Em. Hochschulprofessor Dr. phil. h.c., Dipl.-Ing. Eduard Imhof, Ehrenmitglied der österreichischen Geographischen Gesellschaft, zum 85. Geburtstag

Summary

This commemorative and bibliographic article reviews the achievements of Swiss cartographer Eduard Imhof on the occasion of his eighty-fifth birthday, with particular attention to his continued productivity between 1974/75 and March 1980. Drawing on an appraisal of his recent maps, atlases, writings, and professional activities, the article presents Imhof as an exceptional figure who integrated technical precision, theoretical knowledge, artistic design, and field observation. Its central focus is the completion of the Atlas of Switzerland, initiated in 1961 and published in nine installments from 1965 to 1978. As chair of the editorial commission and principal editor, Imhof shaped the program and graphic design of nearly all 96 plates, advised contributors, and personally authored approximately 150 maps and commentaries for 22 plates. Containing hundreds of maps, profiles, diagrams, tables, and multilingual explanatory texts, the atlas is characterized as a landmark of Swiss thematic cartography and one of the finest contemporary atlases in graphic clarity, color harmony, and printing quality. The article also documents Imhof’s work on maps of the Bhutan Himalaya and Switzerland, panorama revision, relief representation, and publications on national topographic mapping. Particular emphasis is placed on his balanced view of computer cartography: computational methods can accelerate, improve, and support production, but should not justify graphically inferior or less legible results. His continued mountaineering, field observation, drawing, and painting demonstrate the enduring connection between landscape experience and cartographic representation. The appended bibliography confirms that Imhof remained highly creative in advanced age and establishes his lasting significance as both a culmination of classical cartography and a bridge toward judiciously integrated modern methods.