GERMAN
GEOGRAPHERS
SUBMITTED BY
EKTA
SHRIVASTAVA
1818109
PRE-CLASSICAL GEOGRAPHERS
In the pre-classical period, scholars revived the classical Ptoleminan tradition as well as the Roman tradition of Strabo.
Apian (1495–1552): He was an astronomer and cartographer; renowned for his two works. The first one is an astronomical treatise and
the second one deals with the concepts of geometry and astronomy.
Munster (1489-1552): He is renowned for his work “Cosmographia Universalis’ which was published in 1544. This work has been
regarded as one of the authoritarian works on world geography for many decades. He recognised the geocentric approach of the
universe.
Cluverius (1580-1622): He was the first geographer to talk about universal geography. He flourished the tradition of Munster and
published a book ‘Introduction in Universam Geographiam’ in 1616 which dealt with the historical geography of Germany.
Bernhard Varenius (1622-1650): He was one of the first scholars to highlight on the differences in the nature and content of physical
and human geography. He believed that the methods of the natural sciences could be successfully used to draw conclusions about
natural phenomena with precision to a considerable extent. But they cannot be applied to human groups because they are more subject
to probability than certainty. His contributions eventually gave rise to the dualisms between regional (special) and systematic (universal)
geography. Varenius’ most significant contribution was his book, ‘Geographia Generalis.
Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804): Kant believed that the geography of any place played a pivotal role in determining the progress of
human civilization. The physical geography which Kant developed was essentially ‘anthropocentric’ in nature and content. This is
because according to Kant, physical geography not only included the features visible on the earth’s surface created by natural processes
but also by human actions, later, this point of view was adopted by Ritter
ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT
(1769-1859)
Universally, acclaimed as the father of modern geography, Alexander Von Humboldt (1769-1859) was one of
the foremost intellectuals of his time. Humboldt lived at a time under the impact of the positivist view of
science.
He went to study at University of Frankfurt and came back after some time and at the University of
Gottingen, he met George Foster under whose influence he developed a lasting interest in field
observation and study of plants. Later he went to Vienna and met many scientists and then they set off
on the journey in June 1799 to South America. There he studied the volcanic rocks in the Andes,
relations of altitude and air temperature and he was the first to describe movement of ocean water. His
observations of temperature changes in the ocean water confirmed the existence of a cold current along
the Peruvian coast. Humboldt named it as Peruvian current, also referred as Humboldt Current.
For Humboldt, there was no dichotomy between the physical and human aspects of nature in the study
of geognosia (geography). He was a great master of the empirical method.
• The first volume contained a general presentation of the whole picture of
Humboldt returned to Berlin in 1827 the universe.
and then he wrote “Kosmos”, • The second was the portrayal of nature, history of man’s effort to discover
(1845) which had been projected as and describe the earth since earliest time.
• The third volume was devoted to astronomy and the laws of celestial
a five-volume work of which the last space.
volume remained incomplete at the • The fourth volume dealt with the earth and fifth volume was projected to
time of Humboldt death in 1859. contain a general discussion of plant and animal geography.
• The foundation of a Universal science was the specific objective of his
Kosmos. It was the urge to search for unity in science that had attracted
him to geography
Universal science
• “principle of causality”, which means Humboldt first observed the
French geographer, De Mortonne, complex of spatially arranges phenomena on the earth surface and their
described him as the first casual interconnection and interdependence.
• “principle of general geography” by which he compared the location
geographer to define and apply two and extent of terrestrial phenomena on the earth surface with the
essential principles that make principles governing the pattern of their distribution of the world.
geography a distinctive science.
These are:
CARL RITTER ( 1779-1859)
Carl Ritter was junior to Humboldt by ten years and was born in 1779. Ritter’s interest in geography had been greatly
aroused after a meeting with Alexander Von Humboldt in 1807. Ritter is generally regarded along side as co-founder of
modern geography.
Major Writings: He published a two volume work on the geography of Europe. Later he published the first two
volumes of his famous Erdkunde (1817-1818). Because of this he earned the post of Professor of Geography at the
University of Berlin in 1820. between 1832-1838, he added six more volumes to the Erdkunde series.
Viewpoint: Ritter emphasized that he was trying to present a “new scientific geography” and it was guided by the
concept of unity in diversity in nature.
