Georges Grosjean

Georges André Grosjean (born January 17, 1921 in Biel / Bienne ; † April 8, 2002 in Kirchlindach ) was a Swiss historian , geographer and museum director.

Life

Grosjean studied in Bern and Zurich and received his doctorate in 1952 with a subject on Swiss history. At first he worked as a high school teacher. In 1954 he completed his habilitation with a thesis on Roman surveying in western Switzerland. From 1958 Grosjean taught cultural and economic geography at the University of Bern . From 1963 he received a professorship for the same subjects. In 1986 he retired.

As a part-time job, Grosjean was director of the Swiss Alpine Museum in Bern from 1958 to 1969 . He then worked for this museum until 1993 as President of the Board of Trustees.

Grosjean also chaired the Historical Association of the Canton of Bern (1956 to 1960) and the Swiss Geographical Commission (1970 to 1973). He was also a founding member of the Swiss Society for Cartography , which it made an honorary member in 1995. Grosjean was also committed to the Swiss Alpine Club and homeland security.

Services

Grosjean had a significant influence on teaching and research in the Geographical Institute of the University of Bern. The field of cultural geography experienced a strong historical impact under him. Its aim was not to train teachers, but scientists for practice and administration. Old maps served him as sources for the landscape analysis, while conversely he designed some maps for the Atlas of Switzerland .

In addition to geographical writings, Grosjean published frequently in the field of the history of cartography . His map and plan catalog for the Canton of Bern (1960) was exemplary . He was internationally recognized as the editor of facsimiles , such as the Catalan World Atlas (1977).

His collaboration on the Civil Defense Book (1969) was judged very controversially in the press .

Grosjean was an extremely prolific scientist. His bibliography includes around 60 independent publications, around 145 dependent publications, 13 issued facsimiles of old maps, 10 independently and more than 30 independently published modern maps as well as around 65 columns in the Bern daily newspaper Der Bund .

Fonts

• Cantonal map and plan catalog Bern = Catalog cantonal Bernois de cartes et plans . Bern: Staatlicher Lehrmittelverlag, 1960. ( Land surveying and cartography of the Canton of Bern , 2). ( Full text )
• with Albert Bachmann : civil defense . Edited by the Federal Department of Justice and Police on behalf of the Federal Council. Aarau: Miles, [1969].
• with Rudolf Kinauer : Card art and card technology from ancient times to the baroque . Bern: Hallwag, 1970.
• (with the assistance of Madlena Cavelti): 500 years of Swiss maps . [Ed.] Zurich paper factory on the Sihl. Zurich: Orell Füssli, 1971.
• Mapamundi: the Catalan World Atlas from 1375 . Dietikon: Graf, 1977. ISBN 3-85951-128-9
• The sea atlas of Vesconte Maggiolo from 1512 = Atlante nautico del 1512 di Vesconte Maggiolo . Dietikon: Graf, 1979. ISBN 3-85951-131-9
• History of cartography . [3. edit again Ed.]. Bern: Geographical Institute of the University of Bern, 1996. ( Geographica Bernensia , U8). ISBN 3-906151-15-8 , ( full text )

literature

• Lüthi, Christian: Bibliography of the writings of Georges Grosjean . In: Man in the Landscape: Festschrift for Georges Grosjean on his 65th birthday, January 17, 1986 . Edited by Klaus Aerni et al. Bern: Geographical Society of Bern, 1986. ( Yearbook of the Geographical Society of Bern, Volume 55). Pp. 21-50.
• Feldmann, Hans-Uli: Georges Grosjean January 17, 1921– April 8, 2002 . In: Cartographica Helvetica Heft 26 (2002) p. 2 full text

Web links

• Christian Lüthi: Grosjean, Georges. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .