 3, I+87 f, no 1+, 5, 21+0-5, 29I+, 50l+

b. Other aspects of human geography 1905 Plan zur GrUndung einer Anthropogeographischen Zeitschrift unter dem Titel 'Archiv fUr die Geographie des Menschen ' ('A plan for the founding of a journal of human geography . . . '), Berlin, 27 p. 1906 'Die leitenden Gesichtspunkte der Anthropogeographie, insbesondere der Lehre Friedrich Ratzel ("The major foundations of anthropogeography, especially the theories of Ratzel'), Arch. Sozialwiss. Sozialpol. , vol 22, 581-630 Die Ziele der Geographie des Menschen (The aims of human geography), Munchen and Berlin, 63 P. 1908 Ferdinand von Richthofen 's Vorlesungen uber Allgemeine Siedlungsund Verkehrsgeographie3 bearb. u. hrg. v. Otto SchliXter (Richthofen's lectures on general settlement and transportation geographys revised and edited by Otto Schluter), Berlin, 352 p. 1919 'Die Stellung der Geographie des Menschen in der Erdkundlichen Wissenschaft' ('The place of human geography in geographical sciences'), Geogr. Abende im Zentralinstitut fur Erziehung und Unterricht, no 5- Berlin, 3*+ p. 1921+ 'Staat, Wirtschaft, Volk, Religion in ihrem Verhaltnis zur Erdoberflache' ('The state, economy, people and religion in their relation to the earth's surface'), Z. Geopolitik, vol 1, 378-85, 1+32-1+3 1928 'Die analytische Geographie der Kulturlandschaft, erlautert am Beispiel der Briicken' ('The analytical geography of the cultural landscape, using the example of the bridges'), Z. Gesell. Erdkd. Berlin, Sonderband zur Hundertjahrfeler der Gesell., 388-1+11

c. Historical geography 1898 'Die Entdecklungen der Portugiesen im 15. Jahrhundert und die Auffindung des Seeweges nach Ostindien durch Vasco da Gama' ("The discoveries of the Portuguese in the fifteenth century and Vasco da Gama's discovery of the sea route to East India'), Himmel und Erde, vol 10, 512-21 2. SELECTIVE AND THEMATIC BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS BY OTTO SCHLUTER 1921 Wald, Sumpf und Siedelungsland in Alterpreussen vor der Ordenszeit (Forest, swamp and settled land in Old Prussia before the period of the Germanic a. Science of settlement Order) , Halle, 96 v. 1896 'Siedelungskunde des Thales der Unstrut von der Sachsenburger Pforte bis zur Mundung' ('The study 1926 'Die Urlandschaft' ('The primaeval landscape'), of the settlement of the Unstrut valley from the in Volz, W. (ed), Der Ostdeutsche Volksboden, Gate of Sachsenburg to its mouth'), D.Phil, diss., 52-66 Halle, 61+p. 1938 'Die friihgeschichtliche Verbreitung von Wald- und 1899 'Bemerkungen zur Siedelungsgeographie' ('Comments Siedlungsland in Bohmen und Mahren1 ("The early on settlement geography'), Geogr. Z. , vol 5, historical spread of forests and settlement in 65-81+ Bohemia and Moravia'), Sudeta, Z. Voru. Fruhqesch. , vol ll+, 89-116 'Uber den Grundriss der Stade' ('On the groundplan of t o w n s ' ) , Z. Gesell. Erdkd. Berlin, v o l 3I+, 1952-8 'Die Siedlungsraume Mitteleuropas in fruhgeschicht1+1+6-62 licher Zeit. Erlauterungen zu einer Karte, Maasstab 1:1,500,000. 1. Teil: Einfuhrung in die Methodik 1903 Die Siedelungen im nord'dstlichen ThUringen. Ein der Altlandschaftsforschung' ('The settled areas of Beispiel fur die Behandlung Siedelungsgeographischer Central Europe in early historical times. ExplanFragen (The settlement of northeast Thuringia. An ation of a map, scale 1:1,500,000. Part 1 : Introexample of the treatment of questions of settlement duction to the methodology of research on the ancient geography) , Berlin, 1+53 p. landscape'), Forsch. Dtsch. Landkd., Hamburg,

Otto Schliiter Frankfurt am Main, Munchen, Remagen, no 63, ^7 p. 2. Teil: 'Erklarung und Begrundung der Darstellung. I. Das siidliche und nordwestliche Mitteleuropa* (Part 2: 'Explanation of the work. I. Southern and northwestern Central Europe 1 ), Forsch. Dtsch. Landkd. , Remagen, no 7^, 2lt0 p. II. 'Das mittlere und nordostliche Mitteleuropa' ('Middle and northeastern Central Europe'), Forsch. Dtsch. Landkd., Remagen, no 111, 2h p. d. Physical geography 1901 'Die erloschenen Vulkane und die Karstlandschaften im Innern Frankreichs' ('Extinct volcanoes and the karst landscape in central France'), Himmel und Erde, vol lU, 26-36, 122-33. 178-87 192lt 'Ein Beitrag zur Klassifikation der Kustentypen' ('A contribution to the classification of coastal types'), Z. Gesell. Erdkd. Berlin, 288-317 e. Regional geography 1905 'Das osterreichisch-ungarische Okkupationsgebeit und sein Kustenland. Eine geographische Skizze' ('The Austro-Hungarian occupation zone and its coastland. A geographical sketch'), Geogr. Z. , vol 11, 18-38, 99- ll1*, 193-217 1926 'Aufbau, Gliederung und Lage des Rheingebietes' ('The structure, regions and situation of the Rhineland region'), in Der Deutsche und das Rheingebeit, Halle 51-70 1927 'Mitteldeutschland als geographischer Raum' ('Central Germany as a geographical region'), in Mitteldeutschland auf dem Wege zur Einheit. Denkschrift uber die Wirkung der innerstaatlichen Schrankeni Merseburg, no 2, 17-33 1928 'Die natiirlichen Grundlagen der Besiedelung Deutschlands' ('The natural bases for the settlement of Germany'), in Deutschland, die natiirlichen Grundlagen seiner Kultur ed. Leop. Dtsch. Akad. Naturforscher zu Halle, 17-33 1929 'Beitrage zur Landeskunde Mitteldeutschlands' ('On the regional geography of Central Germany'), Festsahr. Dtsch. Geogr. Magdeburg, ed. 0. Schliiter and E. Blume, Berlin, 326p. 1935 'Die sachsisch-thiiringischen Lande: Mitteldeutschlands' ('The regions of Saxony-Thuringia: Central Germany'), in Gauss, P. (ed), Das Buch vom deutschen Volkstum, 232-^1

121

505-17 'Die Erde als Wohnraum des Menschen' ("The earth as the home of man'), in Rothe, K.C. and Weyrich, E., Der moderne Erdkundeunterrichts Leipzig, Wien, 379-1+29 1913 'Die Erdkunde in ihrem Verthaltnis zu den Naturund Geisteswissenschaften' ('The relationship of geography to the natural sciences and the humanities'), in Die Geisteswissenschaften, Leipzig, vol 1, 283-9, 310-15 and also Geogr. Anz.. vol 21 (1920), 11*5-52, 213-18

1911

h. Miscellaneous 1915-^0 Editor of Mitt. Sachs.-Thur. Ver. Erdkd. Halle an der Saale 1918 'Paul Vidal de la Blache', Petermanns Geogr. Mitt., vol 6h, 178 1935-^5 Editor of Mitteldeutscher Heimatlas (Regional atlas of Central Germany), 2 edition, with 0. August, 56 maps, 1953-9 1952 'Die Errichtung des Lehrstuhls fur Geographie an der Universitat Halle und dessen erster Inhaber Alfred Kirchhoff* ('The establishment of the chair of geography at the University of Halle and its first holder, Alfred Kirchhoff'), in 450 Jahre Martin-Luther Universitat Halle-Wittenberg, vol 2, Halle, U65-73 Manfred Schick is Professor of Geography at the Technical University of Darmstad. Translated from the German text by Mark Bassin.

Chronology 1872

Born at Witten, Ruhr, November 12

1881

In school at Essen

1891

Became a student at the Halle-Wittenberg university

1891+-1905

Fieldwork in Thuringia

f. Cartography 1895 1910 'Die Franzosische Landesaufnahme im linksrheinischen Gebeit l801-lU' ('French topographical surveys in the region west of the Rhine, l801-ll*' ), Westdtsch. Z.'Gesch. Kunst, vol 29, 356-62 I896

Went to Berlin to study with Richthofen: began fieldwork in Central Europe, including the Alps (to 1910)

g. Education and methodology 1906 'Die Siedelungsgeographie als Arbeitsfeld der germanistisch-historisch vorgebildeten Erdkundelehrer' ('Settlement geography as a field of work for geography teachers educated in German history'), Geogr. Anz. , vol 7, *+9-52, 73-8, 97-101, 3 25-32 1907 'liber das Verhaltnis von Natur und Mensch in der Anthropogeographie' ('On the man-nature relationship in anthropogeography'), Geogr. Z. , vol 13,

1898

Became assistant at the Geographical Society, Berlin

1899

Assisted with the preparations for the IGU Congress, Berlin

1900

Fieldwork in Bretagne and in the Auvergne

1903

Visited Bosnia and Dalmatia

Awarded the Ph.D. degree

122

Otto

Schlilter

1906

Achieved the habilitation at Berlin University: "became a lecturer at the Academy of Commerce, Berlin

1907

Married Margaret Heyer

1910

Lectured at the University of Bonn and worked on the historical atlas of the Rhineland

1911

Became professor at the Halle-Wittenberg University, where, with interruptions, he remained until 1951

1915

Appointed as editor of the

der Saschen-ThHringen Vereine Erdkunde zu Halle (to 19^0)

Mitteilungen

fur

Mitteldeutsoher

1935-59

Acted as editor of the

191+1

Two of his three sons were killed in Russia

19^5

Became vice-president of the Leopoldina Academy

19^7

Death of his wife, Margaret

1951

Final retirement from employment, delayed through various contemporary circumstances

1952

Honorary doctorate from the University of Leipzig: became president of the Leopoldina Academy

1953

Given the Carl Ritter medal by the Geographical Society of Berlin

195^

Became honorary member and chairman by seniority of the Leopoldina Academy

1956

Became honorary senator of the HalleWittenberg University and awarded the Franz von Hauer medal by the Geographical Society of Vienna

1959

Died at Halle, October 12

Heimatatlas

Jerzy Smolenski 1881-1940

STANISLAW LESZCZYCKI 1. EDUCATION, LIFE AND WORK Jerzy J6zef Gedeon ZagXoba Smolenski was horn in Cracow on 6 September l88l. His father, Stanis^aw was a medical doctor and a doaent at the Jagiellon University and his mother was Helena Babirecka. Both his parents died while he was still young so he was brought up firstly in the household of his uncle, Jan Babirecki and then later at the home of his paternal uncle, Wladyslaw Smolenski, who was professor of history at Warsaw University. After attending grammar schools he entered the Jagiellon University at Cracow where in the Faculty of Philosophy he studied natural sciences, particularly geology from 1899 to 1905, though from 1903 he taught at a secondary school. In the same year he attended an excursion organized in conjunction with the International Geological Congress in Vienna. In 1905 he became an assistant at the Jagiellon university and in 1906, was granted his doctorate degree for a thesis on the Senonian strata at Bonarka — Cephdopoden and Inoceramemy, which was published in Polish and German. During the next two years to 1908 he was a student in Berlin, where he encountered Penck, Schliiter and other famous figures of the time. A year of travel in Europe followed in 1908-09 and in 1910 he gained his habt.litati.on at the Jagiellon University for a dissertation on the geology of the Podole area. In the same year he began lecturing in Cracow, which he continued almost without any break to 1939. Also in 1910 he married Helena Jordan, by whom he had two daughters, Zofia and Anna, and a son, Stanis^aw, who is now a bishop.

While working in Cracow he carried out thorough researches in the immediate area and also in the Carpathians, the Podole area and other parts of Poland. From 1907 he worked with the Physiographical Section of the Cracow Academy of Sciences and Arts, of which he was secretary of the geological section from 1917. Earlier, in 1913, he made a protracted visit to the Oceanographical Museum at Monaco during a tour of Italy and France. By 1918 his increasing concern with geography was apparent for he became a corresponding member of the Polish Geographical Society: also in 1918 he was a member of a geophysical expedition organized by Baron Eotvos in Hungary. Two years later he joined the Commission on Nature Protection and in 1921. he was appointed as professor extraordinary of physical geography and cartography at Cracow. By a natural transition his research developed into study of diluvial deposits in various areas of Poland and in 192U he joined the Geographical Commission of the Polish Academy of Science(s) and Arts in Cracow, which he later served as secretary. To an increasing extent he was involved in the work of the Polish Geographical Society as secretary, treasurer and from 1928 chairman. From 1929 he was editor of the publications, Praoe

Instytua Geografiazne U.J. (Tvavaux de I 'Institut gtographique de I 'University de Craoovie) and Krakowskie Odczyty Geoqrafiozne (Conferences Geographiques

Craooviennes). In 1929 he became an ordinary professor of general geography and director of the Geographical Institute of the Jagiellon University, which he remained, until his arrest by the Gestapo on 6 November 1939. He was imprisoned in Wroclaw and then sent to the

124

Jerzy

Smolenski

concentration camp at Ovanieburg (Sachsenhausen) where he died on 5 January 19^+0. Jerzy Smolenski was a modest man, friendly towards others, especially his students and young people in general. A man of liberal mind, he never forced his views on others. An ardent Catholic and a fervent patriot, in 1930 he became chairman of the Catholic Union in Cracow, a society composed of the intelligentsia. He was a member of the diocesan council on Catholic Action and was deeply interested in Catholic missionary problems, on which he wrote several articles dealing with the actual working conditions, the contribution of Polish Catholics to missions, and the cultural significance of missionary enterprise. Always well aware of political matters at home and abroad, he based much of this writing on personal contacts with missionaries in Asia and Africa. Having only moderate physical health, Professor Smolenski had to observe a carefully disciplined way of life and to avoid over-exertion in his field work. Nevertheless this was the basis of his considerable contribution to the understanding of the geology and geomorphology of many areas of Poland. His writing was marked by logical construction and concise expression. The problem of landscape conservation, developed early in his life, was one of his main interests but he also gave generous service to a variety of organizations, including the Society of Docents of the Jagiellon University, the Tatra Society, the Fishing Society, the Defence Committee of Spisz and Orawa and the council for geography in secondary schools, for which he worked on appropriate courses and curricula.

2. SCIENTIFIC IDEAS AND GEOGRAPHICAL WORK Smolenski's range of interest and enterprise was characteristic of many geographers of his time in various countries. These are here considered under eight subheadings .

a.

Conservation

By 1920 Smolenski was an active member of the Polish Commission on Nature Protection, which became a State Council in 1925 > of which he was chairman from 1938. His interest was revealed as early as 1912, when he

published his book Krajobaz Polski

(Poland's

landscape)

and his ideas were developed more fully in two later

books, Morze: Pomorze (The sea and Pomerania), 1928 and Wielkopolska (Greater Poland), 1930. He also wrote a number of articles on nature conservation and landscape amenity and served on the Scientific Commissions dealing with national parks on the Pieniny, 1932 and the Tatra. mountains, 1937. He was an advocate of the joint Polish and Romanian (Czywczy) national park in the Eastern Carpathians in 1930 and was a Polish representative at two international Congresses on Nature Protection held at Paris in 1928 and 1931.

b.

The

Carpathians

Not surprisingly, Smolenski was concerned with the Carpathians and through his initiative a Commission for mountain research was formed in the Geographical Institue of the Jagiellon University. From 1929-31 he directed the scientific station in the Tatra mountains which concentrated especially on the Five Lakes Valley,

mainly during winter as little was then known of winter conditions in the Tatras. His work on the Podhale area and the Western Beskids attracted official notice in 1935 when he was asked to give scientific supervision to the regional bureau for these areas. In 1933 he was appointed as a member of the Advisory Council of the Cracow voivode (administrative area), and in 1936 he was elected chairman of a Commission dealing with social aspects of the Cracow regional plan, followed in 1939 by comparable work on the Sandomierz district. With the Cracow and Sandomierz enterprises he showed the relevance of population study and saw his local work as part of the wider problems of the entire Carpathians. Under his editorship a monograph on the Ruthenian highlands was published in 1935.

c.