Ritter defined the task of geography to be: to get away from mere description to the law to reach not a mere
enumeration of facts and figures, but the connection of place to place and the laws which bind together local and
general phenomena of the earth surface.
Ritter concept of unity in diversity of phenomena on the earth surface was derived from the Kantian view of the world
as an organic whole. But Ritter’s idea of organic unity was derived from his deep faith in the Christian belief that the
earth was a divine creation and God has created every little thing on the earth surface to serve some need of man. He
was of teleological viewpoint.
In Ritter’s view, there were three fundamental facts of geography for which science had no explanation: These were:
Uniqueness of the earth in universe, the earth as a home of that unique creature (man), differentiation in character
among the major land units of the world.
Ritter was a great pioneer of the regional approach in geography.
Ritter regarded regional and systematic studies in geography as the two sides of the same coin: General
geography dealt with the character, typology, location and extent of different categories of terrestrial
phenomena throughout the world, whereas special or regional geography described the content and nature of
particular areas as organic entities.
Acknowledgement to Humboldt: Ritter acknowledged his indebtedness to Humboldt, whose general had
made Ritter’s own regional studies of particular regions possible. Ritter repeatedly asserted that Humboldt was
his teacher and without the work of Humboldt his own books could never have been produced.
GEOGRAPHY AFTER HUMBOLDT AND RITTER
DEVELOPMENTS IN GERMANY
• The deaths of Humboldt and Ritter in 1859 marked the end of an era in the development of geography as a
branch of scientific knowledge. Charles Darwin’s The origin of species that said that the organisms on the earth
have evolved through a slow and cumulative process. So, teleology could no longer be sustained as a scientific
hypothesis and was abandoned.
• The nineteenth century witnessed a fundamental change in the role of universities. The change started in
Germany in 1809 with the establishment of the University of Berlin as a free community of scholars.
Geography as a field of advanced study in the universities appeared in Germany in the 1870s. From Germany the
movement spread rapidly to France, to other European countries, and also to America.
• Practical utility of geography to the army commanders in regard of military operations, for the purposes of trade
and commerce was clearly recognized. And for that, regional description and cartography become identified
as the primary task of geography, so as that for a time geography become identified as “ anything that could
be put on maps”.
• After 1871, when Prussian government (as an aid to administration and territorial expansion) created a number of
new professorship in geography in several universities across the country, as a result of which geography
regained respectability as a field of learning.
CRISIS OF IDENTITY IN GEOGRAPHY
• Geography therefore, began to be slowly neglected as a branch of scientific learning, so
that Ritter’s chair in geography at Berlin had remained vacant for a long time.
• It was said that the study of human and non-human phenomena required very different
methods of study, so that no field of scientific research could include both. This led to a
temporary parting of the ways between physical and human-regional geography.
• Geography experienced revival as an academic discipline only after the unification of
Germany under the leadership of Prussia in 1871 for colonial expansion. Under this,
Geography was expected to perform three major tasks: continued collection of information
about the little known parts of the earth, detailed study of particular places to facilitate the
work of officers of government and formulations of concepts about spatial association and
variation of phenomena on the earth surface.
RISE OF DUALISM BETWEEN PHYSICAL
AND HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
OSCAR PESCHEL (1826-1875)
Oscar Peschel had started his career as a journalist in 1849. His appointment as professor of geography at
Leipzig in 1871 was the first new professorship created after the death of Ritter.
MAJOR WRITINGS: He wrote extensively on history of ancient geography and because of this, he was invited
by Royal Academy of Science and then his book was published under the title Geschishte der Erdkunde in
1865. From 1886, onward he published a number of methodological articles and these papers were collected
and published as a book in 1870. He has made in-depth study of the geographical distribution of the races and
cultures of mankind.
VIEWPOINT: Peschel insisted that comparative geography should have a definite method and purpose. The
geographer pursuing comparative study should seek similar features in different parts of the earth’s surface,
compare to their characteristics and origin and try to relate them all genetically. His method required to begin
by studying topographic maps with a view of identifying “homologies” (landforms of similar types).
On the basis of this comparative study, he explained the fjord topography, that was the end result of
abandoned valleys of former glaciers.
He (1879) attempted to establish physical geography as a science. He believed that physical and human
geography constituted two entirely separate domains of knowledge and as the two could not form part of a
single science. He supported Dualism between physical and human geography and was strongly of the view
that geography should be studied primarily as the study of physical phenomena of the earth.
