Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen

Summary

This article traces the development of Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen from its establishment in 1855 to its closure in 2004, emphasizing its scholarly profile, cartographic achievements, and changing relationship to Germany’s political and economic circumstances. Founded by the Justus Perthes publishing house under August Petermann, the journal combined academic studies and travel narratives with innovative maps. It became an internationally recognized record of geographical exploration and an unusual example of a privately managed, profit-oriented journal operating without the institutional support of a geographical society or state body. Drawing on changes in titles, editorial policies, publication frequency, supplements, review sections, and map production, the article reconstructs the journal’s shifting priorities. Around 1900, Alexander Supan redirected it toward institutional scholarship, while Paul Langhans later reduced its extensive review coverage and emphasized human geography, travel writing, military geography, and photographic illustration. War, economic depression, and political transformation subsequently diminished the journal’s size, international reach, thematic breadth, and cartographic richness. Nevertheless, it published 1,490 maps between 1900 and 1945, confirming cartography as a central feature of its identity. After World War II, the East German state nationalized the journal and aligned it with Communist academic institutions; it then primarily served domestic geographers, many of whom concentrated on politically less contentious areas of physical geography. Following German reunification, reprivatization, sale to the Klett publishing group, and a full-color thematic relaunch failed to overcome strong competition, limited resources, and stagnant subscriptions. Publication ended in December 2004. The article concludes that the journal made a major contribution to modern geography and cartographic history through its maps, exploration reports, and comprehensive reviews, while its changing fortunes demonstrate the dependence of scholarly periodicals on markets, disciplinary priorities, technology, and political regimes.