Wolfgang Hartke

From Geography

Wolfgang Hartke (1908-1997) together with Hans Bobek are considered to be the founders of German-speaking social geography. The "Frankfurt School" and later the "Munich School" significantly influenced the development of the subject and initiated the social sciences orientation of human geography. Hartke's studies of "hedge landscapes" (1951), "newspapers as a function of social geographical conditions" (1952), "social fallow" (1956), "child shepherds in the Upper Vogelsberg " (1956) and of the "determination of spaces with the same social geographical behaviour" (1959) are now classics of social geography. Hartke was also one of the leading experts on the regional geography of France, especially because of his experience abroad and his international contacts (Leibniz-Institut für Länderkunde, n.d.).

In addition to his contribution to the contents of the subject, his work is characterised by an ongoing desire to represent geography both within and outside academia. Hartke was closely involved in the introduction of the Diplom degree and the debate on a reform of third level studies. The development of geography in the universities of Frankfurt am Main and Munich is inseparably associated with his name (Leibniz-Institut für Länderkunde, n.d.).

References

Leibniz-Institut für Länderkunde, (n.d.). Cataloging the papers of Wolfgang Hartke. Found on the 9th November 2011, at http://www.ifl-leipzig.de/405.0.html?&L=1

Edited by Loek Freulich 3004295 & Jorn Joosten 3027791