Population

A clear indication of Smolenski's interest in population problems was given at the IGU Congress held in 1925 at Cairo, where he read a paper on the statistical assessment and mapping of mixed populations. Differences of nationality, language and religion were problems of the state formed after the First World War and provided a fascinating geographical study, which Smolenski followed in a paper of 1926 dealing quantitatively with the proportion of Poles in different areas of Poland. These studies were developed over the years and further communications were given to the second meeting of Slav geographers and ethnographers held in Poland in 1927 and to the Polish Academy of Sciences and Arts in Cracow in 1932. The dynamic aspect was clearly understood and Smolenski worked out the birth rate per square kilometre. Under the increasingly tense political circumstances of the 1930s this work attracted international attention and in 1936 he attended the International Conference on Population Problems in Paris, of which the proceedings were published in the following year, and the 1938 Congress on Population Studies, Paris. At these gatherings he gave papers dealing with natural growth of population and consequent population pressure. In 1938 he was invited to join the Population Commission of the International Demographic Union but the papers he read in 1939 were never published.

d.

Oceanography

From his experience at the Oceanographies! Museum in Monaco, Smolenski became interested in ocean depths, on which he wrote papers concerned with the depths of the Philippine 'graben' in 19l6, on the morphology of the ocean depths in 1919 and the temperatures of deep sea waters in 1922, all of which are still significant studies. From 1926 he was in touch with the Baltic Commission of the International Council of Marine Studies, of which he became an ordinary member in 1929.

e.

International

activities

Smolenski was an active supporter of IGU and of the Association of Slav geographers. In 1929 he became a member of the Polish National Committee of IGU and later served as the committee's secretary. He attended four IGU congresses, Cairo 1925 (during which he visited Turkey as well as Egypt), Paris 1930, Warsaw 193^ and Amsterdam 1938 and was a corresponding member of the Commission on Terraces, founded in 1925. For the Warsaw Congress he ran two excursions, one from Cracow

Jerzy

along the Dunajec valley to the Tatra mountains and the other to Polish Upper Silesia: for each of these he wrote an explanatory handbook. He also attended meetings of the organization of Slav geographers and ethnographers in Czechoslavakia 192^, Poland 1927, Yugoslavia 1930, and Bulgaria 1936. For the meeting in 1927 he acted as deputy secretary and was also part author of the handbook on the Cracow area. /. Teaching Almost thirty years of work at the Jagellion University was clearly his main pedagogic contribution but he also gave special vacation courses for teachers and lectured on economic geography at the Commercial Academy, and on political geography at the Higher School of Political Sciences in the Jagiellon University. In 1925 he published a useful vocabluary of physical geography and in 1921+ an article on the use of block diagrams in teaching. F.or the Ministry of Education he studied the content of school geography courses and himself wrote a Geography of Poland in 1933 suitable for the first year of secondary education. Papers written in 1919 and 1927 dealt particularly with the teaching of physical geography in Poland and a paper of 1929 gave a more general view of Polish geographical education. As always, he was deeply involved in the situation in and around Cracow and his university work included the supervision of a number of higher degree students.

Smolenski

125

published in 1919 and 1932 he contributed articles on geophysical problems in relation to the general geological features of Poland. Many honours were given to Smolenski for his work as a geographer, including honorary membershit) of the geographical societies of Czechoslovakia in 1926, Bulgaria in 1930 and Mexico in 1931. In Poland he was given honorary membership of the Scientific Society of Lwow, the Polish Geographical Society, the Association of Geophysicists, the Polish Statistical Society and the Baltic Institute. He also received the Cross of the 'Odrodzenie Polski' Order (signifying the rebirth of Poland), the Cross of the Order of St. Sava from Yugoslavia and the Cross of the Romanian Crown. In 1968 the Geographical Institute of the Jagiellon University organized a special session devoted to the scientific achievements of Jerzy Smolenski, at which six professors, A. Wrzosek, M. Klimaszewski, K. Lomniewski, S. Leszczycki, W. Goetel and J. Flis spoke on his contribution to Polish and to world geography.

Bibliography and Sources

g. Political geography In his work on political geography Smolenski was a child of his time. Of special significance is his paper of 1930 on the evolution of political geography, in which he criticized the static presentation of countries given by Ratzel and later German geographers and advocated a dynamic approach more in accord with political realities. In 1933 he urged the study of sociogeographical groupings of people in relation to neighbouring groups. This led naturally to other problems of political geography, such as boundaries discussed at a meeting of Slav geographers in 1930 at Belgrade and the relevance of coastlines as boundaries, treated in papers of 193^ and 1935. Naturally concerned with the Jewish problem in the years before 1939, he wrote an article in 1938 suggesting that Polish Jews might find a homeland in Palestine.

1. REFERENCES AND OBITUARIES ON JERZY SMOLENSKI Lesczycki, S. , 'Jerzy Smolenski, 1881-19^0', Przegl. Geogr. , vol 19 (1939-^5), 79-98 (including a full bibliography on pp. 91-8) Przegl. Geogr. , vol 22 (19^8-9) includes memorial notices in English by J. Kondracki, 55-60, A. Zierboffer, 6l-5 and M. Klimaszewski, 65-70. These contributions were also published in Russian in another supplement to the journal. Klimaszewski, M., 'Jerzy Smolenski', Rocz. Pol. Tow. Geol. , vol 19 (19^9), 255-62 Fils, J., 'Jerzy Smolenski', in Dziewiec wiekow geografii (Nine centuries of Polish geography), Warsaw (1967), 383-^09

h. Geomorphology Through all the varied activities and geographical research, Smolenski remained throughout his career a geomorphologist, especially of the Carpathians. In his paper of 1911 on the low Beskid he ascribed the elevated erosion surfaces to denudational action during the post-Tortonian age: his views are still accepted. His later studies on the gravels of the Beskids revealed that they were as much as 90 metres over the periglacial floor and had been deposited by rivers flowing from the south when there were continental ice sheets to the north. In various papers he dealt with the geomorphological development of the Western Beskids: his research extended from the Carpathians to the areas around Cracow, the Podole upland and the Sandomierz lowland. It included various detailed investigations of Carpathian valleys and of problems of geomorphological history. In papers

a. Works on geology and regional geography 1906 'Dolny senon w Bonarci ...' ('Low Senonian at Bonarka . . . ' ) , Ph.D. diss, Roz. Wydz. mat.przyr. Pol. Umi., vol U6, 607-38 (in Polish, German abstr. 717-29) 1909 'Ungleichzeitigkeit der merionalen Flusstaler in Galizien: ein Beitrag zur Theorie der Assymetrisationstatigheit des windes', Petermanns Geogr. Mitt., vol 55, 101-07 1910 '0 powstaniu poXnocnej krawgdzi podolskiej i roli morfologicznej ntfodoszych ruch6w Podola', ('On the sturcture of the northern Podolia border area and the structural history of Podolia'), Rozpr. Wydz. mat.-przyr. Pol. Akad. Umi., vol 50, 39p., German abstr. 65-7^ (paper for

2.

SELECTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS BY JERZY SMOLENSKI

habilitation)

1911

'Z morfogerezy Beskidu Niskiego' ('Morphology of the Lower Beskid'), xi Zjazdu Lekarzy i Przynodnikow'

126

Jerzy

Smolenski

PolHch, Krakow, 18-22 1912 Krajobaz Polski (Landscapes of Poland), Warsaw, 98p. (in Polish) 1913 (with W. Kuzniarem) 'Zur Geschichte der WeischelOder-Wasserscheide1 ('On the Weischel-Oder water parting'), Bull. Acad. Sci. Cracovie, Classe Sci., Math., Nat., 88-91* (in German) 1917 'Uber die Enstehung der heutigan Tiefen des Philippinen-Grabens' ('On the origin of the oceanic depths of the Philippines'), Bull. Acad. Sci. Cracovie, Classe Math. Nat., 11-12 (1916, but published in 191?), 586-601 (in German) 1919 'W sprawie morfologii dua morz g^ebokich morz' ('On the morphology of the ocean depths'), Przegl. Geogr., vol 1, 50-67 (German abstr., also in French 281-96) 1920-1 '0 adjabatycznym wzroscie ciepXoty w g^ebiach morz ('On adiabatic heating in the ocean depths'), Przegl. Geogr., vol 2, 60-8 (in Polish) 1925 SXownictwo geograficzno-fizyczne (Vocabulary of physical geography), Cracow, 2 vol, ll6p. 1926 'Zjawisko epigenezy dolin subskmentrych w Karpatsch1 ('Epigenesis in subsequent valleys of the Carpathians'), Przegl. Geogr., vol 6, 92-8 1927 Morze i Pomorze (The Baltic and Pomerania), Posnan, 139p.; 2 ed (1932), 172p. 1929 Wielkopolska (Greater Poland), Poznan, 157p. 193^ La Silesie polonaise, Congr. Int. Gfogr. Warsaw, excursion B 3/2 directed by J. Smolenski and W. Orwicki, 8Hp. (in French) 1936 'L'influence de la glaciation nordique sur la morphologie des Beskids Occidentales polonaises', C.R. Congr. Int. Giogr. Warsaw (193*0, vol 2/2, G&ographie Physique, 80-2 1937 Polska, Warsaw, UU6p. Translated into Russian and German. The German version appeared in the Grossen Allgemeinen Geographie, Berlin-Dahlem, 19^0 b. Other works 1919 '0 potrzebach nauki polskiej w zakresie geografii fizycznej' ('On the contribution of physical geography to Polish science'), Nauk. Pol., vol 2, 51-63 1922 *W sprawie ud ziaXu Polska w opracowaniu miljonowej mapy ziemi' ('On the Polish contribution to the 1:1,000,000 map of the world'), Przegl. Geogr., vol 3, 81-91 (in Polish) 192U 'Blokdiagramy jako srodek pogladowy w geografii' ('Block diagrams in geography teaching'), Czas. Geogr. , vol 2, 25-31* 1926 'Une nouvelle methode pour apprecier les rapports entre les differents composants de la population', Congr. Int. Gtogr. Cairo, vol h, 11 (abstr. only) 'Wyglgdne Przewyski i Niedobory Ludnosei Polskiej na obszarze Rzeczypospolitej' ('Poles in the Polish Republic ...'),Prace Inst. Geogr. Univ. Jagiellonskiego, no 6, 33p. (in German, 2^-33) 1927 'Rzut oka na stan ogolnej geografii fizycznej w Polsce w ostatnim 50-cioleciu 1875-1925' ('Physical geography in Poland during the past fifty years'), Kosmos, vol 1, 138-50 1929 'Organozacja iwiata geograficznego w Polsce' ("The organization of geography in Poland'), Czas.

1931 1932

193*+

1935 1937

1938 1939

Geogr. , vol 7, 103-06 'W sprawie ewolucji geografji polityczney' (^On the evolution of political geography'), Przegl. Geogr., vol 11, 93-100 (in Polish) '0 izochronach closfodowych odgranicznych' ('Uber zentripetale Grenabstand-Isochronen') ('On centripetal isochrones drawn from the frontiers'), Przegl. Geogr., vol 13, 133-52 (full paper in Polish and German) 'Geopolityczne barjery nadowoskie' ('Geopolitische Karten-Barrieren') ('Geopolitical barriers on the map'), Przegl. Geogr., vol 13, 133-52 (whole article in Polish and German) 'Coastal barriers of the Baltic', Baltic Countries, Gdynia, vol 1, U5-51 (in English only) 'Zagadnienia demograficzne i ich znaczenie dla panstwa' ('Demographic problems and their significance for government' )t Nauka a obrana varistwa Kuakoo, IU5-88 'L'accroissement natural de la population et la pression demographique', Congr. Int. Pop. Paris, vol 7, 9-13 C.R. Congr. Int. GZogr. , vol 1, Actes du Congres, 1*79-80, U83—U (contributions to discussions on paysage) 'Gestosc przyrostu naturalnego ludnosei i jej znaczenie miedzynarodoew' ('Density of population, birth rate and their international significance'), Prace Wyzd. , no 5, 23p.

Stanislaw Leszczycki is emeritus professor of geography at the University of Warsaw and from 1968-72 President of the International Geographical Union

Chronology l88l

Born at Cracow, September 6

1891-99

Secondary education at Cracow

1899-1905

Student of natural science, especially geology, at Jagiellon university

1905

Assistant in geology, Cracow university

1906-08

Awarded the doctor's degree and studied in Berlin

1910

Granted the habilitation

1911

Became a lecturer in the department of geology, Cracow University

1913

During travels in Italy and France, studied oceanography with Sir John Murray at Monaco

at Cracow

Jerzy Smolenski 1917

Became secretary of the geological section of the physiographic commission, Cracow Academy

1918

Corresponding member of the Polish Geographical Society

1920

Member of the Commission on Nature Protection

1921

Extraordinary professor of physical geography and cartography: increasingly concerned with geographical societies and other bodies

1930

Ordinary professor and director of the Geographical Institute, Jagiellon University

1933

Member of the Senate of the Jagiellon University

1935

Corresponding member of the Mathematical and Physical Department of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow

1937

Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy, Cracow: deputy Dean, 1938

1939

Arrested with colleagues in the special campaign against the university

19^0

Died on January 5

127

Vasili Nikitich Tatishchev 1686-1750

O. A. ALEXANDROVSKAYA V. N. Tatishchev worked in various fields of science, but he is best known for his works on history and geography. An important statesman, he was interested in history and geography throughout his life, but he only engaged in science in his spare time left to him from official activities. He made a considerable contribution to the development of Russian science and culture.

to study mining. At the beginning of the 1730s Tatishchev found himself involved in politics. He was active in the movement of the middle gentry against the aristocracy and also against the foreigners who had acquired so much power in Russia, among whom was Count Ernst Johann Biron (1690-17^2), a favourite of Anna Ivanovna (l69317^0) who became Empress in 1730. In 1733, while in

1. EDUCATION, LIFE AND WORK Tatishchev, born on 19 April l686, came from a noble but impoverished family. No one knows exactly where Tatishchev studied, but there are grounds for believing that he received systematic tuition. The many duties he performed and posts held at various times, his business trips and contacts with educated people helped to broaden his range of interests. Beginning his military service as a private, as required by the decree of Peter the Great, he took part in the siege of Narva (170M, fought at Poltava (1709) and at Azov (1710), and participated in the Prussian campaign (1711). Tatishchev's progress in science was facilitated by his close contacts with Ya. V. Bryus, a Russian statesman and scientist extremely well versed in mathematics, geodesy, geography, and other sciences, and a close associate of Peter I. As the supervisor of the mining work in the Urals from 1720 to 1723, Tatishchev had the opportunity to study this extensive area. From 1721+ to 1726 he was in Sweden, where he was sent on an unofficial diplomatic mission and had an opportunity

shows his political, moral, ethical and pedagogic outlook. Though not an atheist he criticized the clergy for encouraging ignorance and superstition among the people. His abiding hope was that the development of science might result in universal enlightenment. Having managed to clear himself of the charges made against him, Tatishchev returned to the Urals where he organized the construction of new mining and smelting plants and also mineral prospecting. At these plants he set up schools to train miners and foundary workers: these were the first technical vocational schools in Russia. In May 1737, Tatishchev was made a member of the privy council and in the post of lieutenant-general he was sent to head the 'Orenburg expedition', which was of great significance in carrying out Russia's policy of developing and studying Central Asia and Kazakhstan. In 1739, he was removed from this post and found himself in custody once again. Only after the fall of Biron was Tatishchev released, but in 17^1, he was first appointed the head of the 'Kalmyk expedition' and then governor of Astrakhan. The management of this frontier

prison, Tatishchev wrote Eazgovor dvukh vriyatelei o poize nauk i uchilishch (A conversation between two friends on the use of science and of schools), which

130

V. N.

Tatishchev

province with its huge territory and its population consisting of various tribes was an extremely complicated matter. Exacting in his relations with subordinates, abrupt and straightforward in character, he again drew upon himself displeasure and complaints. In 17^*5, the committee of inquiry assumed its activities anew. Tatishchev retired and moved to Boldino, a village near the town of Klin in the Moscow region, where he spent the last years of his life. He died on 15 July 1750. Tatishchev's life was a difficult one, full of ups and downs, of anxiety and struggle. A rationalist and educator, he did much for the development of Russia's economy and culture. A fervent supporter of enlightened absolutism, he was one of the famous 'uchenaya druzhina' ('erudite retinue') of associates and admirers of Peter the Great's undertakings, the members of which also included Feofan Prokopovitch and Antiokh Kantemir.

