UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN, ILORIN.

DEPARTMENT OF

GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL

MANAGEMENT

GROUP 1

GPE311: GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT

ASSIGNMENT;
WRITE ON THE GERMAN SCHOOL OF THOUGHTS
CONTRIBUTION TO GEOGRAPHY
GROUP MEMBERS

17/77jb001 ABDULRAUF ABDULFATAH AKANBI

17/77jb002 ABODERIN MALEEQ BABATUNDE

17/77jb003 ABUBAKAR MUSA

17/77jb004 ADEBAYO FAISAT ADEDAMOLA

17/77jb005 ADEBAYO HOPE

17/77jb006 ADEDEJI EBENEZER

17/77jb008 ADEGBILE TAIWO

17/77jb009 ADEGOKE ABIODUN

17/77jb010 ADEGOKE ADENIKE

17/77jb011 ADEJINMI AFEEZ OLAWALE

17/77jb012 ADEJOH PRECIOUS

17/77jb013 ADEKUNLE KEHINDE SODIQ

17/77jb014 ADENIJI GBOLABO VICTOR

17/77jb015 ADENIYI OLUWATOMIWA

17/77jb016 ADEYIPO ISAAC

17/77jb017 ADIMULA NIFEMI

17/77jb018 ADU OLUGBENGA AYODELE

17/77jb019

17/77jb020 AHMED LAMURAT ALABA

17/77jb021

17/77jb022

17/77jb023 AJAYI EMMANUEL

17/77jb024 AJIBOYE OLUWADUNSIN

17/77jb025 AKANDE OLAJUMOKE

18/77jb065 ADENIJI GBENGA

18/77jb066 ADESHINA OSHIOLENE ADESHEWA

18/77jb067 ADEWALE AKINADE AANUOLUWA

 THE GERMAN SCHOOL OF THOUGHT

The Greek and the Roman scholars are given the credit for starting geographical
studies; however, geography was more descriptive during that period, which led to
recession in scientific due to decline of the Roman Empire.

The fresh development in geography i.e. geographical thought after the medieval
times began in Germany, and Kant was the most important contributors to the field at the
time, Kant and his successors like Ritter and Humboldt started a new trend in
geographical thought, which later emerged as a distant school. The death of Ritter and
Humboldt brought about decline in geographical field but in the 20th century. Richthofen
and Ratzel both came to geography by way of physical sciences

Richthofen remained primarily a Physiogeographer, although he didn’t neglect the

human side. Also Ratzel was a great Athropogeographer. The rebirth of Geographic
interest in Germany attracted many persons. Penck and Hettner have established excellent
studies in Geomorphology and geographic methodology. The trend of Geography in the
early years of the 20th century is well expressed by Hettner, geography according to him
is not a general earth science, but the Chronological science of the earth’s surface which
is concerned chiefly with the interplay between man and nature. The aim is primarily to
study the areas or regions. He distinguished between general and regional geography, By
1905, when Richthofen and Ratzel died, all signs pointed toward much wider of German
Geography .

The following periods i.e. pre-world war-1 period (1905- 14) was the golden age of
German geography, except for the fact that the physical side was unduly over
emphasized. There was progress in the field of physiogeography, as the work of Penck,
Hettner and Philipson show. Very important during the period was the increase in the
area of fieldwork done abroad as well as home. The main contributor to the rather
neglected field of geography of economic geography, in that period was Andree’s
geographic des Welt handles in which parts of the world were treated by individual
authors.

During the period of first world war, the character geography underwent a
change and the German victories in various parts led to the idea of German centered
Europe was well received the concept of boundaries in political geography in Germany,
in 1924, Karl Haushofer together with the Oceanogeographers, such as Obst and
Luatensach, founded the Zeitschiffur Geopolitik that later became the Geographic bible
of nazi party.
 Although political geography saw an unprecedented pace of development, it does
not imply that the other fields of geography were totally neglected by the German
scholars. The physical, regional, and economic geography also kept developing
simultaneously. The best represented fields up to the mid-twenties were the economic
and political geography. During 1930’s generally, the dominance of physical geography
had been broken and the trend developed in the direction of regional studies. Stressing
the human elements. During this period, a lot of progress was made in the field of
settlement geography also.

During the world war 11 the development of geography in Germany suffered a

great deal, the geographers were forcibly involved in war and political and the real
research in subject received a great setback; so much was affected by the war that at the
time of Penck’s death in 1945, German universities were ruins and German geography
had practically finished . The modern school of geography in Germany has started
developing again after the 2nd world war but not in the sense that it committed in the pre
war years

