The life of Hans Bobek and his contributions to geography

Summary

According to A. Buttimer (1983), Hans Bobek (1903–1990) was a geographer who was highly esteemed worldwide as a “Renaissance man” of twentieth-century geography and whose research on the Orient made European and American geographers aware, among other things, of the geographical significance of “Judeo-Christian value biases.” Indeed, Bobek made pioneering contributions to various fields of geography, including the incorporation of the functional approach into geography and, later, the foundation of German social geography, publications on his theory of rent capitalism, contributions to geomorphology, and the publication of the Atlas of the Republic of Austria. For research into the history of geographical thought, it is highly significant to examine the geographical contributions of such an eminent geographer. In doing so, one must consider his life and, within it, the course and development of his ideas and studies. This article therefore aims to clarify H. Bobek’s contribution, particularly to human geography, by examining his life and his most important works. The main findings of this study are as follows: 1. In 1926, he wrote his doctoral dissertation at the University of Innsbruck on the urban geography of Innsbruck. Its main section was published in *Forschungen zur deutschen Landes- und Volkskunde*, while the theoretical section of its “Introduction,” dealing with fundamental questions of urban geography, appeared in the journal *Geographischer Anzeiger* and attracted lasting attention. In 1935, however, he completed his habilitation at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the University of Berlin with a study of the Inn Valley terrace that presented an entirely new picture of the disintegration of the Würm glaciation. His shift from urban geography to geomorphology occurred at the urging of his doctoral supervisor, J. Sölch. At that time, the prevailing view among German geographers was that one must, under all circumstances, possess a “solid geomorphological foundation.” 2. In 1934, while serving as a research assistant at the University of Berlin, he conducted his first field study in Iran. His research on the Orient ultimately crystallized into the theory of rent capitalism, which is also regarded as an important empirical contribution to his social geography. Although it was not until 1948 that he wrote his internationally renowned article on “The Position and Significance of Social Geography,” the germ of the social-geographical approach was already apparent in his Innsbruck research, or at the latest in his presentation at the International Geographical Congress in Amsterdam in 1937. From the late 1950s onward, however, he had to devote himself to publishing the Atlas of the Republic of Austria. Since this project demanded the utmost intensity of effort from him for more than twenty years, he was unfortunately unable to continue his own work on social geography and Oriental studies to the extent he desired. This may have prevented him from developing his own school of social geography to the same degree as W. Hartke. Although many of his students, as geographers with doctorates, worked for the federal and provincial governments, few geographers further developed his social geography. 3. He constructed the logical system of geography on the basis of the stepwise integration of elements into the landscape. For him, the resulting new whole contained more than a mere aggregation of its constituent elements. This idea dominated German geography for approximately twenty years, but at the 1969 Geographers’ Congress in Kiel, both regional geography and landscape studies were strongly criticized for treating their subjects as fictitious totalities. Later, in his farewell lecture at the University of Vienna in 1971, he accepted a pluralism of epistemological approaches within geography. 4. The Atlas of the Republic of Austria, comprising a total of 119 maps and published by the Austrian Academy of Sciences between 1960 and 1980 under Hans Bobek’s scientific and cartographic design direction, is marked by profound geographical insight and even surpasses the atlases of Great Britain, France, the United States, and other countries. In this atlas, the concept of stepwise integration into the landscape was concretely realized. Map sheet XII/3, “Regional Formation through Service and Employment Centers,” appears especially significant as a map illustrating the interplay of forces involved in regional formation. The atlas was therefore not only used for conventional purposes but also provided an important basis for all questions of spatial planning. Through his turn toward applied geography, Bobek contributed greatly to opening up new career opportunities for his students in urban and regional planning, in addition to teaching. 5. Throughout his lifelong research in human geography, which began with his study of the city of Innsbruck, the relationship between town and countryside always remained at the forefront. As early as the International Geographical Congress in Amsterdam, he observed that this relationship differed markedly in Oriental regions from that in Europe and North America. He therefore argued that the applicability of Christaller’s theory should be limited to such highly developed countries. In his research on the Orient, he took into account the parasitic character of Oriental cities and ultimately arrived at the theory of rent capitalism. In publishing the Atlas of the Republic of Austria, he also emphasized, as noted above, that central places play a significant role in regional formation not only as service and employment centers but also as centers of mobility.