2. SCIENTIFIC IDEAS AND GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT Tatishchev's views on geography were formed on the basis of the practical needs of his time, of which as an active statesman he was well aware. At the same time, he made a serious study of the works of his predecessors in Russia and of West European geographical literature. Hardly any of Tatishchev's works on geography were published during his lifetime. His main work

Istoriya

Rossiskaya

(The history

of Russia), which

contained a special chapter dealing with geographical problems (Chapter 1*3 - '0 geografii voobsche i o russkoi' ('On geography in general and Russian geography1)), was published only in 1768-7*+; the

manuscript of the Leksikon rossiiski istoricheski> geogvaficheskiy politicheski i grazhdanski (The Russian historical, geographical, political and civil lexicon), which he sent to the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in 17^5, was published almost half a century later (1793); the article 'Russiya ili kak nyne zovut Rossiya' ('Rus or Russia as it is called today) was written in 17^-5 but not printed until 1839. Not until 1950, on the occasion of the two-hundredth anniversary of the death of Tatishchev were the Izbrannye Trudy po Geografii Rossii (Selected works on the geography of Russia) printed, including 'Obshchee geograficheskoye opisaniy vsei Sibiri' ('A general geogrpahical description of Siberia', 1736), 'Predlozheniye o sochinenii istorii i geografii rossiiskoi' ('On the main features of the history and geography of Russia', 1737)» 'Donosheniye v Pravitelstvuyushchi Senat po voprosam cartograficheskikh rabot' ('information for the Ruling Senate regarding questions of cartographic works', 1739), 'Izyacneniye na poslannye nachala istoricheskiye' ('An explnation of the elements of history', 17*+5), 'Vvedeniye k istoricheskomu i geograficheskomu opisaniyu Velikorosskoi imperii' ('An introduction to the historical and geographical description of the Great Russian Empire', 17^^-5), 'Napomneniye na prislannoye rospisaniye vysokikh i nizhnikh gosudarstvennyke i zemskikh pravitelstv' ('Recommendations on the structure of the Higher and Lower State and Zemskie (administrative division) governments', 17^3), '0 geografii voobsche i

o russkoi' ('On geography in general and on Russian geography', 17^6), and 'Napomneniye na prislannoye opisaniye narodov, chto v opisanii geograficheskom nablyudat nuzhdno' ('Recommendations on the description of peoples in a geographical description', (17^9). Typical works on geography in Russia before Peter's reforms were 'dorozhniki' ('descriptions of routes'), diaries, and such like, the content of which was in the main determined by transport, military and financial requirements. Tatishchev put forward new ideas with regard to geography which reflected the country's growing economic and political needs. He demanded of geography a knowledge of nature, the population, and the country's economy as a whole. According to Tatishchev, geography was in itself a description of an area or a country (predel). He did not include 'cosmography' ('general description of the world') in the subject geography, but astronomy was of crucial significance in his treatment of geography. 'It is true', he wrote in his 'Recommendations' of 17^3, 'that geography cannot be explained without the evidence of some astronomical circumstances'. Tatishchev further points out that a geographical description presupposes four asnects: the astronomical, physical, political and historical aspects. The astronomical description notes the position of the given place, its latitude and longitude; the physical description covers the country's natural conditions; the political description deals with the people and the populated areas; in the historical description the origin of the name and the historical destiny of the country or places should be indicated. In another work '0 geografii voobsche i o russkoi' ('On geography in general and on Russian geography', 17k6), Tatishchev says that geography is divided into universal or general geography according to the size of the territory described; it describes the appearance and size of the whole earth with the waters and also the separate parts, special geography dealing with state territories, and the 'topography' ('predeloopissanie'), where individual areas or still smaller parts such as a town are examined. Tatishchev's great contribution to the development of Russian geography was, to a considerable extent, connected with his practical activities in organizing surveys. At the various stages in his offical activities he frequently had to deal with questions concerning cartographic and geodetic work. As early as 1719, Peter I suggested that he should be given the task of land-surveying the entire kingdom and setting out Russian geography in detail on maps. In this connection, Tatishchev drew up a project for a land survey of the whole of Russia, but he was not able to carry it out, as he was sent to the Urals in 1720 to build new mining plants. When he was appointed head of the mining plants in Siberia and the Urals in 173^, he was instructed to concern himself with surveys and the compilation of new maps. Finally, in May 1737, when he became the head of the Orenburg expedition, Tatishchev was made responsible for drawing up maps of Russia, including the general map. He sent geodesists to Siberia and European Russia to carry out this task. As a result, a number of maps were compiled which Tatishchev handed over the the Academy of Sciences. For just three years, 1737-^0, he supervised the survey and cartographic work in the country, but even in that short time he managed to achieve con-

V. N. Tatishchev

siderable advances in Russian state surveys, in many ways determining their subsequent course. His Nakez (Instructions) to geodesists of 1738 were a considerable step forward compared with those previously in operation (1720 and 1723). The state surveys became more accurate than before and the relation between local surveys was carefully considered with the aim of making surveys of provinces. Tatishchev saw that all the primary observations by geodetic surveyors were basic material for the compilation of a geographical and historical description of Russia. Paying great attention to the geographical content of maps, Tatishchev introduced special points into his 'Instructions' devoted to geographical survey work and the description of the places where geodesists were sent. Tatishchev's special geographical works deal with Russia in general and Siberia in particular. In 17^3, he circulated the first version of his questionnaire in the towns of Siberia and he used the results obtained in his work 'Obshchee geograficheskoye opisaniye vseya Sibiri' ('A general geographical description of the whole of Siberia'). Of this work written in 1736 only the first chapters are known, but in them a physical geographical description of Siberia is given. They should have been followed by a detailed description of the population, and of the political, administrative and economic features of this region. This work could not be completed because of the lack of information, but it was nevertheless of considerable importance for the development of Russian geography. For the first time in Russian literature Tatishchev drew a dividing line between Europe and Asia along the Urals range. To justify this boundary he not only pointed out that the mountain range divided the river basins, but also that there were differences in the fauna and flora to the east and west of it. In the section '0 vozdukhe' ('On the air'), refuting the legends about the exceptional severity of the Siberian climate, Tatishchev gave a detailed explanation of the reasons why Siberia was colder than Europe. He refers to his own measurements of the thickness of the snow cover and mentions his intention to make observations of the precipitation. To write a geography of the whole of Russia it was necessary to collect material for each state according to a set programme. In 1737 Tatishchev appealed to the government and the Academy of Sciences to approve and circulate the questionnaire worked out by him in designated locations. This remarkably detailed programme for the geographical description of Russia consists of 198 points and shows Tatishchev's unusually wide range of interests for his time. Not finding any support at St. Petersburg, he attempted to circulate his questionnaire independently, but he collected little information that satisfied him. This is why he had to limit himself to a brief general outline of the geography of Russia, known in two versions (one entitled Russiya written in 1739; and the other revised version planned somewhat differently which was completed in 17UU), which he called 'The elements of Russian geography'. Tatishchev paid considerable attention to a hydrographic study of the country. At the beginning of the eighteenth century geography as the description of the Earth was frequently considered to be separate from hydrography as the description of waters. He believed

131

that a description of the earth not only included an account of the dry land, but of waters as well. Proceeding from the idea of the unity of topography and hydrography as a component part of geography, in all versions of the questionnaires Tatishchev gave a good deal of space to questions concerning hydrography. The same is true in his 'Instructions' to geodesists, which require that the hydrographical network should be drawn especially thoroughly. Tatishchev also pays considerable attention to questions of hydrography in the Lexicon where information on many rivers, streams, lakes, and seas is given. Usually this information not only deals with the origin of the names of water bodies, but also with the length of rivers, the peculiarities of their currents and other features. Throughout his working life Tatishchev returned again and again to the purpose of investigating Russia. He regarded cartography as a basic need of the time, based on firm mathematical principles and with a clear scientific purpose. And he was also clearly convinced that in the end history and geography are inseparable, each fructifying the other as contributions to an understanding of Russia, already showing the expansion that was to be so marked in later times. 3. INFLUENCE AND SPREAD OF IDEAS Tatishchev went from land-surveying to geography and from geography to history, but he is best known for his works on history. He is quite rightly considered to be the father of Russian history. His Istoriya

Rossiskaya

(History

of Russia)

was the first historical

work in Russia within the framework of the nobility's ideology, based not on any single concept but on a wide range of sources, many of which became accepted as standard for the first time. It is to Tatishchev's credit that his work, which bore the imprint of the general empiricism of that time, is also illumined with an attempt to interpret the facts in a philosophical light. Tatishchev may equally be regarded as the founder of geographical science in Russia. His theoretical works and practical activities formed the basis of the Russian geographical tradition. He saw the main task of geography as the regional description of the earth. This idea runs like a thread through all his creative works. Proceeding from this idea, he defined the essence of geography and worked out a questionnaire for the collection of geographical materials which may be considered the first Russian scientific programme of geographical surveys. Tatishchev carried out one of the earliest experiments in the geographical regionalization of Russia. His own geographical works served as the basis for the scientific geographical description of the country. Although Tatishchev's works were not published during his lifetime, this did not mean that they were not known to his contemporaries. He submitted numerous projects and memoranda to the government; he maintained close contacts with the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Tatishchev's scientific materials, which were readily available in manuscripts and copies, were widely used. He had the greatest and most direct influence on such important Russian geographers as P. I. Rychkov and M. F. Soimonov, with whom he had con-

132

V. N.

Tatishohev

tact during his work in the Orenburg and Astrakhan areas.

1831

In the range of his activities and the breadth of his scientific interests, in the keenness and perspicacity" of his mind, in his bubbling energy and profound patriotism among the foremost Russians of the eighteenth century, Tatishchev closely resembled Lomonosov, whose scientific works and public activities were in accord with his own aspirations.

1887

Bibliography and Sources 1. REFERENCES ON V. N. TATISHCHEV Popov, N.A., V.N. Tatishchev i evo vremya (V.N. Tatishchev and his time), Moscow (1861) Iofa, L.E., Sovremenniki Lomonosova I.K. Kirilov i V.N. Tatishchev (Contemporaries of Lomonosovs I.K. Kirilov and V.N. Tatishchev), Moscow (19^9) Andreyev, A.I., 'Trudy V.N. Tatishcheva po geografii Rossii' ('The works of V.N. Tatishchev on the geography of Russia'), in V.N. Tatishchev, Selected works on the geography of Russia, Moscow (1950) Berg, L.S., 'Geograficheskiye trudy V.N. Tatishcheva' ('Geographical works of V.N. Tatishchev'), Voprosy Geografii, vol 31 (1953) Yevteyev, O.A., 'V.N. Tatishchev and the Russian State surveys in the first half of the eighteenth century' , in Voprosy Geografii, vol 1*2 (1958), 189-95 Deich, G.M., V.N. Tatishchev - istorik i go sudor stvenny deyatel (V.N. Tatishchev - historian and statesman) Sverdlovsk (1962) 'Materials for the biography of V.N. Tatishchev', Doklady na Sektsiyakh Uchyonovo Sovieta, Sverdlovsk (196k) Kuchkin, V.A., 'The disputes on V.N. Tatishchev', Problemy Istorii Obshchestvennogo Dvizheniya i Istoriografii, Moscow (1971), 2U6-62 Ilizarov, S.S., The questions of toponymy in the works of V.N. Tatishchev*, Voprosy Istorii Yestestvoznaniya i Tekhniki, no 3-1+ (1977), 56-7 2. SELECTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS BY V.N. TATISHCHEV 1725-9 'Epistola ad D.E. Benzelium de mamontowa kost, id est bestiae Rusis mamont dictae', Acta literaria Sveciae, vol 2 Upsaliae 1732 '0 mamontovykh kostyakh' ('On mammoth bones'), Primechaniya na Vedomosti, parts 100 and 101 1768-7I+ Istoriya Rossiskaya (The history of Russia) in three books, Moscow, (last edition MoscowLeningrad, 1962) 1773 Dukhovnaya Synu (A confession to my son), St. Petersburg 1793 Leksikon rossiskit istoricheski> geograficheski3 politicheski i grazhdanski (Russian historical* geographical* political and civil lexicon), in three parts, St. Petersburg

1950

'Zavodskoi Ustav' ('Plant regulations'). Gorny Zhurnal, parts 1-1+ 'Razgovor dvukh priyatelei o poize nauk i uchilishch' ('A conversation between two friends on the use of science and schools') Chteniya Imveratorskogo Obshchestva Istovii i Drevnostei Rossiskikh, Book I Izbrannye Trudy po Geografii Rossii (Selected works on the aeography of Russia), Moscow (contains several works mentioned in the text)

Olga Andreyevna Alexandrovskaya is a senior research worker at the Institute of the History and Natural Sciences and Technology of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R.

Chronology 1686

Born on the family estate near Pskov, April 19

1701-20

Army service in Russia and in (1711) the Prussian campaign

1716-19

Compiled a guide to land survey

1720-23

Head of the government mining enterprise in the Urals and began to work on the geography of Russia

172U-26

Visited Sweden for the Department of Mines

1730

Engaged partly in controversial political activities

1732

Worked in Siberia

1731+

Reappointed by the Department of Mines to work in Siberia, where he established schools for miners and continued to work on geography

1737

Became a member of the Privy Council and head of the 'Orenburg Expedition': put forward further plans for geographical research and organized the compilation of a map of Russia

1739

Removed from his duties and imprisoned

I7I+I

On release from prison became head of the 'Kalmyk Expedition' to Astrakhan, of which later he became Governor

171+3

Suggested a regionalization of Russia to the government

171+5

Compelled to retire but continued his geographical and historical work

1750

Officially acquitted of all indictments and awarded an Order on July ll+, but died on the following day

Louis Vivien de SaintMartin 1802-1896

LUCIE LAGARDE By permission of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. 1. EDUCATION, LIFE AND WORK Louis Vivien was born on 27 floreal in the tenth year of the French Republic (17 May 1802) at Saint-Andre de Fontenay, in the vicinity of Caen and not, as has been said, at Saint-Martin de Fontenay or at Caen itself. His father, who on registering the birth said that he could not sign his name, was a miller. The only evidence on Vivien's early years comes from his own writings, especially from the biographical material given to William Huber in 1878 for the oration made on the presentation of the large gold medal of the Societe de geographie (Soc. Geogr. Paris, MSS box V) and in an outline of his life dictated in retirement after he became blind, included in the 'Etude sur l'histoire generale de l'humanite' {Soo. Geogr. Paris, MSS quarto, 12). In this he notes that he was born and brought up in humble circumstances into a family having the invigorating view that everyone had his own destiny and possible achievement {ibid., 6 ) . For some unexplained reason he went to Paris at the age of twelve, interrupting his school years at the College de Caen where the initial interest in geography developed through chance circumstances. He was so slight that the schoolmaster placed a large illustrated work on geography on his stool so that he could put his elbow on the table. It was a hard and uncomfortable seat but Vivien read the book with avidity, and found in geography his life work (Bull. Soo. Geogr. , vol 16 (1878), 535-6). Self-taught, poor and to some extent arrogant, he makes no other mention of his education. Clearly he must have been a devoted worker, learning by himself English, German, Latin and Greek.