CRITIC OF HUMBOLDT AND RITTER: Peschel was very critical of Ritter’s method of comparative geography,
especially his practice of comparing entire continents or large segments of them. He noted that since continents
are large areal units and have great deal of internal diversity, they could not be compared in the proper scientific
sense. Comparison was only possible in respect of clearly identifiable features like landforms, climatic types. He
also criticized Ritter for holding a teleological view about the nature and origins of earth phenomena. He was
critical of Ritter for having neglected physical geography.
He was also critical of Humboldt for creating the impression that general geography could be equated with the
entirety of natural science and for not having attempted a scientific classification of landforms.
GEORGE GERLAND (1833-
1919)
Putting geography as physical geography was further
advanced by another contemporary named George Gerland. He
was professor of geography at the University of Strasbourg and
had been the supervisor of the doctoral thesis of Alfred Hettner.
View point: He suggested that since man could not be put to
scientific analysis, study of man should be taken outside the
purview of geography. Thus, by this time a unified field of the
study of human as well as physical aspects of the earth’s surface
was in serious crisis.
RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF GEOGRAPHY AS
AN INTEGRATED SCIENCE
FRIEDRICH RATZEL (1844-1904)
One of the greatest contributor to the development of geography. His youth had passed in the wake of publication of
Darwin’s concept about Origin of Species. He published in 1869 a commentary on Darwin’s work. Further, he went
with French naturalist around the Mediterranean. Then he visited Italy in 1872, USA and Mexico during 1874-1875. His
study on minority groups like, Indians, the Africans, and the Chinese, he devoted himself to developing general
concept regarding geographical pattern resulting from contacts between aggressively expanding communities and
retreating indigenous populations. This research experience in regional study aroused his interest in the study of
human geography. Further he was made professor of geography in University of Leipzig.
Major Writings: His extensive travels in the New World resulted in many publications like on Chinese migration
(1876), two volumes on United States in 1878 and 1880 dealing with country’s physical and cultural geography. Then
he published his first volume of Anthropogeographie in 1882. In this volume, Ratzel attempted to develop the new
method of natural science within human geography; he stressed on the extent to which humans live under nature’s
laws.
The second volume of Ratzel’s Anthropogeographic was published in 1891. The two volumes have two different
approaches like the first one was based on physical features, which where studies in terms of their influence on human
culture. But the second one became the dominant input in human geographical methodology.
Approach: Ratzel’s approach was influenced by the theory that the physical environment played an active role in the
evolution of life forms on the earth’s surface and this was one of the basic ideas of the Darwinian theory of evolution.
Ratzel’s contribution in political geography: Ratzel is also called the ‘founder’ of political geography. He wrote
Politische Geographie (1897), wherein he describes the “state” as an organism attached to the land, which like other
organisms passes through a developmental cycle. Like natural organisms, the states also must grow or die since they
cannot stand still.
like natural organisms, state would involved in ongoing struggle for survival as to acquire larger and larger territories as
living spaces to support their growing populations. This was Ratzel’s concept of lebensraum (living space).
He paid greater attention to the role of migrations. He believed that every migration had an area of origin and a specific
cause and has their own traditions and cultures. So the new area of inhabitance resulted from two sets of forces:
One from the local geographical environment and other from their remembered culture and technology. So, it was
important for geographer should take both environmental and historical factors into account.
Ratzel was the first geographer to clearly formulate the concept of cultural landscape, which he often referred to as
historical landscape. The idea of cultural landscape and the related technique were used in Ratzel’s 1898 book on
Deutschland.
So, Ratzel presented a model that eliminate the dualism between physical and human geography and re-establishes
geography as an integrated discipline concerned with the study of man as well as physical environment.
INTEGRATION THROUGH THE
CONCEPT OF CHOROLOGY
FERDINAND VON RICHTHOFEN (1833-1905)
Richthofen began his researches in the Alps and then carried on geological studies in the Carpathians. In I860,
he was selected to undertake an expedition to eastern Asia for the study of land resources and then he went to
California. He was the first to map the coal fields of China. He was the first to identify the extensive stretch of
land to the east of Gobi desert with a thick layer of powdery material called loess.
Richthofen was best known for epoch-making and took over Humboldt and Ritter idea of geography as science
but he was in greater sympathy with Humboldt and like Humboldt, he endeavored to restore the close
connections of geography with natural sciences.
