Josef Schmid (geographer)

Josef Schmid (born August 13, 1898 in Freiburg im Breisgau ; † October 12, 1978 in Mainz ) was a German geographer. From 1946 to 1947 he was the founding rector of the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz .

Life

Schmid studied in Vienna and Freiburg a. B. and received his doctorate there in 1924 on hydrological and small morphological studies on the edge of the Black Forest . He then worked, among other things, at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau and from 1934 worked for publishers in Berlin. During the Second World War he was hired to serve in the Foreign Office as a scientific assistant in Berlin. As a member of the Center Party in Freiburg, Schmid was known as an opponent of National Socialism before 1933. He was in contact with Joseph Wirth . From 1946 to 1966 he was a full professor of geography at the University of Mainz. The appointment was made without habilitation by the French occupying power . On March 1, 1946, his sponsor General Raymond Schmittlein appointed him rector of the newly founded university. The founding rectorate ended under French pressure in 1947 after an affair over disputes over rector's competencies. Schmid received an honorary doctorate from the Kath. Theological faculty in Mainz. From January 1949 to December 1952, disciplinary proceedings were in progress against him, in which it was a question of the legality of his professorship. Schmid was first suspended, then fully rehabilitated.

Fonts (selection)

• Climate. Soil and tree shape in the irrigated low mountain range. A contribution to the water balance & surface design , Neumann 1925.
• Want and goals of the new university . Mainz 1946.

literature

• Christophe Baginski: France's university policy using the example of the "Josef Schmid Affair" , Freiburg i.Br./Mainz 1945–1952. In: Jahrbuch für Westdeutsche Landesgeschichte 22, 1996, pp. 353–371.
• Christophe Baginski: Un aspect de la politique universitaire française en Allemagne: l'affaire Josef Schmid , Friborg / Mayence 1945–1952. In: Allemagne d'aujourd'hui 134, 1995, pp. 69-91.
• Michael Kißener / Helmut Mathy: “Ut omnes unum sint”, Part 1: Founding personalities of the Johannes Gutenberg University. Steiner, Stuttgart 2005. ISBN 3-515-08650-1 .
• Johannes Hürter (Red.): Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945. Published by the Foreign Office, Historical Service. Volume 4: Bernd Isphording, Gerhard Keiper, Martin Kröger: S Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-71843-3 , pp. 101f.

Web links

• Estate at the University of Leipzig, Institute for Regional Geography (PDF; 341 kB)