When he was only nineteen his name was recorded as 'Vivien, geographe, rue de Petit Lion, no 1' among the famous founder members of the Paris Societe de GSographie. Independence appears to have been a quality of his character. In the manuscript of his Notice biographique he refers to his constant work as a writer and critic, avoiding involvement with others, perhaps to his own detriment for kindly and influential colleagues could have brought him success: a solitary worker for three quarters of a century, he had found joy in his labours. He began by earning a livelihood as a cartographer and his first work, in 1821, was a

Carte Electorate

de la France of considerable interest

both to the deputies and the electors: a revised edition included the modification cf the Ordonnance of 1823. Other maps which he published until T8U5 were not novel in themselves, nor was his atlas of 1827. Until 1830, Vivien gave all his time to cartography and school texts. He was engaged by J. Ch. Bailleul as a writer and illustrator to produce the Bibliomappe with the support of well known people including Daunou and Eyries. A wide variety of publications appeared: the Bibliomappe including maps with text on the margins or books for children of all ages and for their parents also, as well as chronological Bibliomappes of history and geography, annual Bibliomappes with others for school classes and a number showing the physical and administrative geography of France. These works were published between I82U and 1832 under the names of Bailleul and Vivien. Partly through financial difficulties though also

134

Louis Vivien de

Saint-Martin

from scientific motives, he and Bailleul produced a letter in 1829 addressed to the Ministre de 1'Instruction publique on 'the necessity of reforming or even beginning the teaching of geography and chronology in the University'. Previously geography had been merely a nomenclature but the two writers gave it a firm foundation through insisting on the use of the theory of water partings. Their assumption of originality led to a quarrel with Colonel Denaix, a head of a section in the War Record Office, documented in an exchange of letters in the Constitutionnel for August-September 1827. Denaix pointed out that the division of areas by hydrographie basins went back to the work of Philippe Buache in 1752, was revived by Balbi in 1808 as he himself had shown in his Essais de giographie mithodique et comparative in 1827. Meanwhile, on the advice of Jomard, the construction of a giorama in Paris was entrusted to Vivien in 1826. In fact the first giorama had been constructed by Delanglard in 1823 in the Champs-Elysees; this was an immense hollow globe which one could enter to observe the terrestrial sphere with its physical features. Vivien's giorama was one contribution to a rising passion for 'ramas' on painted and illuminated canvas, variously called dioramas, panoramas, pansteoramas, Europoramas, Cosmoramas and other names. Of a royal visit to the georama at 7 boulevard des Capucines, no details are now available. Despite all his efforts, Vivien did not achieve the reputation which he needed. For some twelve years he was obliged to find remunerative work including text book writing, compilations such as the Cours oomplet d'agriculture of 183^ and translation, for example, of Walter Scott's work in 25 volumes from 1836-9, and of an historical work (Histoire ginirale de la Revolution franqaise, du Consulate de la Restauration3 de la Monarchie de 1830 a 1841, k vols, 18^1). However, after this interlude he returned to the career in geography to which he proposed to give all his remaining days. This interest was shown in the l8Ul translation of the Journal d'une residence en Circassie pendant les armies 1837, 18381 1839 by J. St. Bell, in which an introduction of some seventy pages is a treatment of historical geography with a map. In his early forties he became a more decisive personality and was elected to the governing Commission of the Societe de geographie: in 181*5 he added the toponymic 'de SaintMartin' to his name and succeeded Malte-Brun as editor of the Nouvelles annales des voyages, until 1855 when he became secretary-general of the Societe. Also in I8H5 he published an outline of a proposed Histoire des dicouvertes giographiqv.es des nations europiennes. One may doubt his claim that the upheaval of 18U8 prevented the publication of the proposed k3 volumes with an atlas of 100 maps, except for volumes 2 and 3 on the Histoire giographique et la description de I 'Asie mineure. Possibly- he was eager to imitate Carl Ritter's Erdkunde, of which the tenth volume, on Asia, was published in 18UU. Vivien joined the Societe d'ethnologie on its foundation in 1839. There is evidence in its journals that he was a regular figure at its meetings and in 181+5 he published Recherches sur I 'histoire de I 'anthropologic. The new society had a difficult career and at one stage union with the Societe de

geographie was suggested though finally in 1859 it was absorbed into the Societe d'anthropologic. In his own words, from 1850 a new phase of his life began (Notice biographique, passim), and this is confirmed by that statement (Etude sur I 'histoire ginirale de I 'humaniti, passim) that a large part of his life work of sixty years was given to geographical learning. In 1855 and i860 he was given the prizes of the Academy in an open competition for new works, for his La giographie et les populations primitives du nordouest de I 'Inde and for Le Word de I 'Afrique dans I 'Antiquity grecque et romaine. In 1852, in addition to his editing of the Nouvelles annales des voyages, he took upon himself the publication of a weekly Athenaeum franqais (on the model of an English journal) devoted to literature, science and the fine arts, but he abandoned this enterprise in 185^ and the magazine ceased publication in I856. Possibly he gave up such work to devote all his time to more learned writing, such as his articles on the antiquity and population of the East, including the Far East. Among these was his 1858 map and Mimoire ... sur la carte de I 'Asie centrale et de I 'Inde construite d 'apr£s le Si-yu-ki et les autres relations chinoises des premiers sidcles de notre &re3 (l78p.) which accompanied the Memoires de Hiouen Thsang translated from Chinese into French by Stanislas Julien. The last period of his life opened with his nomination as Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur in 1863. From 1862 his financial problems lessened. Louis Hachette (who died in 186U) or probably his son-in-law Emile Templier arranged contracts for the publication of L 'Annie giographique in 1862, of the Nouveau Dictionnaire de giographie universelle in 1863 and, finally the Atlas universel in 1872. From 1863 to 187*+ he produced the Annie himself, after which for its remaining two years it was prepared by Maunoir and Duveyrier. Hachette abandoned this publication, though they were eager to receive from Vivien the promised volume of the Dictionnaire. With all these responsibilities, he maintained his work on historical geography and ethnography. At his home in Versailles he had a fine library of books and mans (on which he spent all available income, and even the advance payments from Hachette), without which he could not have published his works, including the Dictionary and the Atlas. He then proposed to write an Histoire de la giographie et des dicouvertes giographiques with an atlas of 11 maps, in which some chapters long prepared and even published in his Histoire giographique de I 'Asie mineure could be included. Having no heirs, he sold the rights to Hachette and an edition of 3,000 copies appeared in 1873. In a further financial arrangement by a contract of 26 January 1877, he assigned his library of 10,000 volumes and more than 2,000 maps to Hachette in exchange for an annuity. The first instalment of the Dictionnaire appeared in 1876 and of the Atlas (5 sheets) in 1877 with an important preface. Collaboration was made difficult by Vivien's temperament, with failing sight as a further problem. However, he was present at the second International Geographical Congress at Paris in 1875 and the map of Switzerland for his Atlas was greatly admired. Vivien had engaged some fine cartographers, including E. Collin, and the map of the heavens, dated 1876, is a work of art. His career culminated in I878 with the award of the large gold medal of the Societe de geographie

Louis Vivien de Saint-Martin for his geographical work and the honour was all the greater as the medal was normally given to explorers. Sadly, though a survivor of the pioneer founders of the Paris Societe, Vivien had to abandon his work. The dictionary was gradually given to the professional author Rousselet and the Atlas to Franz Schrader in 1882 (Geogr. Biobibl. Stud., vol 1 (1977), 97-103: letter from Vivien to Hachette, 11 June 1880). Nevertheless the old scholar afflicted with increasing

blindness still worked on a Dictionnaire de geographie anoienne and drafted a work on Humanity a trovers les

si&cles which Hachette refused to encourage in view of his great age. He left his manuscript material to the Institut and the Societe de Geographie. On his death on 26 December 1896, the death certificate was signed by the monumental masons and the sole mourner at the funeral was his housekeeper. 2. SCIENTIFIC IDEAS AND GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT Two considerations are significant: first, the long life of Vivien, who was 95 when he died and the second the number and variety of his works, from his first essay published when he was 20 to a splendid preface written at the age of 86. He began as a writer on cartography and author of school texts and finished as an austere scholar, producing erudite works of the type he denigrated in his early years. He was not an innovator but was interested in all those aspects of geography which, like Malte-Brun, he wished to disengage from the clutches of other disciplines.

a.

Cartography

His initial training in cartography gave him the advantage of a more thorough vision of geography than his selftaught contemporaries such as Cortambert. This is perhaps his main claim to originality. Long before the defeat of I87O opened French eyes to the superior geographical and cartographical work of the Germans, Vivien had drawn attention to the maps and atlases of Kiepert and Petermann and deplored the decadence that had followed the flowering of the remarkable French school in the eighteenth century. He constantly praised the work of Delisle and d'Anville and in the preface to his Atlas 'el&mentaire of 1868 commented that the best study of geography as well as the easiest and most rewarding, lay in maps for 'a map is a large book written on a single page'. In 1877 he wrote a fine preface to the Atlas univers&l which was a summary treatment of the history of cartography, on which to his regret no comprehensive work existed in French. As atlases show for each period a fundamental document, so they reveal vital stages in the history of science.

b.

The teaching

of geography

Geography was hardly taught at all at the beginning of the nineteenth century though Vivien was impressed by the comment of Malte-Brun in his Annales des voyages (vol 1 (1809), 7) that 'ignorance of the world was being so removed that anyone could gain knowledge of all its countries; this was geographical knowledge, differing from history only because it dealt with space rather than time. Indeed, geography could be regarded as history stopped to deal with the present time'. This gave a pseudo-scientific approach to Vivien in

1S5

his younger days but he had no knowledge of physical geography and therefore he, like others, was attracted to the work of Buache in 1752 on the theory of hydrographic basins and water partings. This had been contested by Malte-Brun in his Precis de geographie universelle, 1810, although the associated Atlas de Lapit still showed the water partings. Elie de Beaumont, the geologist, saw this preoccupation with water partings and basins as only a beginning and field observations as an essential activity. Later on in his Histoire de la geographie (lfi73, P. ^28), Vivien commented that Buache's ideas had the weakness that they were developed without field observation and therefore gave a picture that was exaggerated and even false. Lacking training in geography during his school years, Vivien was all the more convinced of its value for others though he never had the status of Cortambert or even Jomard, both of whom were his contemporaries, in education. Self-taught but convinced that geography and cartography provided enlightenment, he was an admirer of the German school. He advocated the advance of geography in the various reviews which he edited, the

Nouvelles franqais,

annales des voyages, l8U5-55,the Athenaeum 1852-U and the Ann'ee geographique, 1863-76.

In the preface to the Anri&e geographique he expressed the hope that the publication would stimulate teaching and in 186U he looked forward to a time when the College de France would have a chair of geography. That he might have liked this appointment himself is probable but in 1872 it was given to Emile Levasseur, whose work was on economic and statistical geography and therefore different from that of Vivien {Geogr. Biobibl, Stud., vol 2 (1978), 81-8).

c.

Development of geography

In Vivien's time the general works of Balbi and even more of Malte-Brun had not been replaced by others, but he was well acquainted with the works of Humboldt, who published nearly all his books in French and of Carl Ritter, whose publications Vivien would have liked to adapt for French readers. For both he had a warm admiration. He kept abreast of his time and showed his well developed critical faculty in the Anne~e geographique in which he dealt with works that showed the development of geography. He had tried unsuccessfully to persuade the Societe de geographie to do this and resented the failure to provide some essential tools such as the Dictionary which he had planned long before Hachette gave a blessing to the enterprise. In fact he had suggested this in I856 when he read a section of the article on France for the geographical dictionary to the Society (Bull.Soc. Geogr., vol 11 (1856), 39*0. He

also hoped to publish an Histoire

de la

geographie,

similar to the writings of Jomard and Santarem in France and Ritter, Humboldt and Peschel in Germany. He published various sections of this work which was ultimately supported by Hachette and issued in 1873. Earlier, in 1863, he was quick to recognise the significance of

Guyot's Earth and man. d.

Historical

geography

Vivien contributed to the work on ancient India of Stanislas Julien and of Reinaud, and dealt with the cartography of Ptolemy on the east and southeast of the world as then conceived. Undoubtedly, Vivien was

136

Louis Vivien de

Saint-Martin

fascinated by research on the ancient world and in his last years he was obsessed by his project of a dictionary of ancient geography, which he announced repeatedly and for which he lovingly accumulated finely written index cards, presented in 1888 to the library of the Institut in files, packets and dossiers. According to a letter of October 1888 to the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres, he thought that the English dictionary by William Smith was inadequate, though after his death it was decided that his material was in fact rough sketches not ready for publication.

e.

To Vivien this was a favoured and indeed an essential study, and in his manuscript Notice biographique he observed that the historical study of human races had been a considerable feature of his research. Jomard, the founder of the Map section of the Royal Library, had for thirty years pleaded for the founding of a museum of ethnography and had even collected various strange objects in the Map section, already pressed for space, of the Library. Ethnography was beginning its encroachment on human geography though Ratzel's Anthropogeographie did not appear until 1902. Vivien was active in the Societe d'ethnologie though his research was mainly on the 'race caucasienne'; in 1871 he read a paper at the Societe de geographie on the 'white oceanic' race 'Une nouvelle race a inscrise sur la carte du globe la race blanche oceanienne', (Bull. Soc. Geogr., 6 ser. , vol 2 (l87l), 305-12). He was particularly proud of this 'discovery' and like his contemporaries he was convinced of the superiority of the western white race, as he explained with emphasis

3.

famous Earth and Man.

In historical geography his critical approach to the work of Ptolemy, especially on North Africa, was warmly commended by such different people as Duveyrier and Desjardins. But an adverse view was taken by Berthelot in 1921 though I. Desanges' judgement in 1962 was favourable and so too was that of L. Robert in 1980. Vivien shared with Elisee Reclus the problem that the Hachette firm were slow in giving him an opportunity of publication, though his main works were kept in print

for many years.

Ethnology

in the preface to his Histoire decouvertes giographiques.

asked to write a preface for the translation of Guyot's

de la geographie

et des

INFLUENCE AND SPREAD OF IDEAS

Vivien himself said that he had made a contribution to the revival of geography in France, and Drapeyron in a short obituary commented that the name of Vivien de Saint-Martin was known everywhere for like Cortambert, Malte-Brun and others he had made contributions to geography at a time when it was neglected. The comments of Vivien and Drapeyron appear at first to be similar but there are undertones in the obituary, for Vivien's wide range of publications during a very long life was prejudicial to his reputation. And he was not helped by his unsociable temperament, for his self-education and the financial problems that beset him all through life made him quick to take offence. He always worked alone and, for example, never sought out Schrader, who succeeded him in producing the Atlas. He was sufficiently well known to be appointed as a member of the newly formed Commission scientifique of Mexico in l86h; Victor Duruy asked for an 'histoire bibliographique relative au Mexique' and Vivien provided a report of 88 pages in I865. In 1875 he was a member of the Committee on the history of geography at the International Geographical Congress in Paris, and there he also attended sessions of the sections on ethnology and toponomy. After 1870 he was largely ignored by the new university geographers and by the 1880s he was too old to follow the rapid development of what was then a young science though in 1888 he was

The Diotionnaire

universel

de

geographie,

for which he was a pioneer worker and on which he left his mark, is still used and indeed valued despite its long history and the Atlas universel, first published contemporaneously with the famous Atlas generale VidalLablache, is a work of great merit now of some historic interest, though the real author was Schrader. His

Histoire

de la gtogravhie

et des decouvertes

geographiaues

is a useful synthesis, warmly welcomed when it appeared and cited by many geographers outside France including Bunbury, Adolf-Erik Nordenskiold (in his Faksimile Atlas of 1888), Beazley and more recently Cortesao. Some parts of this book, such as the preface and the last chapters, are now out of date but the whole work is remarkable and in France it has never been superseded. Apparently the Hachette firm had in mind an edited reprint after the First World War but unfortunately the idea was dropped. Finally, the L'Annee gtographique illuminates the contemporary 'mouvement geographique' in an annual assessment far more informative than the disclosures in the Bulletin of the Societe de geographie, including comment on historical, geographical and cartographical questions and even a study of the popular geographical work of Jules Verne. Vivien even suggested that the novelist might write on the 'Premier homme'(Ann'ee ge'oqraphique (l86U), U09). Recently M. Andre Meynier commended the Ann'ee geographique for the pertinent comments of Vivien de Saint-Martin on the evolution of geographical thought and teaching as it happened and for that very reason a rare achievement (Ann. Geogr., vol 83 (197*0, 20U). And when in 1921 it was proposed in the French Senate to confer the Legion d'honneur on the Societe de geographie's members to celebrate its centenary, Victor Berard said that people in France were beginning to give the recognition justly due to the French school of geography of which Vivien de Saint-Martin and Elisee Reclus had been the precursors.