He believed, a geographical study of any part of the face of the earth must start with a careful description of the
physical features and then must move on to an examination of the relationships of other features of the earth’s
surface. The highest goal of geography is the exploration of human relationships to the physical earth.
In order to arrive at general concepts, one has to make observations in particular areas where the observed
features may appear unique and this is called special or regional geography. But the geographers must go
beyond mere description of unique features in particular areas to seek regularities in their occurrence. To this,
he applied the term chorology or regional geography. He also realized that in addition to looking at the
world as a whole, it was necessary to examine smaller and smaller segments of the earth’s surface.
Major works: Richthofen is known for his valuable work on China which was published in five volumes,
between 1875 and 1912.
Method of study: In the study of areas (regional geography), the approach was predominantly
synthetic and descriptive. But in the case of general geography, the method of approach was to
be comparative study of larger areas with a view of identifying the nature of casual inter-
relationship in each area.
As Hartshorne wrote, Richthofen’s exposition of the relation of systematic (general)
geography and the regional geography with each other and to the field of geography as a whole,
was of immense importance in the development of geographical thought.
ALFRED HETTNER (1859-1941)
He went to Strasbourg where, under Gerland in 1881, he obtained his doctorate on Climate of Chile. Later he
went on an extensive tour of South America but returned to Leipzig to take up an academic appointment
under Ratzel in 1890-1891.
Major writings: He authored many books like Travel in the Colombian Andes, Regional Geography of Europe,
geography of man which comprised three parts: Basis of the Geography of Man, Transport Geography and
Economic Geography.
Viewpoint: Hettner asserted that geography is the chorological science of the earth’s surface. Although
Hettner had taken up the chorological concept of geography from Richthofen but he criticized his viewpoint of
geography as the science of earth’s surface as vague and ambiguous. He was critical of the attempts by some
geographers to project geography as the “science of distributions”.
Geography according to Hettner, begins with the spatial association of phenomena that give character to
areas at different scales of resolution. Geography involves consideration of casual interdependence of various
sets of spatially arranged phenomena in particular segments of the earth surface. He said geography as a
chorological study, is neither natural or human but both together. And that’s why he criticized Peschel and
Gerland who wanted to project geography purely as a physical science. He was also critical of Ritter who
wanted to make man as the central focus of geography.
GEOGRAPHY AS AN LANDSCAPE SCIENCE
First problem was that geography, like other systematic sciences, must have a distinctive subject of study with
which it could be clearly identified as a field of science.
Another was Hettnerian model for regional studies which overemphasized the importance of physical
features in geography of regions and overlook the factors such as distribution and density of population,
economy, pattern of development.
The third source of dissatisfaction was that many of the interrelations observed in the regional studies were
cumulative outcome of processes of change over time. These could not be properly understand without the
study of past geographies of the place. So, it was said that, geography as a chorology neglected time.
So, this led to a continued search for alternative concepts of geography as a science. One such alternative view
was built around the concept of landscape first introduced Wimmer in 1885. But the concept gained popularity
only after 1906 following its further exposition by Otto Schulter.
OTTO SCHLUTER (1872-1952)
He shifted to Berlin in 1895 to study under Richthofen under whose influence he developed a strong
interest and in his famous “Objectives of the Geography of Man” (1906), which projected an
alternative concept of geography as the study of landscapes. He as keenly interested in the
geography of settlements in Central Europe and later he published three volume work in 1952,
1953 and 1958.
In his methodological paper, Schluter had suggested that geographers should concentrate on the
study of phenomena on the surface of earth that could be perceived through the senses and the
focus should be on the totality of perception in each area. This totality of “visual perception of
area” was termed as Landscape.
He said that the non-material content of areas like political organization, religious-cultural beliefs
can be borrowed from relevant fields of knowledge and interest in political, cultural and economic
aspects was to be limited only to the extent that they gave character to the visible landscape.
He used two landscapes: first is Kulturlandschaft (cultural landscape), and second is
Naturlandschaft (natural landscape). He said that the purpose of the study of landscapes was not
only classifying categories of phenomena but examining their characteristics through the process of
change through time.
He said that the method of study to be morphological and its procedure parallel to that applied in
the study of landforms.
Schulter and Hettner both was concerned about the variations in the character of areas on the
earth’s surface which is known as areal differentiation. Different areas on the earth have are
distinct and showed a certain degree of uniqueness.
