Kurt Brüning

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Kurt Brüning (born November 27, 1897 in Magdeburg , † August 14, 1961 in Heidelberg ) was a professor of regional studies , geographer and geologist .

Life

Born in Magdeburg in 1897 as the son of the businessman Rudolf Brüning , Kurt Brüning attended the Guerickeschule there , where he passed the school leaving examination in 1916. Then he began studying the natural sciences with special emphasis on geography and geology at the University of Halle . He interrupted his studies because he took part in the First World War from 1917 to 1918 . In 1919 he continued his studies at the Philipps University of Marburg and completed it in 1920 with a doctorate to become a Dr. phil. in Marburg on a paleontological topic.

He initially received an assistant position for geology at the Bergakademie in Clausthal in 1921 and 1922, then went on to practical work as a trainee teacher in Clausthal for a year and passed his state examination in 1923. From 1923 to 1927 he held an assistant position to Erich Obst at the TH Hannover . There he completed his habilitation in geography in 1926 with a thesis on mining in the Harz Mountains in the Mansfeld region and also represented this subject in 1929 and 1930 at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster . He dealt primarily with regional studies for Lower Saxony and in 1928 was elected managing director of the Economic Science Society for the study of Lower Saxony due to his knowledge and achievements.

In 1930 he received a professorship at the TH Braunschweig . He mainly represented anthropo-geography. The long-time SPD party member Brüning, after taking power in 1933, anticipated dismissal from university service by filing his own application for dismissal. So from 1934 he worked in Hanover in the Provincial Institute for Regional Planning, Regional and Folklore of Lower Saxony, which emerged from a department headed by Brüning. It was only from 1937 onwards that he was enabled to become an unscheduled professor in Göttingen , albeit unpaid. After the Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft für Raumforschung RAG (founded in 1935) in Berlin was bombed out, the institute moved to Göttingen in autumn 1944 on instructions from Berlin. From 1944 he became a part-time "chairman" (head) of the RAG.

In November 1946, Brüning took over as director of the newly founded Lower Saxony Office for State Planning and Statistics , became President of the Academy for Spatial Research and State Planning and personal advisor to the Lower Saxony Minister of the Interior.

In 1958 Brüning was elected to the board of the Lower Saxony Heimatbund at the Lower Saxony Congress in Alfeld . He was also a member of the Heimatbund Lower Saxony . From 1954 he was a full member of the Braunschweig Scientific Society .

Brüning suffered a fatal heart attack in Heidelberg on August 14, 1961 when he heard about the construction of the Berlin Wall that had begun the day before .

Services

Brüning took part in the discussion on the reform of the Reich in the 1920s through an expert opinion on the delimitation of Lower Saxony (memorandum "Lower Saxony in the context of the reorganization of the Reich", 1929 and 1931; "Atlas Lower Saxony", 1934). This preparatory work ultimately also had an impact on the decision of the British military government to unite the former states and provinces of Hanover, Braunschweig , Oldenburg and Schaumburg-Lippe to form Lower Saxony in 1946 . He is therefore considered the "spiritual father" of Lower Saxony in its current geographic form. The two volumes on this topic that he has compiled are sometimes considered to be noteworthy for questions relating to spatial restructuring. His regional studies atlases and economic geography publications on Lower Saxony have so far hardly found a parallel.

He was director of the "Lower Saxony Office for Regional Planning and Statistics" from 1946 to 1961, Director of the Institute for Regional Planning and Regional Studies from 1937 and from 1947 to 1959 President of the Academy for Spatial Research and Regional Planning since 1946 with Secretary General and companion Heinrich Hunke and speaker for state planning in the Ministry of the Interior of his federal state.

Works

  • Lower Saxony as part of the reorganization of the empire. 1929 and 1931.
  • Atlas Lower Saxony. 1934.
  • Country studies of Asia. 1936.
  • The Hanover Emsland. 1937.
  • New formation of the state of Lower Saxony. 1946.
  • Economic geography and regional planning of Lower Saxony. 1949.
  • Land planning, spatial research and practical geography. 1952.
  • Population size and nutritional strength of the state of Lower Saxony. 1953.
  • Australia. 1957.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Horst-Rüdiger Jarck , Günter Scheel (ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon - 19th and 20th centuries . Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hannover 1996, ISBN 3-7752-5838-8 , p. 105 f .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Brüning, Kurt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German geographer and geologist
DATE OF BIRTH November 27, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Magdeburg
DATE OF DEATH August 14, 1961
Place of death Heidelberg