Louis Vivien de Saint-Martin

Bibliography and Sources 1.

REFERENCES ON LOUIS VIVIEN DE SAINT-MARTIN

2.

SELECTIVE AND THEMATIC BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE WORKS OF VIVIEN DE SAINT-MARTIN

Huber, W. , Rapport pour 1'attribution a M. Vivien de Saint-Martin de la Grande Medaille d'or, Bull. Soo. Geogr. , vol 16 (1878), 532-1*2 Diotionnaire biographique du Calvedos (189M, n.p. Polybiblion, revue bibliographique universelle, 2 ser. , vol 1*5 (1897), 173-H Revue encyclopedique, reoueil dooumentaire universel et illustrt. Chronique universelle, January 1897, 'Necrologie', k Ann. G'eogr. , vol 6 (1897), 91

a. Cartography 1821 Carte Electorate de la France, 1 sheet 1827 Atlas universale pour servir a I 'etude de la geographie et de I 'histoire anciennes et modemes, 6l plates

1828 Bibliomappe. Mappemonde en deux hemispheres oil sont tractes les lignes de fatte des grands bassins qui partagent la surface du globe, 1 sheet 1855 'De l'etat actuel de la cartographie en Europe1, Bull. Soc. GZogr. , vol 10, 239-61*; also as Bull. Soc.

G&ogr.,

extra vol., 28p.

1868 Atlas 'el'ementaire a I'usage des tcoles primaires, Hachette, lOp. and 8 maps in colour on h plates 1877-1912 Atlas de geographie universelle ... ouvrage commence par M. Vivien de Saint-Martin, ... et continue par Fr. Schrader, Hachette, 32p. and 90 maps in colour b. Educational works 182H-33 Bibliomappe ... with varied titles, of which the first is Bibliomappe ou livre-cartes, lecons methodiques de chronologie et de geographie rtdige'es d'apres les plans de M. B. par une societe d'hommes et lettres et de savants geographes MM. Danou, Eyries, Annee, Alb. Montemont, Vivien etc., 2 vol, and the last, of 1832 Bibliomappe. Geographie physique et administrative de la France, appuyee sur les lignes de portage et sur le cours des eaux ... par MM. Ballieul et Vivien, Ui+Up. 1829 Lettre a S.E. le Ministre de I'Instruction publique ... sur la necessite de reformer ou plutot de fonder I'enseignement de la geographie et de la chronologie dans I'Universite, par MM. Bailleul et Vivien, ll*p. c.

Geography i) Journals 181+5-55 Nouvelles annales de voyages et des sciences geographiques 1852-1+ L 'Athenaeum frangais, journal universel de la

137

litterature, de la Science et des beaux-artes ... fonde et dirige par L. Vivien de Saint-Martin et at. 1863-76 L 'Annee geographique, revue annuelle des voyages de terre et de mer, ainsi que des explorations ... publications diverses relatives aux sciences geogravhiques et ethnographiques ii) Books 18U5 Histoire des decouvertes geographiques des nations europeennes dans les diverses parties du Monde, 2 vol and 2 maps: in 1852 reissued with the title Description historique et geographique de I 'Asie mineure 1865 Rapport fait a la Commission scientifique du Mexique sur I 'etat actuel de la geographie de cette contree , 88p. 1873 Histoire de la geographie et des decouvertes geographiques depuis les temps les plus recuies jusqu'h nos jours, Hachette, xvi + 6l5p. and atlas with 13 maps 1879-99 Nouveau dictionnaire de geographie universelle ... by V. de Saint-Martin ... (continued by Louis Rousselet), Hachette, 9 vol d. Historical geography l8Ul Journal d'une residence en Circassie pendant les annees 1837, 1838 and 1839, par James Stanislaus Bell ... traduit de I'anglais, augmente d'une introduction historique et geographique ... par Louis Vivien, ... Arthus Bertrand, 2 vol 1858 Memoire analytique sur la carte d'Asie centrale et de I 'Inde ... pour les voyages de Hiouen-Thsang dans I'Inde (trans. E. St. Julien), 178p. i860 Etude sur la geographie grecque et latine de I'Inde, et, en particulier sur I'Inde de Ptoiemee, U52p., 2 maps Etude sur la geographie et les populations primitives du Nord-Ouest de I 'Inde d 'apre's les hyrnnes vediques ... memoire couronne en 1855 par I 'Academie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, lxviii + 205p. 1863 Le Nord de I 'Afrique dans I 'Antiquite grecque et romaine, etude historique et geographique, ouvrage couronne en 1860 par I 'Academie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, xx + 520p., h maps e. Ethnology 181*5 Recherches sur I'histoire de I'anthropoloeie, 33p. 18U7 Recherches sur les populations primitives et les plus anciennes traditions de Caucase, lues a la Societe d'ethnologie de Paris ... 1846, Arthus Bertrand, viii + 201p. 181+9 Les Huns blancs ou Ephtalites des historiens byzantins ... Thunot, 123P. 1850-2 Etudes de geographie ancienne et d'ethnographie asiatique, Arthus Bertrand, 2 vol 1871 'Une nouvelle race a inscrire sur la carte du globe', Bull. Soc. C^ogr. , vol 2, 305-12 3.

UNPUBLISHED SOURCES

The Societe de geographie, Paris has an autobiographical sketch, the manuscripts of a number of papers for publication, a classification of his own library, a study of the general history of humanity and an

138

Louis Vivien de

Saint-Martin

essay on humanity through the centuries. The Institute of Geography, University of Paris, has in its archives two letters to the secretary and a verbal transcript of a meeting held in 1888. In its library there is a file of material on India, 36 packets of notes for the Dictionnaire de g&ographie anoienne stored alphabetically in boxes The Hachette firm archives have contracts, 3 letters and the death notice. Lucie Lagarde is a librarian in the Departement des Cartes et Flans, Bibliothe~que Rationale, Paris. Translated by T. W. Freeman.

Chronology 1802

Born at St. Andre de Fontenay (Calvedos) May 17

181U

Moved to Paris

1821

Became a founder member of the Soci'ete' de g&ographie and issued his 'Carte electorale de la France'

182U

Began work as a cartographer, writer and translator

1826

Constructed a giorama

1829

Issued a letter to the Minister of Education advocating the development of geography

1839

Became a member of the Societe

181*5

Added 'de Saint-Martin' to his name and, to 1855, was editor and director of the Nouvelles Annales des Voyages

18U9

Became Vice-President of the Soci'ete' d'ethnologie

1852-5

Produced the Athenaeum

1855

Became Secretary-general of the de g&ographie

i860

Was made Vice-president of the Soci&t& de g&ographie

1863

Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur: the Annie Gkographiaue (to 1871+)

1861*

Served as vice-chairman of the Commission on Mexico of the SocittZ de giographie

1875

Attended the second International

d'ethnologie

frangais Soci&tt

produced

Geographical Congress, held in Paris, and served on the committee on the history of geography 1877

Sold some of his publishing interests to the Hachette firm

1878

Given the gold medal of the Soci'ete g&ographie

1896

Died at Versailles, December 26

de

Leo Heinrich Waibel 1888-1951

GOTTFRIED PFEIFER As a scholar and teacher Leo Waibel was one of the outstanding personalities in German geography between the wars, and internationally until his death. He created schools of geography not only in Germany, but after his emigration in 1939 also in the United States and Brazil.

of study were the natural sciences, in particular biology. Hettner advised Waibel to study for a term (semester) in Berlin, where Albrecht Penck, the major German geomorphologist, was teaching at that time. After his return to Heidelberg Hettner urged Waibel to choose one of the little-developed methods of biological geography as the subject for his doctoral thesis.

1.

b. Africa — In 1911-12, before his dissertation and other articles appeared in print, Waibel accompanied Franz Thorbecke as an assistant on a research trip of the German Colonial Society to Cameroon. There he became acquainted with the African rain forest, savanna, and savanna forest (Trockenwald). He extended the research of the enterprise from the forms of animal life and the vegetation zones to the way of life and the cultural patterns of the native populations of the forest and the grassland (1919). Illness compelled him to return to Europe prematurely, in September 1912. Waibel spent the rest of 1912 and also the year 1913 in Heidelberg where, in addition to working through the results of his African tour, he pursued socioeconomic studies under Eberhard Gothein. In 191^ he accompanied Fritz Jaeger as an assistant on his expedition to Southwest Africa (Geoar. Z. , vol 20 (191U), 289). After studying the Etosha Pan the explorers were startled to hear of the outbreak of war. They joined the colonial military forces and were captured, though later they were given the opportunity of continuing their scientific work. Waibel's research included the study of winter rain, the morphology of the Karras mountains, the vegetation of the area and once again the

EDUCATION,

LIFE

AND WORK

Leo Waibel, born on 22 February 1888 in Kutzbrunn, northern Baden, was the son of Ludwig and Theresa (nee Kraus) Waibel. There he attended a primary school at which his father was the only teacher, from 189*+ to 1899When the family moved to Heidelberg in 1900, Leo attended the Gymnasium, which offered a classical education, until 1907. The interests of his childhood were directed toward the natural sciences: he read and re-read Brehm's Life of Animals, and his favourite books were about the exploration of Africa and notably, the German colonies. a. University Studies — From 1907 to 1911 Waibel studied natural sciences in Heidelberg, and spent one semester in Berlin. The best report on his university years is supplied by his contemporary Heinrich Schmitthenner (1887-1957), with whom Waibel studied in Heidelberg (Schmitthenner 1953). They were both students of Alfred Hettner, under whom a circle of young geographers later to attain recognition developed. To all of them, including Waibel, Hettner was not only their academic teacher but also a fatherly friend and patron. Along with geography the most important fields

140

Leo Heinrioh

Waibel

way of life of the native population and the resident Europeans (1920). From this work came the book which he wrote in the solitude of a lonely ranch, Primaeval forest, veld and desert (1921, 1928, reissued 1965), which introduced him to a wide public. His five and a half years in Africa yielded a rich harvest. c. Cologne — In 1920 Waibel went to work as an assistant to Franz Thorbeke in Cologne. There he earned his habilitation with a monograph on the winter rains in Southwest Africa. His contact with the economist Bruno Kuske was important for the future development of his views on economics and geography. Kuske showed him the significance of economic theory, for example of von Thiinen, and also of economic history in relation to economic geography. Waibel's article on "The regions of animal husbandry in the Southern Hemisphere' (1922) owed its origin to this inspiring contact. In this article the basic trends of Waibel's later economicgeographical theories were already apparent. This period in Cologne was followed by a brief sojurn at Berlin, where he served as Albrecht Penck's senior assistant (1922). In Berlin he married Else Michaelis, who had been secretary to Penck. While there he received the offer of a professorial chair in Kiel, as the successor to Ludwig Mecking, and his acceptance began a new phase in his varied life. d. Kiel — (1922-9). The move to Kiel was especially attractive as it gave Waibel contact with both the Geographical Institute and the Institute for World Economy and Ocean Traffic, which under the direction of Bernhard Harms had gained a national reputation and through the work of Dr. Gulich had acquired a fine library. Kiel's Geographical Institute was small, lacking a secretary and even a typewriter, though there was a library, a cartography room which was also used for seminars and by doctorate students, a second cartography room which also served the ethnography museum, a small room for the professor and another for the assistants, of whom in fact there was only one, Wilhelm Credner, who later became a recognized university teacher by gaining his habilitation in Kiel. The main work of the other institute, under Ludwig Mecking, was on oceanography and the regional geography of SchleswigHolstein. Waibel was responsible for teaching in both institutes, and found that there were two different types of students, for those in the university were mainly intending teachers and those in the other institute were concerned with commerce. This led him to present economic geography and especially economic distributions in different ways, suited to the needs of the differing groups of students. Waibel offered his students a structured cycle of lectures and seminars for eight semesters, the usual period of study. In this course of study the students came into contact with the major fields of geography. Both the assistant and the Dozent constantly took part in the planning of these courses and excursions received special attention: they served not only to familiarize the student with the regional geography of SchleswigHolstein but also provided advanced training in methods of observation. In Kiel Waibel developed the methods which later made him famous in North and South America: 'What do we see here?' or, expressed differently,

'What is taking place here?' were incisive questions challenging to students. 'Observation is seeing combined with thinking' was one of his sayings. However the funds available for these excursions were limited and in the years 1922-U inflation was disastrous; accommodation and range of work was restricted and tours outside Germany impossible until the mark was stabilised. Waibel was, for himself as well as for others, an advocate of 'learning by doing*, convinced that geographers could learn methodology by fieldwork and writing rather than by talking about it. This was a pragmatic approach at a time when there was perpetual debate on the methodology of geomorphology, landscape science and other problems. e. Mexico — Fortunately Waibel decided to find his own methodology on a visit to Mexico. On 25 November 1925 he reached Vera Cruz, where he stayed for some days before going to Mexico City to organize his work. He then went to Chiapas, his research areas for physical and human geography. Publications from this visit ranged from geomorphology through meteorology and climatology to economic geography and finally a regional synthesis. He chose his area well, for the Sierra Madre forms the watershed between the Atlantic and the Pacific drainage systems and shows a marked contrast in climate and vegetation between the lee and windward slopes. Two different landscapes had resulted from inherent geographical diversity and from their economic history, complex because it showed the influence of various Indian and European migrations from Guatemala and the effects of new communications, especially by railway. There were local contrasts also, for the Sierra Madre was a crystalline massif covered by younger sediments moulded into a landscape of cuestas with enclosed basins. The morphological and climatic diversity was fundamental in regional study, but the cultural geography could only be fully understood by considering the old colonial elements in the landscapes along with the varied agricultural activity, including the development of the new European coffee plantations as well as the Indian hoe economy. Waibel crossed the Sierra Madre six times, travelling by horse or mule rather than by motor car, climbing to as high as 2,500 m. , living on local food and in primitive accommodation, generally accompanied only by a native guide. He was a guest at several of the German fazendas (coffee plantations) and these interludes gave him the opportunity of relaxation and study of his material, on which he wrote interesting letters to his friends at home. Always he showed his keen observation, his careful search for conclusions and a comparative approach based on his African experience. To travel in Mexico was far more difficult than in Africa, with its efficient colonial administration, for Mexico was still suffering from the aftermath of revolution and he found the Indians temperamentally sullen compared with the exuberent Africans. After finishing his work in Chiapas, Waibel travelled along the Pacific northwest coast through Sinoloa and Sonora. Here he observed the consequences of the agricultural reorientation caused by the penetration of American capital from the north. Railway transport had revived the old sugar plantations and stimulated the new seasonal cultivation of vegetables for the United States market. A brief visit to California followed and

Leo Heinrich

then he went to Arizona, bent on morphological studies, in particular the examination of the inselbergs, known to him already from his work in Southwest Africa, in the light of more recent North American opinion. He returned to Hamburg on 25 October 1926. The following years in Kiel were devoted to working through the results of his journey. The resulting publications dealt, for example, with the phenomenon of the 'Norther and Foehn' winds, which was to occupy him repeatedly throughout his career, and whose 'biology' he had observed on his trip. He refined A. Hettner's methods of 'physiological' climatology. He embellished his regional geography with a map of the Sierra Madre (scale 1:1*00,000) which was based on surveys made during his travels. However, the results of his trip were most significant for the field of anthropogeography. His comprehensive essay "The economic-geographicalregionalization of Mexico', (1929; 1930) dedicated to Alfred Philippson (l86l*-1953) on his 65th birthday, was a masterly achievement. In it Waibel presents, with refined methodological concepts, the findings of his journeys in a three-dimensional synthesis which can justifiably claim Alexander von Humboldt as its model. In lectures and seminars Waibel also involved his students in the critical deliberations about the new ideas in economic geography. The concepts which he had received as Hettner's student were critically developed. The writings of anthropologists and students of human culture such as Eduard Hahn (The economic formations of the earth since 1892), Vierkandt, Grabner,

F. Krause (The economic life

of the peoples

of the

earth) were mandatory readings, and the theoreticians J.H. von Thiinen and J.G. Kohl (Human transportation and

settlement in its dependence on the configuration of the earth's surface^ 1841) and Th. H. Engelbrecht

became the subjects for seminar work. Waibel held a great regard for the older travel literature, the collection of which he was able to expand carefully with the financial help of the library of the ethnographical museum. Waibel's methodological position during his period in Kiel can be best appreciated from the introduction to his lecture of 1928 on economic formations. He maintained that, corresponding to the interest of the geographer, economic geography must be organized into an 'integrated presentation of all the phenomena of the earth's surface'. This formulation, taken from Hettner

(Geographyt its history, naturet and methods , 1927) was

seen in the light of the basic conception of biogeography. Thus economic geography was first conceptualized as 'biological economic geography', i.e. the observation of man from a biological standpoint: 'For economy is life and is subject to its general laws'. Waibel's broadened conception came through his adoption of the ideas of Th. H. Engelbrecht, E. Hahn, von Thiinen and others, and was published in Problems of agricultural

geography, 1933.

