The Swiss national atlas

Summary

Georges Lobsiger presents the first ten sheets and accompanying commentaries of the Swiss National Atlas, launched in Bern on 14 May 1965. He traces the initiative of the Federation of Swiss Geographical Societies, federal funding approved in 1961, and the organization of production. Planned to comprise 86 sheets containing approximately 300 maps, the atlas coordinates thematic information for administrative, educational, scientific, and economic use. Loose sheets stored in a case facilitate comparison; the principal scale is 1:500,000. The first installment covers relief, geophysics, climate, population, economic structure, rural settlement, agriculture, forestry, and land use. Lobsiger values historical comparisons of population and economic patterns alongside relief mapping. He also criticizes the reduction of geography teaching in the federal school-leaving curriculum in 1965 and advocates geography’s place in modern humanistic education.