Herbert Wilhelmy

Herbert Wilhelmy (* February 4, 1910 in Sondershausen; † February 1, 2003 in Tübingen) was a German geographer. Wilhelmy has made significant impact in the area of Latin American regional geography, with a focus on climatic geomorphology and, especially, morphogenetic urban geography.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]

Herbert Wilhelmy
Born(1910-02-04)4 February 1910
Sondershausen, Germany
Died1 February 2003
NationalityGerman
Alma materUniversity of Leipzig
Known forGeomorphology, Urban morphology
Scientific career
FieldsGeography,

Background

Wilhelmy studied geography, geology und ethnology at the universities of Giessen, Bonn, Vienna (1930) and Leipzig. In 1932 he finished his doctoral degree—supervised by Alfred Hettner's disciple Heinrich Schmitthenner—that treated the geomorphology of western Bulgaria Die Oberflächenformen des Iskergebietes: Eine Morphogenese Westbulgariens. Also his Habilitation in Kiel, as Oskar Schmieder's assistant (from 1932), was dedicated to the Bulgarian Balkan mountains' settlement and economy—Hoch-Bulgarien: Die ländlichen Siedlungen und die bäuerliche Wirtschaft (1935), Sofia, Wandlungen einer Großstadt zwischen Orient und Okzident (1936). He worked at the University of Kiel 1939–1942 (as contracted lecturer), 1942–1954 as associated professor, interrupted by a work period as meteorologist and research director in Ukraine (1941—1943). In 1954 he became full professor at the University of Stuttgart as Hermann Lautensach's successor. 1959—1960 he researched and taught at the University of California, Berkeley with James J. Parsons—a student of Carl O. Sauer—, generated William M. Denevan's interest for writing a dissertation on the Llanos de Mojos[9] and inspired Chris Field who wrote his dissertation on Southern Andean agricultural terraces.[10] Subsequently he followed Hermann von Wissmann, son of Hermann von Wissmann, and went to the University of Tübingen, where he retired in 1978.[11] He advised several doctoral and/or post-doctoral students, among others Ralph Jätzold (agricultural geography), Wolfgang Brücher (industrial geography), Axel Borsdorf (settlement geography), Hartmut Leser and Klaus Rother (geomorphology).

Research

Wilhelmy was a universalist, whose research interest bridged the full spectra of Physical geography and Human geography. As a pupil of Oskar Schmieder[12][13][14]—in turn an advisee of Alfred Hettner and got in contact with Carl O. Sauer at Berkeley—, he dedicated his work to Latin America, in particular to the cities of the subcontinent as well as to the South American lowlands of Argentina and Paraguay (Pampa, Gran Chaco), and northern Colombia. Initially focusing on settlement and agricultural colonization, he later founded the German tradition of Latin Americanist urban geography at Kiel.[15] In this context, he is considered a prominent representative of the cultural-genetic urban geography tradition,[16] which bases on Oskar Schmieder's kulturmorphogenetische Länderkunde and the concept of cultural regions.[17] Further, he investigated the Indus River basin of Pakistan, where his mentor Oskar Schmieder worked as a Visiting Professor in Karachi, and published monographies on Mayan civilization, Bhutan, and Alexander von Humboldt.

Memberships

References
  1. Wilhelmy, H. (1970): Appearance and functions of the large Latin-American cities in the past and present. In: Geoforum 1 (3), 31–38
  2. Wilhelmy, H. (1953): Bericht über meine Kolumbienreise 1952. In: Erdkunde 7 (4), 293–298
  3. Wilhelmy, H. (1950): Gestaltwandel der Städte Südamerikas: vom kolonialen Barock zum Eisenbeton. In: DIE ERDE 81 (1), 296–304
  4. Wilhelmy, H. (1950): Die spanische Kolonialstadt in Südamerika: Grundzüge ihrer baulichen Gestaltung. In: Geographica Helvetica 5 (1), 18–36
  5. Wilhelmy, H. (1986): Urban change in Argentina: historical roots and modern trends. In: Conzen, M.P. (Ed.): World patterns of modern urban change : essays in honor of Chauncy D. Harris. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 273–292 Archived 2014-12-04 at the Wayback Machine
  6. Wilhelmy, H. (1952): Südamerika im Spiegel seiner Städte. Hamburg: De Gruyter
  7. Wilhelmy, H. (1985): Cuzco. Die Inca-Metropole. In: DIE KARAWANE – Vierteljahreshefte der Gesellschaft für Länder- und Völkerkunde 26 (3–4), 61–75
  8. Wagner, P.L. (1982): Wilhelmy's Geographical Appraisal of Mayan Civilization. In: Geographical Review 72 (2), 223–227
  9. Denenvan, W.M. (1966): The Aboriginal Cultural Geography Of The Llanos De Mojos Of Bolivia. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  10. Field, C. (1966): A Reconnaissance of Southern Andean Agricultural Terracing. Washington: National Research Council.
  11. Schröder, K.H. (1970): Herbert Wilhelmy zum 60. Geburtstag. In: Blume, H., Schröder, K.H. (Eds.): Beiträge zur Geographie der Tropen und Subtropen. Festschrift zum 60. Geburtstag von Herbert Wilhelmy. Tübingen: Geographical Institute of the University of Tübingen.
  12. Schmieder, O. (1929): Wandlungen im Siedlungsbilde Perus im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert. In: Geographische Zeitschrift 35 (7–8), 439–452
  13. Schmieder, O. (1926): Das ostbolivianische Bergland. In: Geographische Zeitschrift 32 (8), 393–405
  14. Schmieder, O. (1929): The Pampa, a Natural or Culturally Induced Grassland?. In: Sauer, C. (Ed.): University of California Publications in Geography 2. Berkeley: University of California Press, 255–270
  15. Bock, U. (2005): Deutsche Lateinamerikaforschung im Nationalsozialismus. In: Carreras, S. (Ed.): Der Nationalsozialismus und Südamerika. Berlin: Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut Preußischer Kulturbesitz, 7–22
  16. Heineberg, H. (2007): German geographical urban morphology in an international and interdisciplinary framework. In: Urban Morphology 11 (1), 5–24
  17. Holzner, L. et al. (1967): Toward a Theory of Cultural-Genetic City Classification. In: Annals of the Association of American Geographers 57 (2), 367–381
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