/. Bonn (1929-23) — By his acceptance of a professorial chair at Bonn in succession to Alfred Philippson, Waibel was placed in a major university of the historic cultural Rhineland area, able to work for a greater number of students and by 1933 to develop one of Germany's largest and best equipped geographical institutes. Along with the assistant professor (R. Stickell) there

Waibel

141

was G. Pfiefer as senior assistant, W. Groteluschen and J. Schmithusen also as assistants, and student helpers. On the practical side there was the support of an admirable handyman whose skills included bookbinding. Waibel developed the work on the lines followed at Kiel, notably by fruitful discussion with the staff, of whom the more senior became fellow examiners at the degree level. The scope of teaching was broadened, particularly in biogeography and economic geography and in the thesis work of the students many new ideas were applied in the Rhineland area. Waibel found many gifted students in Bonn, among whom were J. Schmithusen and W. Muller-Wille who brought new insights to geography. Others included G. Pfiefer who returned from Berkeley, California with an interest in the problems of overseas areas, F. Bartz whose specialization was in biogeography, Karl Pelzer who wrote on workers' migration in southeast Asia, and W. Stiehler who studied the Abyssinian economy (though most of his work was destroyed by bombing, Erdkd., vol 2 (19^8), 257-72). There was no institute for world economy or ocean transport in Bonn comparable to that at Kiel, though human geography was stimulated by the working group on the historical regional geography of the Rhineland organized by Franz Steinbach. From 1930 there was co-operation with the planning office of the Rhineland at Dusseldorf. Waibel's own work was increasingly concentrated on economic, especially agricultural, geography, first developed during his time at Kiel. As a contribution to methodology he wrote lengthy essays on von Thiinen's significance, the life work of Th. H. Engelbrecht, the development of the plantation economy, Boer wagon-train migrations (Trekburen), and the supply of the temperate zone with economic products of the tropics. He induced W. Bast to examine in his dissertation this last theme in relation to the German Reich. Waibel also occasionally took up the much-debated concept of the landscape, and accepted Passarge's formulation only conditionally. Basing his work on 0. Schliiter, in his development of the concept of 'economic formations' Waibel had arrived at the term, famous since Ritter and used also by Hettner, of the cultural landscape, and adopted it. He never worked in the more narrow sense of 'landscape science' (landschaftskundlich). In his last years in Bonn he became more and more concerned with the significance of the tropics for the world economy. The raw

material

regions

of tropical

Africa

appeared in 1937

as the first volume of a larger projected work. It was written during the difficult National Socialist period in Germany, and in some respects did not correspond to Waibel's ideal. A more detailed examination of the 'economic formations' of individual areas was not possible, for the preliminary work was lacking. The treatment of the extraction of raw materials oriented to the world market, i.e. that production stimulated by the colonial powers, necessarily moved to the forefront. Nevertheless, the problems of the native economies continued to be discussed. 'The historical underpinnings are much more extensive than indicated by the usual discussion in current economic-geographical works'. (1937» p. 16) No phenomenon of human life can be understood without consideration of its temporal process of development. To organize the economic forms in

142

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Waibel

economic geography into a system, a world-economic approach was necessary to provide a basis for a comparative treatment. This Waibel provided by presenting in his introduction the concept of the 'economic geography tropics'. In this treatment he distinguished particular areas having sociological characteristics and asked the fundamental question more firmly than earlier workers, 'Where does a new type of society (Menschentyp) originate?' Unfortunately when Waibel with W. Miiller-Wille was in the middle of his preparatory work on the possibilities for European settlement in the tropics and relating this to the geographical demarcation of 'north-south' zones of exchange (using Fr. List's world-economic division of labour), Waibel was retired from the university, in accordance with Article 6 of the Nazi legal code dealing with the professional civil service in Germany 15 July 1938. He later wrote in 1950, when in Minneapolis, 'I was removed from work on 1 November 1937 because my wife was not of Aryan descent. We had been married in Berlin on 11 November 1922. We have no children'. This ironic statement was in a handwritten autobiographical sketch.

The considerable help offered by the American Geographical Society presented an ideal field for work. As a result of the approaching outbreak of war, R. Hartshorne and H.S. Sterling left the university in Madison, Wisconsin to take on military duties, and Waibel was offered a position there. The burden of giving lectures in English was great, but nevertheless he produced a number of important works. He wrote papers on the settlement possibilities of Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, El Salvador, and Guatemala, parts of which were published by the American Geographical Society. In addition to this, in Madison he wrote about tropical plantations and engaged in a critical debate with an economic historian, whose work he corrected. Using European research methods, he studied and reconstructed the original vegetation of Cuba, through the analysis of place names, using the older literature critically. The result was a map on a scale of 1:2,000,000. He once again took up the familiar theme of the political significance of the exchange between the temperate zones and the tropics in his essay 'Political significance of tropical vegetable fats for the countries of Europe'. Waibel's time as a visiting professor in Madison g. Emigration, U.S.A. and Brazil — Waibel's prosecuwas especially significant in that a group of young tion and dismissal from work occurred as he was making Brazilian geographers contacted him and became his plans for a trip abroad. Although he was given perstudents. With the end of the war in 19^5 Hartshorne mission to make his trip on 6 July, shortly before his and Sterling returned, ending Waibel's term in Wisconsin. dismissal took effect on 15 July, he was not able to However, he received an offer from the Conselho Nacional obtain permission to acquire foreign exchange. He de Geografia in Rio to serve there as scientificaccepted an invitation to the Liquidambar plantation in technical adviser. It was an old desire of Waibel's Chiapas, where he had been hospitably received during to work in Brazil, the largest tropical country settled his first trip in 1925-6. This time he was accompanied by a white population. The Conselho was at that time by his wife. Once again he reported in vivid letters going through a period of rat»id growth, and was well his numerous observations, now refined by experience. equipped. Waibel's general responsibility was to direct In his description of the Liquidambar fazenda he the research of young Brazilian colleagues in fieldwork attempted to depict the coffee plantation as a type. and in seminars. He was attracted by the idea of openIn 1938 he expanded his study of Central America to ing up Brazil as well as a field of activity for German include Guatemala and Costa Rica. His letter of geography, for in recent decades researchers active there Ik March 1938 already contains all the observations had been mainly from France. which were later published in the articles on Costa Rica Waibel's main duties were to lead field trips, each appearing in the Geographical Review and the Revista of which was directed at a particular goal. The first Brasileira (1939, 19^8, 1958). These involved the such trip took place from 10 July to 30 August 19^+6, and discussion of the population and the application of led to the Planalto of Goias and recent Brazilian colonvon Thunen's theory to a tropical land, for which ization in the 'Mato Grosso'. The selection of this Costa Rica seemed to him a near-perfect model. He particular area turned out to be fortunate. The natural returned with his wife to Germany in April, 1938. At environment, particularly that of the oarrrpo cerrado, this time he left Bonn permanently and moved to Berlin. inspired comparisons to the veld and the savannas of Shortly before the outbreak of World War II he Africa. Goias itself contained old settlement centres received an invitation from his former student Karl from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Since Pelzer to visit the United States. He crossed the the time of the gold rush it has represented a typical ocean alone and 'with a return-trip ticket in my pocket', 'interior', where even today garimpos search for precious yet was prevented from returning by the war. His wife stones. In addition to this, however, recent settlements was able to leave Germany in 19^0 and join him in the had appeared, partly spontaneously (Mato Grosso) and U.S.A. by travelling through Italy. A further phase partly planned by the government (Colonia Nacional Ceres). in Waibel's development began in the United States. The communications had been recently greatly improved as He came up against new tasks and soon acquired his the railway reached Anapolis. Waibel published the 'third' circle of students. His meeting with results of these field trips in his first Brazilian works. Isaiah Bowman of the American Geographical Society was He used the methods worked out in these initial trips in very important, for they immediately found common later ones as well: careful study of the available literground and great mutual respect. Through Bowman's ature which, as Waibel discovered, was surprisingly rich efforts Waibel became a research associate at Johns in information; careful observation, beginning in the Hopkins University in Baltimore. The theme proposed area of study; constant attempts to determine the essento him, 'settlement possibilities in the tropics', tial nature of the landscape and the transitions it was corresponded to Waibel's latest research in Bonn. undergoing; evening discussions and a carefully kept

Leo Heinrioh Waibel

j ournal. In his next publication he familiarized his Brazilian colleagues with von Thunen's theory, and, using the example of Costa Rica, its application to a tropical country (l9*+8). He saw his task as the working out of fundamentals, of 'principles', as he put it, and not so much in the elaboration of details. His publications were written in this spirit, as their titles indicate. In 19^7 Waibel, along with Fabio de Macedo Soaraes Guimaraes, became adviser to the third official research party, whose task it was to locate the site for Brazil's new capital Brazilia. This task was already burdened with political considerations by the constitution of 1889 and the work of Dr. Luis Crul's commission (the Relatorio of 189M. Nevertheless Waibel persistently maintained that first the theory of a capital must be thoroughly worked out. That this led to a conflict with the leader of the first research party — a general — was a source of special satisfaction for him and his students. His plan was to produce an atlas of Brazilian colonization and through this to become acquainted, together with his students, with as many colonies between the Rio Grande and Bahia as possible. This proved to be only partly realizable. The most important field trips were to the south, mostly to Santo Catarina, Parana, and Rio Grande do Sul. At the geographical conference in Lisbon in 19^9 Guimaraes presented Waibel's paper on the 'Colonizagao dos campos do Estado do Parana' (1952). The great success of the campos colonies of the Dutch and also the German Mennonites seemed to him to be particularly important for planning in the future. Waibel constantly sought to give his research findings a theoretical foundation and a basis of systematic order. He spoke of his work in this way I attempted to discern the various systems through daily discussions with the colonists ... Although my classification was reached inductively ... I nevertheless presented it in a deductive form. I attempted to describe the processes of settlement and economic activity historically from the beginning of the clearing for arable land to the conditions of the present day. In this way we become familiar with the stages of development as well as the present distribution, and gain a spatial and temporal overview of the agricultural economy. He gave urgent warnings against the over-evaluation of the western interior as the land of the future and in his 1955 paper published in Brazil said that the slogan should not be 'The march to the West' but 'Sound entrenchment in the East'. Waibel travelled most intensively through areas of European, mostly German colonization in the south. To him scientific understanding of the natural elements of the landscape was as fundamental as the observation of the historical process. Why were the forested areas continually seen as suitable only for agriculture and the campos only for grazing? Why do the European settlers everywhere revert to primitive forms of slash-and-burn agriculture — roga farming — like the

143

Indians and Caboclos? Why was it so difficult to develop a rational relationship between plant cultivation and animal grazing, such as was practised throughout the European homeland? Why were the measures of the planning agencies so inconsistent and often senseless in view of the actual size of the plots (lotes)l Again and again he pointed to the lack of markets for agricultural produce. Could the social friction, which necessarily resulted from the officially favoured mixing of different ethnic and religious groups, have been avoided? His comparisons with the successes of European colonization in Africa and the United States brought out the social problems of the Brazilian experience. Toward the end Waibel also visited Espirito Santo, but only fragments of his work on this are available. He was forced to interrupt his final trip — to the Reconcavo and the Sertao of Bahia — for health reasons. This trip supplied him with important new information, which he expressed in his farewell address to the Conselho: '0 que aprendi no Brasil' ('What Brazil has taught me') (1950). His parting with students and colleagues in Rio was a moving event. In the meantime efforts had been made in Germany to right the injustices which had been done to him. Several institutions offered him positions, among them the university in Heidelberg. He could not, however, agree to return immediately, and accepted Jan Broek's offer to come to Minneapolis, where he arrived on 21 August 1950. The following year he returned with his wife to Germany. His conditions could be met, and in Bonn and Heidelberg he prepared for new tasks and planned a reunion of his friends and students. Before this could take place, however, he died in Heidelberg on k September 1951. 2. SCIENTIFIC IDEAS AND GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT From childhood Waibel was attracted to natural science and his interest in animals, plants and man was enduring. From biology he turned to geography, having learned in physiology to see continuing and active processes. To Hettner such a student was especially welcome. Waibel did not speak of himself as a philosophical geographer but he was influenced by Hettner who, especially in his Geographische Zeitschrift, unceasingly argued against the dualistic conception of geography, favoured in Germany since the middle of the nineteenth century. Waibel in his teaching and research stressed the necessity to bear the unity of geography in mind, although he was also aware of the difficulties which this involved. His first works were determined by the biological orientation of his interests as a youth. His first problem, assigned by Hettner, was to understand the animal in its geographical environment, and in this he produced pioneering work. In Africa arose the major questions of vegetation typology and its spatial dispersion. His stay of over five years in Africa laid the basis for observation and, significantly, comparison, especially in Brazil. But his prime task was always description, on the basis of keen observation and critical evaluation. Then came intellectual consideration and interpretation. Geographical work starts with the phenomena, but in order to explain their simple correlation must also consider the 'physiology', or the processes in their interrelation. Along with this it must refer to appropriate cognate sciences. The

144

Leo Heinrich

Waibel

search for causes in geography will always go beyond disciplinary bounds. Africa had already taught this lesson for anthropogeography, which at that time was seeking the study of the integrated cultural landscape. The cultural areas of the natives were related to the natural areas in which they lived, but historical events had been merged into an evolutionary process that had moulded the landscape. The influence on the vegetation through fire caused by man is as significant as climatic and edaphic factors. His later observations in Brazil confirmed by comparison this basic conviction, which he had already formed in Africa. In Kiel Friedrich Mager had shown the need to approach problems of vegetation historically (The

history

of the cultural

landscape of the Duchy of

Schleswig 2 vols., Breslau, 1930-37), and Waibel drew him to his institute despite their entirely different methodological approaches. In the United States he applied the methods for studying the German primaeval landscape to the study of the tropical landscape in Cuba. In Goias the cadaster maps of the plantations, which contained information about vegetation, offered surprising possibilities for research. This recourse to the original natural landscape was of significance for him not only for plant geography but also in an important way for the study of settlement and landuse planning. He considered the compilation of a new vegetation map for Brazil to be an indispensable preliminary preparation for planning. Waibel never wrote a general tropical plant geography, but his former student J. Schmithusen expressed his thanks to his teacher by

dedicating his General vegetation

geography (Berlin,

3 ed., 1968) to him. Having received his field training from Hettner, Waibel also carried out climatological and geomorphological field work in Africa. In Southwest Africa he came up against the problem of inselberg and peneplain formation, and their connections with the processes of arid climates. Later he discovered similar problems in northern Sonora and Arizona. Due to keen observation and discussion of processes, his works on this subject are significant today as early contributions to climatic morphology. They must be seen in the the light of the major discussion going on at that time in Germany, which had come about as a result of the penetration of the Davis school since 1912. In Berlin it was supported heavily by, among others, A. Ruhl and even considered by A. Penck. Opponents were S. Passarge (physiological morphology), E. Obst, and above all A. Hettner. Problems of comparative geomorphology stimulated Waibel later as well, as he worked through his observations of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas in Mexico. However, his observations did not lead to clear conclusions about the different climates. A. Hettner's doctoral dissertation dealt with Chile's climate, based on the movement of air masses, as he put it, •physiologically'. Waibel applied this same approach in Southwest Africa. His 'Winter rains* is a classical example of a dynamic (physiological) regional climatic study based on observation, which has maintained its value not least from these obervations and descriptions. His works on the 'norther' winds and their continuation in the lee as 'foehn', which he had already vividly described in his travel letters and

later prepared as articles, are written with the same orientation. Was landscape science (Landschaftskunde) also a part of Waibel's work? The concept was already wellknown during the period in which he worked: since the beginning of the century S. Passarge had inaugurated the study of the 'physiographic science of the landscape' in Germany (for the history of landscape science in geography and the most important literature see

J. Schmithusen, Allgemeine Synergetiks Grundlagen der Landschaftskunde (General synergetics > the principles

of landscape science), Berlin-New York, 1976). The problems of the spatial classification of natural phenomena, of the emerging historical study of the primaeval and early-historical landscape, and the 'landscape' as an important, if not the most important, basic spatial concept, were all passionately discussed in the first third of the century. Waibel approached this concept as an observer of the biological environment with the task of analyzing and presenting the interaction of the processes in a surveyable locality. How was this concept differentiated from the smallest units of Hettner's regional-geographically oriented classification? At this point Waibel moved closer to the views of Otto Schliiter on human geography (1906, 'The goal of human geography* and 1919, 'The place of geography among the earth sciences') and similar views in French geography (Jean Brunhes from 1910). Waibel needed the 'landscape' more than anything in order to grasp the effects of man, whom he recognized as a decisively important force, in a manner adequate to geography. In a narrow sense Waibel did no research on the theme of 'landscape science', although he did contribute in terms of his understanding of the phenomenological state of affairs (Tatbestandes), as well as the physiological causal complex (Wirkungsgefuge). From 1920, as he moved closer to problems of economic geography through his contacts in Cologne with Bruno Kuske, he began to alter his views, which he had originally formed very much on the model of biogeography. He had already received many new ideas from Hettner, who had strongly referred him to ethnologists and historians of culture such as V. Hehn and agricultural scientists such as J. H. von Thunen and Th. H. Engelbrecht.

