German Geographers and German Geography 331 



gations he establishes the last great sub- 

 division — authropogeography. 



It is impossible in this short review 

 to enter into more than the outlines of 

 this vast program ; but even these show 

 that we have to deal here with the 

 foundation of all geographic work of 

 the last fifteen years. From this time 

 we must reckon the wonderful develop- 

 ment of recent geographic investigation 

 in Germany, represented not only by 

 the name of Richthofen, but by the 

 names of Penck, Suess, Richter, Briick- 

 ner, Supan, Giinther, Gerland, Dry- 

 galsky, Hettner, Phillipson, and others. 



It was natural that, Richthofen him- 

 self having entered the field of geog- 

 raphy from the geologic side, those 

 branches of geography which are most 

 closely connected with geology should 

 have been most cultivated by him and 

 his followers. Thus it happened that 

 those geographic questions which are 

 related to natural science received most 

 of the advantage of the new impulse, 

 namely, the problems of physical geog- 

 raphy. It even seemed for some time 

 as if the idea of scientific geography 

 would be onl}- applied to this division, 

 as if geography was nothing but a sub- 

 division of natural science. This opin- 

 ion was even held by a party of the 

 geographers themselves; but now, with 

 the exception of a very small minor- 

 ity, of which Professor Gerland, at 

 Strassburg, is the most important rep- 

 resentative, it ma}^ be looked upon as a 

 past epoch in geographic evolution. 

 Valuable as the study of physical geog- 

 raphy is, it cannot be denied that it is 

 only a part of geography, not geogra- 

 phy itself, and that the topic most alive 

 in public interest, the question of hu- 

 man life, work, and influence upon the 

 earth's surface, the so-called political 

 geography, is just as indispensable. 

 The study of physical geography alone 

 would deal with the earth as a dead 

 planet, a planet without life or history. 



This disproportion between the pro- 



gress of physical and the backwardness 

 of political geograph)^ was naturally felt 

 most sorely in schools, which would 

 make the former a very interesting 

 branch of teaching, while there was no 

 way of learning the latter except by 

 learning single facts by heart, since- the 

 knowledge of these facts was indispen- 

 sable after all. For ' ' no physical or 

 geological wisdom, " said then Professor 

 Kirchhoff, of Halle, one of the foremost 

 men in the progress of school methods, 

 ' ' will help him who does not know 

 whether Madrid lies in Spain and Peters- 

 burg in Russia, or vice versa." Thus 

 necessity led geographers back quite 

 naturally from the overemphasis of 

 physical geography to the further pur- 

 suit of Ritter's ways. It was recog- 

 nized that such an important branch of 

 instruction must needs have a scientific 

 foundation, and that if this foundation 

 had not yet been discovered, the reason 

 might be that the right point of view 

 had not yet been taken. 



RATZEL 



This point of view was found atid 

 Ritter's method taken up again with 

 the improvements of modern science by 

 Friedrich Ratzel, Richthofen 's successor 

 in the lycipzig chair of geography. We 

 are reminded of Humboldt's remarks on 

 the spirit of physical geography when 

 we read Ratzel' s words: "The com- 

 plaints of the dryness of political geog- 

 raphy, as old as geographic instruc- 

 tion itself, are heard again and again in 

 our times. They seem to be the result 

 of lack in pedagogic skill; but the fault 

 lies deeper, it lies in the scientific treat- 

 ment of political geography. For this 

 is the cause of all the difficulties in this 

 branch of instruction, that the facts of 

 political geography still lie much too 

 rigidly beside each other and beside 

 those of physical geography. The in- 

 struction in this important branch will 

 never be rendered interesting unless the 



