Hans Boesch (geographer)

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Hans Heinrich Boesch (born March 24, 1911 in Zurich ; † August 16, 1978 in Zollikon , Canton of Zurich) was a Swiss geographer. From 1942 until his death he headed the Geographical Institute at the University of Zurich .

Life

Boesch attended the literary school in Zurich from 1923 to 1929 , where his father Paul Boesch taught. After graduating from high school , he studied geology at the University of Zurich, which he graduated with a diploma in 1934. A year in the United States at Clark University , under his academic teacher Samuel Van Valkenburg , brought him closer to geographic topics, particularly economic geography .

Nevertheless, after his return, Boesch initially worked as a geologist and also dealt with petroleum geology . In addition to temporary activities as an assistant teacher, he was assistant to Rudolf Staub at the ETH Zurich from 1935 to 1936 . Boesch then worked in a photogrammetry office and from 1937 to 1938 as a field geologist for the British Oil Development Company in Iraq . After completing his doctorate in 1937, he completed his habilitation two years later with the thesis Iraq: a study in regional, economic and political geography .

In 1940 Boesch became associate professor at the Geographical Institute of the University of Zurich. After Hans J. Wehrli's age-related resignation in the same year, Heinrich Gutersohn's departure from ETH Zurich in 1941 and the sudden deaths of Otto Flückiger and Hans Bernhard within a few months of 1942, Boesch became a full professor at the age of 31 and was initially an interim professor , appointed head of the institute. At that time, only Boesch, who also had to do military service, and his assistants were allowed to continue teaching there. Under his 36-year management, the institute was expanded several times in terms of staff and space, and around 130 doctoral theses were created. From 1950 to 1952 Boesch was dean of the faculty and later delegate for planning and expansion tasks of the university.

In addition, Boesch held numerous other managerial functions. From 1954 to 1962 he was President of the Geographisch-Ethnographische Gesellschaft Zürich and from 1956 to 1968 General Secretary of the International Geographical Union , whose commission for land use surveys he chaired after L. Dudley Stamp's death in 1966 until it was dissolved ten years later. From 1972 he was editor of the magazine Geographica Helvetica .

Clark University awarded Boesch an honorary doctorate in 1966, and he was also an honorary member of several geographic societies. A few months before his death, he received the golden Alexander von Humboldt Medal from the Society for Geography in Berlin. Boesch died on August 16, 1978 in his home town of Zollikon of the consequences of a heart attack. With his wife Henny (née Wild) he had two sons and a daughter.

plant

Boesch was a representative of a broad, landscaped geography. His research focus was initially more on geomorphology , later he published in addition to numerous country customers, above all works on global economic geography and also appeared as an author of thematic maps . His textbook World Economic Geography was published in several languages.

Fonts (selection)

  • Geology of the central Lower Engadine Dolomites between the Ofenpass and Val Laschadura (Graubünden) . Zurich 1937 (dissertation).
  • El-'Iraq . In: Economic Geography . tape 15 , no. 4 , 1939, pp. 325-361 , doi : 10.2307 / 141771 .
  • Water or Oil: A Book About the Middle East . Kümmerly and Frey, Bern 1944.
  • The economic landscapes of the earth . Gutenberg Book Guild, Zurich 1947.
  • The United States of America (=  Small K&F series for emigrants and merchants . Volume 8 ). Kümmerly and Frey, Bern 1949.
  • Economic Geographical Atlas of the World . Kümmerly and Frey, Bern 1951 (title of later editions: Wirtschaftsgeographischer Weltatlas ).
  • Central America today: La tierra del Quetzal . Kümmerly and Frey, Bern 1952.
  • USA: The development of a continent . Kümmerly and Frey, Bern 1956.
  • The Middle East . Kümmerly and Frey, Bern 1959.
  • A geography of world economy . Van Nostrand, Princeton 1964.
    • World economic geography . Westermann, Braunschweig 1966.
  • Japan . Westermann, Braunschweig 1978, ISBN 3-14-509091-7 .

further reading

  • Haruko Kishimoto (Ed.): Geography and its Boundaries: a publication to commemorate the work of Prof. Dr. Hans Boesch / La geographie et ses frontières / Geography and its limits . Kümmerly and Frey, Bern 1980 (in three languages).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Ernst Spiess: Professor Dr. Dr. hc Hans Boesch: March 24, 1911 to August 16, 1978 . In: Geographica Helvetica . tape 33 , no. 4 , 1978, p. 169-172 ( online ).
  2. ^ Bernhard Brunner: On the history of the Geographical Institute of the University of Zurich (=  economic geography and spatial planning . Volume 29 ). Zurich 2000, p. 61 ( online [PDF]).
  3. ^ Bernhard Brunner: On the history of the Geographical Institute of the University of Zurich (=  economic geography and spatial planning . Volume 29 ). Zurich 2000, p. 55-56 ( online [PDF]).
  4. ↑ a b c d Ernst Gächter: Hans Boesch † . In: Cartographic News . tape 28 , no. 6 , 1978, p. 227-228 .
  5. ↑ Haruko Kishimoto: Biography of Hans Boesch 1911–1978 . In: ders. (Ed.): Geography and its Boundaries: a publication to commemorate the work of Prof. Dr. Hans Boesch / La geographie et ses frontières / Geography and its limits . Kümmerly and Frey, Bern 1980, p. 127-129 .
personal data
SURNAME Boesch, Hans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Boesch, Hans Heinrich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss geographer
DATE OF BIRTH March 24, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich , Switzerland
DATE OF DEATH August 16, 1978
Place of death Zollikon , Switzerland