Kuske's books on the Significance of Europe for the development of the world economy (192U) and on 'economic

space' supplied impressive examples for the significance of history and theory in economic geography. Theory building and deductive methods filled Waibel's need to grasp the principles. In the real world the essential nature of the type, with which scientific description and systematization is concerned, is concealed by details of secondary importance. Theory and model building suggest possible laws governing processes. But the unique quality of the geographical conception of reality connotes that models alone, as an abstraction, cannot be satisfying, for they are themselves developed forms evolved during a long historical process. The depiction of the concrete situation (reale Erfassung), well demonstrated statistically by Th. H. Engelbrecht, is as significant as the work on cultural and economic geography of Eduard Hahn, Viktor Hehn, Carl Ritter, E. Oberhummer, Josef Partsch and others. Waibel completed his study of the ideas of Hettner, Kuske and others during his time at Kiel, and developed his methodological views in his

Leo Heinrich lectures, in his researches on the Sierra Madre and in his work on agricultural geography. So he was led inexorably to the concept of 'economic formation1, to its expression as a system and a spatial organization having 'order and connection', as W. Muller-Wille observed. From this came, in Bonn, the cartographic representation of 'agricultural economic formations', above all in the work of W. Muller-Wille and J. Schmithusen. W. Credner, earlier an assistant professor in Kiel and then professor in Munich, pursued with his students problems of cartographical representation and founded the working group for agricultural geography, which later, under the direction of

E. Otremba, produced the Atlas tural landscape.

of the German

agricul-

Leo Waibel had a decisive influence on German geography through his stimulation of mapping the cultural landscape in the field, his idea of 'economic formations', and his use of the ideas of Engelbrecht and von Thunen, which had also been inspired by the economists, Th. Brinkmann and Beschorner. Waibel's own interest led him primarily to study the economic-geographical characteristics of the tropics and their function within a zonal exchange. He quoted frequently from Friedrich

List (The national

system of political

economy, 1851).

At first he himself dealt, in several articles, mainly with plantation economies. World War II demonstrated the extraordinary significance of an undisturbed exchange of trade between the tropics and the temperate regions. Above all 'fat shortages' had proved disastrous for the industrialized countries. (See his 'The political significance of tropical vegetable fats for the industrial countries of Europe' in Ann. Assoc. Am. Geogr. 33 (19^3), 118-28.) His most important contribution to regional economic

geography was his Raw material

regions

of tropical

Africa

(Leipzig, 1937). The book was conceived as the first volume of a more extensive work on the tropics, as indicated in the broadly theoretical and systematic introduction ('A general overview of the tropics', I, 17-56), in which Waibel summarized his ideas about the natural world, economic geography, and economy. Waibel did not live to see the end of the colonial era, though he saw the need for a full re-thinking of this world problem. In his work one can find suggestions retaining their validity even today, such as the formation of large north-south zones, in which the industrial countries of the north could be organized together with the raw material-producing areas of the tropics into a supra-zonal exchange network. Exile brought Waibel the chance to study Brazil intimately, the largest tropical land to have been settled through European expansion, and he took advantage of this opportunity eagerly. What awaited him there was above all practical work in planning, in which he hoped to supply a theoretical-critical scale on the basis of his life's work. His personal magnetism was rooted in his moral convictions, which remained unshaken through all his trials of political origin. Unshaken too was his conception of scientific work and these fine qualities of character were appreciated by his Brazilian students, some of whom developed his ideas productively. Waibel himself viewed his time in Brazil not only as a period of teaching, but also one of learning. This is indicated by his last article written in

Waibel

145

Brazil, 'What Brazil has taught me' (1950). The geographical comparison made possible to him by the course which his life took served as well to deepen his critical attitude to the leading authorities in the field. Von Thunen's ideas endured: they were a 'death-blow to any theory of geographic determinism'. Waibel's negation of determinism was confirmed again and again through the neglect of market relationships in the planning and the establishing of colonies. On the other hand, he more and more criticized Eduard Hahn's economic forms: He neglects the problem of fertilizers in an unusual way. I am also disappointed by his lack of knowledge about agriculture and his frequent unclarities and contradictions ... His 'economic forms' are, despite the new name, nevertheless 'cultural forms'. (letter of 8 May 1951 from Minneapolis) The many-sided forms of the tropical Brazilian colonial and peasant economies, the world-wide changes in plantation organization, the emergence of a native economy, and many other aspects had to be examined afresh, and this was to be the task for future work: I hope that I can carry out my trips here in Brazil according to plan, and then finish up several books, on which I have been working now for a long time, at leisure: the tropics as a land of the future (Zukunftsraum) for man, tropical America, and the colonization of Brazil. Unfortunately I am a slow worker ... (manuscript diary of the trip to Rio Grande do Sul, 19U8, on his 60th birthday, p. 1*21) But he was not granted the time and leisure to carry this out.

Bibliography and Sources 1. REFERENCES ON LEO HEINRICH WAIBEL Pfiefer, G., 'Das wirtschaftsgeographische Lebenswerk Leo Waibel: 2.22. 1888 - h. 9. 1951' ('Leo Waibel's life-work in economic geography'), Erdkd., vol 6/1 (1952), 1-20 Muller-Wille, M., 'Leo Waibel und die deutsche geographische Landesforschung' ('Leo Waibel and German regional research'), Ber. Dtsch. Landkd., vol 11 (1952), 58-71 Schmithusen, J., 'Leo Waibel', Die Erde, vol h (1952), 99-107 Broek, J.O.M., 'Leo Heinrich Waibel. An appreciation', Geogr. Rev., vol U2 (1952), 287-92 Bernardes, N., 'Leo Waibel', Rev. Bras. Geogr., vol lU/2 (1952), 199-201 Schmitthenner, H., 'Leo Waibel', Petermanns Geogr. Mitt., vol 97 (1953), 161-9 Pfiefer, G., 'Landwirtschaftliche Betriebssysteme und Kolonisationserfolg in Sudbrasilien auf Grund der Forschungen von Leo Waibel' ('Agricultural systems

146

Leo Heinrich

Waibel

1925 'Gebirgsbau und Oberflachengestalt der Karrasberge and successful colonization in southern Brazil on in Sudwestafrika' ("The geological structure and the "basis of Leo Waibel's research'), Erdkd. , vol 7 surface formation of the Karas Berg in southwest (1953), 2U1-9 Africa'), Mitt. Dtsch. Schutzgeb., vol 33/1-2, Pfiefer, G., 'Leo Waibels Arbeiten zur Kolonisation in 2-38, 8l-lll+ Brasilien' ('Leo Waibel's works on colonization in Brazil'), in Waibel, L., IHe europaische Kolonisation 1927 'Die nordwestlichen Kiistenstaaten Mexicos' Sudbrasiliens , Bonn, (1955), 7-18 ("The northwestern coastal provinces of Mexico'), Pfiefer, G., 'Leo Waibel, Gedenkworte zum 75. Geogr. Z., vol 33/10, 561-76 Geburstage', ('Leo Waibel, on his 75th anniversary'), 1928 'Die Sierra Madre de Chiapas' ("The Sierra Madre of Geogr. Z. , vol 5 l A (1935), 265-7 Chiapas'), Verh. 22. Dtsch. Geogr. Karlsruhe 1927, Symposium zur Agrargeographie anlasslich des 80. 87-98 Geburtstage von Leo Waibel am 22 Februar 1968 'Die Inselberglandschaft von Arizona und Sonora' (A symposium on agricultural geography held to ('The Inzelberg landscapes of Arizona and Sonora'), commemorate Leo Waibel 's 80th anniversary on Z. Gesell. Erdkd. Berlin, Sonderband der GesellFebruary 22 1968) ed. G. Pfiefer, Heidelberg (1968), schaft fur Erdkunde zu Berlin Hundertjahrfeier, 130p. Also published as vol 36 of Heidelberger 1828-1928,68-91 Geographische Arbeiten. 'Beitrag zur Landschaftskunde* ('A contribution to landscape science'), Geogr. Z., vol 3I+/8, 1*75-86; vol 35, 166-70 2. SELECTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS BY 1929 'Die wirtschaftsgeographische Gliederung Mexicos' LEO HEINRICH WAIBEL ('The economic-geographical regionalization of 1912 'Physiologische Tiergeographie' ('Physiological Mexico'),Geogr. Z., vol 35/7-8, 1+16-39 zoo-geography'), Geogr. Z. , vol 18/3, 163, 165 1932 'Norder und Fohn in der Sierra Madre de Chiapas' 1913 'Lebensformen und Lebenweise der Tierwelt im ('"Norther" and "foehn" winds in the Sierra Madre tropischen Afrika. Versuch einer geographischen Z. , Vol 1+9/7, 25I+-8 of Chiapas'), Meteorol. Betrachtungsweise der Tierwelt auf physiologischer 1933 Probleme der Landwirtschaftsgeographie (Problems Grundlage' ("The forms and ways of life of the of agricultural geography) , Breslau, 9l+pp. animal world in tropical Africa. An attempt at a (Wirtschaftsgeographische Abhandlungen, l) Various geographical examination with a physiological chapters have been trans. into Portugese, and the basis'), Mitt. Geogr. Gesell. Hamburg, vol 27, entire book into Japanese 1-75 'Was verstehen wir unter landschaftskunde?' ('What do we unders-and by the term landscape 19ll* 'Der Mensch im Wald- und Grasland von Kamerun' science?'), Geogr. Anz., vol 7-8, 197-207 ('Man in the forest and grasslands of Cameroon'), Geogr. Z., vol 20/3-5, 11+5-58, 208-21, 275-85 'Die Sierra Madre de Chiapas' ('The Sierra Madre of Chiapas'), Mitt. Geogr. Gesell. Hamburg, vol 1*3, 1920 'Der Mensch im Sudafrikanischen Veld' ('Man in the South African veld'), Geogr. Z., vol 26, 26-50, 12-162 79-89 1935 'Probleme der Landwirtschaftsgeographie' ('Problems of agricultural goegraphy'), Verh. 25 'Beitrage zur Landeskunde von Deutsch-SudwestGeogr. Bad Nauheim 1934, Breslau, 100-17 afrika' ('Contributions to a regional geography of German southwest Africa'), ed. F. Jager, in 'Das geographische Lebenswerk von Thies Hinrich Mitt. Dtsch. Schutzgeb. Erg., no lU, 80p. Engelbrecht' ('The geographical life-work of Thies Hinrich Engelbrecht'), Geogr. Z., vol 1+1/5, 1921 Urwaldt Veld3 WUste (The primaeval forest, the veld3 and the desert), Breslau, 208p.; 2 ed: 169-80 Vom Urwald zur Wuste (From the primaeval forest 1937 Die Rohstoffgebiete des tropischen Afrika (The to the desert), 1928; reissue of the 1921 ed., raw material regions of tropical Africa), Darmstadt, 1965 Leipzig, l+2l+p. 'Das sudliche Namaland' ('Southern Nama Land'), 1938 'Naturgeschichte des Northers' ("The natural Zwblf landerkundliche Studien, Breslau, 313-1+7 history of the "norther" winds'), Geogr. Z. , vol 1922 'Winterregen in Deutsch-Sudwest-Afrika. Eine UU/11, 1*08-27 Schilderung der klimatischen Beziehungen zwischen 1939 'White settlement in Costa Rica', Geogr. Rev. , atlantischen Ozean und Binnenland' ('Winter rains vol 29, 529-60 in German southwest Africa. A description of the 191+1 'The tropical plantation system', Sci. Mon. , vol climatic relationship between the Atlantic ocean 52, 156-60 and the interior'), Hamburg, 112p. (Hamburgische 19l*2 "The climatic theory of the plantation: a Universitat. Abhandlungen a.d.Gebiet d.Auslandscritique', Geogr. Rev., vol 32/2, 307-10 kunde, Bd.9, Reihe C. Naturwissenschaften, Bd.l* 19l*3 'Place names as an aid in the reconstruction of 'Die periodisch-trockenen Vegetationsgebiete des the original vegetation of Cuba' Geogr. Rev. , tropischen Afrika' ('The periodically dry vegevol 33/3, 376-96 tation regions of tropical Africa'), in Verh. 20 'The political significance of tropical vegetable Dtsch. Geogr. Leipzig 1921, Berlin, 1U8-58 fats for the industrial countries of Europe', 'Die Viehzuchtsgebiete der sudlichen Halbkugel' Ann. Assoc. Am. Geogr. , vol 33/2, 118-28 ('Animal husbandry regions in the southern 19l*7 'Uma viagem de reconhecimento ao sul de Goias' 1 1 hemisphere'), Geogr. Z. , vol 28, pp. 5 +-7 + ('An information-gathering trip to the south of (trans, into Portugese in Capitulos de Geografia Goias'), Rev. Bras. Geogr., vol 9/3, 313-1*2 Tropical e do Brasil, Rio, 1958)

Leo Heinrich 19^8

19^9

1950

1952

1955

1958

'A teoria de von Thunen sobre a influencia da distancia do mercado relativamente a utilizagSo da terra. Sua aplicagSo a Costa Rica' ('Von Thunen's theory about the influence of market distance on land use, and its application to Costa Rica'), Rev. Bras. Geogr. , vol 10/1, 3-32 (English and French summaries) 'A vegetacSo e o uso da terra no Planalto Central' ('Vegetation and land use in the Planalto Cen t r a l ' ) , Rev. Bras. Geogr., vol 1 0 / 3 , 335-380; see also -ibid, vol 10/2, 301-0U 'Vegetation and land use in the Planalto Central of B r a z i l ' , Geogr. Rev., vol 3 8 A , 529-51* 'Principios da colonizacSo eruopeia no Sul do Brasil' ('Principles of European colonization in southern Brazil'), Rev. Bras. Geogr., vol 11/2, 159-222 (English and French summaries) 'European Colonization in Southern Brazil', Geogr. Rev., vol U o A , 529-^7 '0 que aprendi no Brasil' ('What Brazil has taught me'), Rev. Bras. Geogr., vol 12/3, U19-28 'A Colonizagao do Campos do Estado de Parana' ('The colonization of the Parana province'), C.R. Congr. Int. G&ogr. 1949, vol h, Lisbon, 61-6 Die europaische Kolonisation Sudbrasiliens (European colonization of Souther Brazil), ed. and with a foreword by G. Pfeifer, Bonn, 152p. (Colloquium Geographicum, Bd.lt). 'As zonas pioneiras do Brasil1 ("The Pioneer zones of Brazil'), Rev. Bras. Geogr., vol 1 7 A , 389-1»22 Capitulos de Geografia Tropical e do Brasil (A chapter of a geography of the tropics and of Brazil)3 Rio de Janeiro, 307p.