BELOW ARE BRIEF HISTORY OF GEOGRAPHICAL ASSOCIATIONS IN

GERMANY

1. The current organizational structure of German geographical associations was the

result of the not always conflict-free development of representation of interests.
The oldest association is the Association of German Geography Teachers, which
was founded in 1912. Its early years were characterized by considerable
advertising and publicity and numerous discussions on the status of geography in
schools, and of curricula suited to the various school types. These debates were
dominated by different groups (Brogiato, 1998, pp. 337-347). When the
association argued for an upgrading of political geography at the outbreak of the
First World War and called for a politicized geography, departing from
contemporary positivist scientific ideals, it found itself in opposition to university
geography. Hitherto largely inactive in associations, university geographers now
found themselves confronted with the strongly represented school geographers,
who vigorously demanded that university geography research adapt to the needs of
geography in schools (Brogiato, 1998, p. 375-386) and confidently assumed
dominance within the discipline in matters of policy. The foundation of the
University Association of German Professors of Geography in June 1925 was
therefore born of the necessity to deflect the demands made by the school
geographers. In the years up to the Nazi seizure of power, the University
 Association of German Professors of Geography initiated its own debate on the
role of geography in schools, in an attempt to challenge the position of the school
geographers, but developed into a more general platform for determining positions
on methodology and the content of research. In 1934, both associations were
brought into line by the Nazis, offering practically no resistance, and in the 1930s
they became a platform for the Nazi ideologization of geography (Schelhaas, 1997
; Schelhaas/Hönsch, 2001). The attempts made from 1941 on to unite all German
geographers under the umbrella organization of a German Geographical Society
were unsuccessful, but led to renewed self-confidence within the University
Association of German Professors of Geography, which was built on after the
collapse of the Third Reich in 1945. From 1951 on, the University Association of
German Professors of Geography played a leading role in the newly founded
“Central Association of German Geographers’, which represented the interests of
West German geographers after the separation of the two German states.
2. From the end of the 1960s, conflicts arose in German universities in the context of
general movements towards greater democratization. As the University
Association of German Professors of Geography refused to admit geographers
who had not completed a postdoctoral thesis required for qualification as a
university lecturer (Habilitation), a growing number of teachers in third level
institutions felt themselves to be inadequately represented. Thus, in a social
climate open to reform, the Association of German Third Level Geographers
(VDHG) and the University Association for Geographical Education in Germany
(HGD) were founded in 1970/71. The VDHG, initially conceived of as a
temporary solution for middle level geography lecturers who had not completed
their Habilitation, concentrated on encouraging the scientific and pedagogic
development of geography, the continuous exchange of ideas and information as
well as regular information of its members and general publicity for the subject
(Sedlacek et al., 1979).

IMPACT OF DISCOVERIES OF GERMAN GEOGRAPHERS

The German school of thoughts was developed by geographers in the 18th to early 20th
century. These periods, with the development of geography in Germany. These scholars
are;

1. IMMANUEL KANT;(1756-1790) who was born in 1724 at Kongsberg in East

Prussia, Kant was perhaps the last important figure in the 18th century geographer.
He studied Latin and had interest in studying classical philosophy. He lectured on
physical geography in the University of Kongsberg from (1756 – 1990). His
interest in physical geography was not stimulated by the actual experience of the
 variety of nature in different parts of the world. It arose through his philosophical
investigation of the whole field of empirical knowledge. He is often called the
FOUNDER OF GERMAN SCHHOL OF GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT. Kent
was interested mainly in physical geography. However his physical geography
was not as it is understood today because under this field, he studied human racial
groups too. He considered geography as an approach to the natural knowledge
that was necessary for his philosophical approach. He believed that geography has
to play a vital role in the progress and development of society and his interest in
physical geography arose through his philosophical investigations of the entire
field of empirical knowledge has a theoretical geographer who attempted to
classify the empirical knowledge.

2. FRIEDRICH RATZEL (1844-1904); He dominated the geographical scene in

the 19th century. He got his early education at several universities in Germany. He
travelled widely in the United States. Europe and Mexico and worked at the
universities of Munich and Leipzig. He was trained in zoology, geology and
comparative anatomy. Being a contemporary of Darwin, he was influenced by
Darwin’s theory of evolution of species. Before Ratzel, the foundation of systemic
study of human geography his interest in tribes, races and nations coined the term
anthropogeography describing it as the major field of geography. In 1874, Ratzel
reached the United States and Mexico and thereby expanded his sphere of study.
In the United States, he started studying the economy, society, and the habitat of
the original tribes especially the red Indians. At the competition of his field study
in the united states and Mexico, he returned to Germany in 1875 and was
appointed professor of geography at the university of Leipzig. In 1878 he
published a book on north America. However, the book for which he is
acknowledged all over the world is Anthropogeography. The major focus of his
work was the effects of different physical features and locations on the style of life
of people in Anthropogeography, Ratzel used the deductive approach to present
the first systematic study of geography of man. The first volume of this book was
organized largely in terms of the natural conditions of the earth, which he studied
in relation to human culture. The environment dominated man response approach
was influenced by the chronological approach.

CONCLUSION
 Thanks to the geographers who has contributed appreciably to the field of
geography specifically German geographers such as, Immanuel Kant, who considered
geography as a descriptive or taxonomic discipline, rather than a science, among them is
Friedrich Frobel (1782-1852) who rejected Ritter’s theology. Frobel argued that
geography can no longer look upon as mere dwelling place for humanity. He claimed that
geography was a saturated science following the same line as Frobel, Osces Psehel, in
1826-1875, broke through idealistic frame work which Kant, Humbolt and Ritter had
constructed. According to him geography was to be a systematic empirical science.

Up to and during the 19th century, geography was dominantly a German

science, not until the late 19th century that the trend started to change. The French school
of thought emerged alongside German school, up to that time, the historians had a
significant hold in the field of geography and history was their field of specification. This
type of geography was essentially descriptive in nature; it was Paul Vidal De La Blanche
who changed the tradition in 1899.