Klaus Wolf (geographer)

Klaus Wolf (born December 13, 1938 in Gießen ; † June 4, 2014 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German geographer and professor at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main .

Life

After graduating from high school in Bensheim , Wolf studied philology with the subjects Latin , geography and political science at the universities of Heidelberg , Freiburg , Munich and Frankfurt . He completed his studies in 1963 with the state examination for higher teaching qualifications (Latin, geography and political science) and a doctorate in geography. As an assistant to Anneliese Krenzlin , Wolf completed his habilitation in 1970 in Frankfurt am Main with a thesis on "Business centers. Use and intensity as a measure of urban size. An empirical-methodological comparison of 15 cities in the Federal Republic of Germany".

After completing his habilitation, Wolf initially held a chair for cultural geography at the University of Bonn before accepting a position at the University of Erlangen that same year . In 1972 he was offered the chair for cultural geography at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main. Wolf held this position until his retirement in 2004.

Scientific work

The focus of Wolf's scientific work was initially on geographical urban and settlement research . From the mid-1980s, Wolf was one of the first geographers who dealt intensively with the geography of leisure and tourism. In addition to the textbook "Geography of Leisure and Tourism" written together with Peter Jurczek from 1986, numerous investigations and studies testify to Wolf's research focus.

Wolf contributed conceptually and with his own contributions to the “Handwortbuch der Raumordnung” (1995), and contributed additional articles to its new edition in 2005. In the "Lexicon of Geography" (2002), Wolf wrote all articles on spatial planning, spatial planning and regional policy. In 1998 the manual “Methods and Instruments of Spatial Planning” was published, Wolf and Ernst-Hasso Ritter created the concept and contributed their own text.

In addition, Wolf contributed to the “National Atlas of the Federal Republic of Germany” conceptually and with his own contributions.

In addition to urban geography and spatial planning, one focus throughout his career was on researching the Frankfurt area. Wolf continued the work of the "Rhine-Main Research" department of the Institute of Geography, which was started in 1925. This can be seen in the choice of topics for his dissertation, his habilitation thesis, as well as numerous other works up to the publication of the "Regional Atlas Rhine-Main" in 2000, which was copied in numerous other regional atlases in various regions of Germany.

Overall, Wolf's work was strongly influenced by not creating knowledge for the academic ivory tower, but on the contrary, his work was always characterized by a high level of social relevance and a clear application reference: This also applied to the Institute for Cultural Geography, Urban and Regional Research (KSR) at Frankfurt University (later merged into the Institute for Human Geography), which was also active in policy advice.

Memberships, functions and honorary positions

In addition to his professorship, Wolf worked in numerous institutions: In 1979 he was accepted into the Central Committee for German Regional Studies , was its chairman from 1992 to 1996 and was committed to restructuring the German Academy for Regional Studies . He was available from 1997 to 2002 as Vice Chairman. From 2007 Wolf was deputy director of the Institute for Economy, Labor and Culture .

In 1984 Wolf was appointed a corresponding member of the Academy for Spatial Research and Regional Planning (ARL) in Hanover, followed in 1990 as a full member. In the academy, he initially held the deputy chairmanship and later the chairmanship of the state working group Hessen / Rhineland-Palatinate / Saarland. He participated in several working groups of the ARL, z. B. on the topics "Theoretical Basics of Spatial Development" and the "European Spatial Development Concept". From 1993 to 1995 he was first chairman of the scientific council of the ARL, from 1995 to 1996 and from 1999 to 2000 he was vice-president of the ARL and in 1997 and 1998 its president.

From 2003, Wolf was also deputy chairman of the Institute for Rural Structural Research at the Goethe University in Frankfurt.

Wolf was also a member of numerous advisory boards, e. B. the Federal Research Institute for Regional Studies and Regional Planning (today Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning ), Bonn (1988–1991), the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography , Leipzig (1995–1997), the Advisory Board for Historical Regional Studies of the Hessian Ministry of Science and Art (2001–2014) and from 2002–2003 the “Metropolitana FrankfurtRheinMain”.

Christel and Klaus Wolf Foundation

In the summer of 2016, the "Christel and Klaus Wolf Foundation" was established in Bad Homburg. According to §2 of the foundation statutes, the purpose of the foundation is "to promote cooperation between science and practice as well as young academics within the scope of the tasks of the" Academy for Spatial Research and Regional Planning (ARL) - Leibniz Forum for Spatial Sciences " the foundation's purpose in particular is achieved through

- Events on questions of science and practice in the areas of spatial development and

 räumlichen Planung

- Awarding of prizes in recognition of special scientific achievements or special

 Verdienste um die "Akademie für Raumforschung und Landesplanung(ARL) – Leibniz-Forum für
 Raumwissenschaften, Hannover

Works (selection)

• The concentration of supply functions in Frankfurt am Main. A contribution to the problem of functional dependence in urban areas. = Rhein-Mainische Forschungen H. 55 (Diss.), Frankfurt am Main, 1964
• Business centers. Use and intensity as a measure of urban size. An empirical and methodological comparison of 15 cities in the Federal Republic of Germany. = Rhein-Mainische Forschungen H. 72 (Habil.), Frankfurt am Main, 1971
• Structure and development of leisure and tourism in the Odenwaldkreis (together with Peter Jurczek, Peter Roth, Jens Schulze) = materials from the Institute for Cultural Geography, Urban and Regional Research, Vol. 1, Frankfurt am Main, 1974
• Spatial leisure behavior of young people on the outskirts of Frankfurt, explained using the example of Frankfurt-Sossenheim. Results of a student project group = materials from the Institute for Cultural Geography, Urban and Regional Research, Vol. 9, Frankfurt am Main, 1984
• Geography of Leisure and Tourism (together with Peter Jurczek), Stuttgart, 1986
• Evaluation of a water-related leisure facility in a metropolitan area using the example of the Schultheis pond in Offenbach am Main (together with Ulrike Lilienbecker-Hecht, Klaus Schrader, Jochen Würges) and structural analysis of tourism in Oberammergau (together with Claudia Maria Scholz, Hendrik Huwald, Christian Rohrbach) = Materials from the Institute for Cultural Geography, Urban and Regional Research, Vol. 20, Frankfurt am Main, 1997
• Regional Atlas Rhine-Main. Nature - Society - Economy (together with Franz Schymik, Christian Langhagen-Rohrbach, Elke Alban) = Rhein-Mainische Forschungen H. 120, Frankfurt am Main, 2000
• The Langener Waldsee: Structure and potential of a leisure facility (together with Claudia Maria Scholz, Christian Rohrbach) = materials from the Institute for Cultural Geography, Urban and Regional Research, Vol. 30, Frankfurt am Main, 2000
• Regional leisure facilities in the Rhine-Main area (together with Christian Langhagen-Rohrbach) = materials from the Institute for Cultural Geography, Urban and Regional Research, Vol. 31, Frankfurt am Main, 2000
• Opinion on the state government's draft law for a law to strengthen municipal cooperation and planning in the Rhine-Main region (conurbation law) (together with Jens Peter Scheller) = KSR36, H 8, Frankfurt am Main, 2001

Web links

• Literature by and about Klaus Wolf in the catalog of the German National Library
• Review of the series of materials published by Klaus Wolf on the website of the University of Potsdam
• Obituary on the website of the Goethe University, Frankfurt
• Obituary of the German Academy for Regional Studies e. V.