Dr. Gottfried Pfiefer is Emeritus Professor University of Heidelberg. The German text translated by Mark Bassin.

of Geography^ has been

Waibel

147

1919

Returned to Germany and became an assistant to Professor Thorbecke in Cologne: habilitation at Cologne University

1921

Became research assistant to Professor Albrecht Penck in Berlin

1922

Moved to Kiel as a full professor to work at the University and as director of the Geographical Institute

1929

Invited to the University of Bonn to develop geographical work in the University

1931

Established the new Geographical Institute at Bonn

1933

Expansion of the Geographical Institute at Bonn

1937

Removed from his post at Bonn and went to Central America, including Chiapas, Guatemala and Costa Rica

1938

Moved to Berlin

1939

Emigrated to U.S.A., where he met I. Bowman and K. Pelzer

19^0

Became a research associate at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore and worked with the American Geographical Society on Central America

19^1

Visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison

191*1*

Worked on 'Project N' in Washington, D.C. and became an American citizen

19^5

End of his visiting professorship Became a technical adviser with the Conselho Nacional de Geografia at Rio de Janeiro and carried out fieldwork in Brazil

Chronology

19^6

1888

Born at Kiitzbrunn, Baden, Germany, February 22

19U7

Continued fieldwork in southern Brazil

1900-07

Attended the gymnasium at Heidelberg

19U8

1907-11

Studied at universities in Heidelberg and Berlin

Fieldwork in Espirito Santo and produced a new vegetation map of Brazil, among other publications: also applied the theories of von Thunen to Costa Rica

1911

Awarded the doctorate and published his first paper, on physiological zoogeography in 1912. Also in 1911-12 went on his first research trip, with Professor F. Thorbecke

1950

His work in Brazil completed, he returned to the U.S.A. as visiting professor at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

1951

Returned to Germany and died on September h at Heidelberg

191U

Fieldwork in German southwest Africa, which he was allowed to continue when he became a prisoner of war

Index

The index is divided into four parts: 1. PERSONAL NAMES as far as possible are given in full with the year of birth and death. 2. ORGANIZATIONS AND RELATED REFERENCES is subdivided into (a) Colleges,

Institutes, Institutions, Museums, Official and Research Organizations; (b) Scientific Congresses and Commissions; (c) Societies and Associations; (d) Universities.

3. SUBJECTS cover concepts, geographical theories and specific research. k. CUMULATIVE LIST OF BIOBIBLIOGRAPHIES includes all the geographers studied in volumes 1, 2, 3, ^, 5 and 6. Page numbers in italic refer to the Bibliography and Sources, and to the Chronology sections of the biobibliographies. 1. PERSONAL NAMES ACHENWALL, Gottfried, 1719-1772, 8 ADDAMS, Jane, 1860-1935, 106 ALBERT THE GREAT, c. 1200-1280, 99, 101 ALEXANDROVSKAYA, Olga Andreyevna, 6570, 129-32 ANVILLE, Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d' 1697-1782, 135 APIANUS, Petrus, 11+95 or 1501-1552, 1-6 ARISTOTLE, 38H-322 B.C., 2k, 25, 99 ATW00D, Wallace Walter, 1872-19^9, 107, 213 AUBIN, Hermann, 1885-1969, 119 AUGUST, Oskar, 1911, 120 BABICZ, Jozef, 1926, 23-9 BAILLEUL, Jacques Charles, 1762-181*3, 133, 13U BALBI, Adrien, 1782-18U8, 135 BANSE, Ewald, 1883-1953, 52

BARD0UX, Agenor, 1829-1897, 35 BARROWS, Harlan H., 1877-1960, 110, 111 BARTZ, Fritz, 1908-1970, lUl BASSIN, Mark, 6, 29, 54, 62, 121, 147 BASTIAN, Adolf, 1826-1905, 56 BAUMGARTEN, Siegmund Jakob, 1706-1757, 7, 8 BEAZLEY, Charles Raymond, 1868-1955, 136 BECK, Hanno, 1923, 14 BELL, J. St. J., fl. 1830-18UO, 13U BERKEY, Charles Peter, 1867-1955, 93 BERTHEL0T, Pierre Eugen Marcellin, 1827-1907, 136 BIR0N, Ernst Johann, 1690-1782, 129 BLEIBRUNNER, Hans, 1927, 119 B0BEK, Hans, 1903, 119 BODLER, Hildegard, 1908, ll6 BOGGS, Samuel Whittemore, 1889-1951*, 9k BOHNSTEDT, Hans, 1907-1966, ll6 BORN, Martin, 1923-1978, 119 BOUGUEREAU, Maurice, 36 BOWMAN, Isaiah, 1878-1950, 88, 89, 1U2, 147 BRATESCU, Constant i n , l882-19 1 +5, 3 1 , 32, 77 BROC, Numa, 193U, 35-8 BROEK, Jan 0. M., 190k-19lh, 119, 1U3, 145 BROZEK, Jan, I585-I652, 27, 28 BRUNGER, Wilhelm, 1896, 119 BRUNHES, Jean, 1869-1930, 75, 119, ihk BRYAN, Kirk, 1888-1950, 9k BUACHE, Philippe, 1700-1773, 36, 13U, 135 BUACHE DE NEUVILLE, Jean-Nicolas, 17U1-1825, 36 BUFFON, George Louis Leclerc, 17071788, 66 BUNBURY, Edward Herbert, l8ll-l895, 136 BURGESS, Ernest Watson, 1886-1966, 18 BURMEISTER, Karl Heinz, 193627, 28 BUSCHING, Anton Friedrich, 172U-1793, 7-15

BUTTNER, Manfred, 192323-9

, 7-15,

CALEF, Wesley, 19lU, 17-22 CAMENA d'ALMEIDA, Pierre, l865-191*3, 35 CASSINI DE THURY, Cesar Francois, 171U-178U, 36, 37 CATHERINE II ('the Great') of Russia, 1729-96, ruled from I762, 8 CHAMBERLIN, Thomas Chrowder, I8U31928, 105, 106, 108, 109, HI, 112 CHRISTALLER, Walter, 1893-1969, 52 COLBY, Charles Carlyle, I88U-I965 , 17-22, 107 COLLIN, Etienne, fl. 1880, 13U COPERNICUS, Nicholas, 1^73-15^3, 2, 23-9 CORTAMBERT, Pierre Frangois Eugene, 1805-1881, 35, 36, 135, 136 CORTESAO, Armando, 1891-1977, 136 COTTON, Charles Andrew, 1885-1970, 119 CREDNER, Wilhelm, 1892-19U8, 119, 1U0, 1U5 DAUNOU, Pierre-Claude- Frangois, 18U0-1892, 13U DAVID, Mihai, 1886-195^, 31-3 DAVIS, William Morris, 1850-1931*, 3, 82, 9k, 108, 109, 110, ikk DEFFONTAINES, Pierre, 189^-1978, 119 DELISLE, Guillaume, 1675-1726, 135 DENAIX, Maxime-Auguste, 1777-18UU, 13U DESJARDINS, Ernest, 1823-1886, 35, 136 DICKINSON, Robert Eric, 1905-1981, 115, 118, 119, 120 DIETZEL, Karl, 1893-1951, 116 DOKUCHAEV, Vasily Vasilyevich, 18U61903, 67, 83 DONGUS, Hansjorg, 1929, 52 DORRIES, Hans, 1897-19^5, 119 DRAPEYRON, Ludovic, 1839-1901, 35-8, 136 DURUY, V i c t o r , 1811-189 1 *, 136 DUVEYRIER, H e n r i , 181+0-1892, 131*

1 50

Index

ECK, Johannes, lU86—15U3, 2, 100, 103 ELIE DE BEAUMONT, Leonce, 1798-1871*, 135 ENGLEBRECHT, Theis Hinrich, 1853193h, lUl, ikk ENGLER, Adolf, 18UU-1930, 1+8, 53 EYRIES, Jean- Baptiste-Benoit, 176718U6, 133 FABRICUS, Johann Albert, 1668-1736, 12 FAIDHERBE, Louis, 1818-1899, 35 FAWCETT, Charles Bungay, 1883-1952, 39-1*6 FENNEMAN, Nevin Melanchthon, 186519H5, 107, 111 FICKELER, Paul, 1893-1959, 119 FINCH, Vernor Clifford, 1883-1959, 21, 9k FISCHER, Theobald, 18U6-1910, 56 FLEURE, Herbert John, 1877-1969, 39, 1+2, 44, 88 FOSTER, Alice, l872-c.l960, 18 FRANCKE, August Herman, 1663-1727, 7 FRANZ, Johann Michael, 1700-1761, 8, 9, 11, 13, 14 FREEMAN, Thomas Walter, 1908, 32, 37, 39-1+6, 78, 138 FRITSCH, Karl Freiherr von, I8381906, 55 FUNAGOSHI, Akio, 1929, 7*+ GAGIUMAN, Ion, 1909, 31-3 GALLOIS, Lucien, 1857-191+1, 5 GEDDES, Patrick, 185U-1932, 1+0, 1+1, 1+3 GEIKIE, Archibald, 1835-192U, 72 GEISLER, Walter, 1891-191+5, 116 GERLAND, Georg, 1833-1919, 56 GILBERT, Edmund William, 1900-1973, 119 GOODE, John Paul, 1862-1932, 9U GOTHEIN, Eberhard, 139 GRADMANN, Robert, 1865-1950, 1+7-51+ GRAN5, Johannes Gabriel, 1882-1956, 120 GROTELttSCHEN, Wilhelm, 190U, 139 GUIMXREAS, Fabio de Macedo Soares, 1906, 1U3 GUNTHER, Siegmund, 181+8-1923, k, 5 GURGEL, Klaus D., 15, 104 GUYOT, Arnold Henri, 1807-1884, 135, 136 HACHETTE, Louis, 1800-186U, 13U, 135 HAGAR, Johann Georg, 1709-1777, 9, 10 HAHN, Eduard, 1858-1926, 59, lUl, ikk HAHN, Helmut, 1921, 119 HARPER, Robert, 1921+, 20 HARRIS, Chauncy D., 19ll+, 20 HARTKE, Wolfgang, 1908, 119 HARTSHORNE, Richard, 1899, 20, 60, 111, 1U2

HASSINGER, Hugo, 1877-1952, 119, 120 HAUBER, Eberhard David, 1695-1765, 7-15 pass. HAYM, Rudolf, 1821-1901, 55 HERBERTSON, Andrew John, 1865-1915, 3 9 , 1+0, 1+1 HESSE, R i c h a r d , 1 8 6 8 - I 9 M , 59 HETTNER, A l f r e d , l859-19 1 +l, U9, 5 5 63, 119, 139, lUl, 1U3, Ihk HETTNER, Hermann, 1821-1882, 55, 56 HIBINO, Takeo, 19lU, 7^ HIMLY, Louis-Auguste, 1823-1906, 35-

6

HINKS, Arthur Robert, 1873-19^5, kl2 HOHEISEL, Karl Robert, 1937, 1-6, 99-10U HOUSE, John William, 1919, kk HUBNER, Johannes, 1668-1731, 7, 1011, 12 HUMBOLDT, Alexander von, 1769-1859, 25, 58, 73, 78, 135, lUl HUTTENLOCHER, Friedrich, 1893-1973, 120 ISHIBASHI, Goro, 1877-19^6, 72, lh IVANOVNA, Anna, 1693-17^0, Empress of Russia, 1730-17^0, 129 JAEGER, Fritz, 1881-1966, 139 JAGER, Helmut, 1923, 119 JAKEL, Reinhard, 195^, 7-15 JAMES, Preston Everett, 1899, 19, 20, 95 JEFFERSON, Mark Sylvester William, 1863-191+9, 17, 21 JOHNSON, Douglas Wilson, I878-I9I+I+, 93, 9k JOMARD, Edme-Frangois, 1777-1862, 136 JONES, Wellington Downing, 1886-1957, 107, 119 JOSEPH II, I7I+I- 90, Emperor from 1765, 8 JULIEN, Stanislas, 1799-1873, 13k, 135 KANT, Lmnanuel, rj2k-l80kt 59 KXUBLER, Rudolf, 190U, 119, 120 KELTIE, John Scott, 181+0-1927, 72 KIEPERT, Heinrich, 1818-1899, 135 KIRCHHOFF, Alfred, 1838-1907, U8, 55, 115 KOHL, Johann Georg, I8O8-I878, lUl KOMAKI, Saneshige, I898, 7^ KRAUS, Theodor, 189U-1973, 119 KREBS, Norbert, I876-I9I+7, 119 KRENZLIN, Annetise, 1903, 119 KROPOTKIN, Pyotr (Peter) Alekseyevich, 181+2-1927, 66 KUHN, Arthur, 190U, 13 KUSKE, Bruno, lUO LAGARDE, Lucie, 1922, 133-8 LAUTENSACH, Hermann, 1886-1971, 119,

120 LAVOISIER, Antoine Laurent de, 17U3179U, 35 LE CLERC, Jean, 1560-1621, 36 LESSEPS, Ferdinand de, 1805-1891+, 35 LESZCZYCKI, Stanislas, 1907, 123-7 LEVASSEUR, Emile, 1828-1911, 35, 135 LOBECK, Armin Kohl, 1886-1958, 9*+ L0M0N0S0V, Mikhail Vasilyevich, 17111765, 65-70 LOUIS, Herbert, 1900, 119 LUTHER, Martin, 11+83-1561+, 26 LYDE, Lionel William, 1863-19^7, Ul MACHATSCHEK, Fritz, 1876-1957, 72 MACKINDER, Halford John, 1861-19^7, 39-1*3 pass. MAGER, Freidrich, 1885, ikk MAIER, Heinrich, 1867-1933, 57 MALTE-BRUN, Conrad, 1775-1826, I3I+, 135, 136 MARTIN, Carl Eduard, 1838-1907, 57 MARTINIUC, Constantin, 1915, 32 MARTONNE, Emmanuel de, 1873-1955, 31 32, 33, 78 MAULL, Otto, 1887-1957, 119 MAUNOIR, Charles, 1830-1901, 13*+ MECKING, Ludwig, 1879-1952, 119, lUO MEHEDINTI, Simion, 1868-1962, 31, 77 MEIER, Georg Friedrich, 1718-1777, 7 MEITZEN, August, 1822-1910, 1+0, 118 MELANCHTHON, Philipp, 11+97-1560, 26 MERCATOR, Gerhard, 1512-1591*, k, 27 MEYNIER, Andre, 1901, 136 MILOJEVIC, Borivoje, 1885-1967, 119 MORI, Shikazo, 1907-1980, 7k MORTENSEN, Hans, I89U-I96U, 119 MOSELLANUS, Petrus, 11+93-152U, 1 MULLER-WILLE, Wilhelm, 1906, 119, ll+l, 1U2, 145 MUNSTER, Sebastian, 11+88-1552, 12 MUROGA, Nobuo, 1907-1982, jk NAGELE, Eugen, 1856-1937, 1+8 NAMBA, Matsutaro, 189**, 7*+ NANSEN, Fridtjof, 1861-1930, 1+0, 1+8 NEDELCU, Eugen, 1930, 77-9 NEEF, Ernst, 1908, ll6, 120 NEWBIGIN, Marion Isabel, 1869-1931+, 1*2 NEWTON, Isaac, 161+2-1727, 27 NIEMEIER, Georg, 1903, 119 NITZ, Hans-Jurgen, 1929, 52 NOBIS, Heribert Maria, 192U, 23-9 NOMA, Saburo, 1912, 75 NORDENSKiOLD, Adolf-Erik, 1832-1901, 136 NOVARA, Dominicus Maria, 11*53-1501+, 23 OBERHUMMER, Eugen, 1859-191+1+, 1*+1+ OBST, Erich, l886-