South Fortress
In a technical terminology used up to the 19th century, South Fortress was the land mass that comprised the continent of Australia and Oceania . The other continents were assigned to the east and west fortresses .
Depending on the definition, Australia and Oceania were not viewed as their own land mass, but added to the east fortress, so that there were only two land masses on earth. The continent of Antarctica , which was unknown until the 19th century and was then counted as part of the west because of the relatively short distance between the Antarctic Peninsula and Tierra del Fuego , was not included in the south fortress .
In the middle of the 19th century, the pedagogue Friedrich Ludwig Jahn and, following him, the Association for German Pure Language suggested using German names instead of the Latin names of the continents. The words Ostfeste for Asia and Westfest for America, which were already common in geography, were more widely used. The word Nordfeste or “Dunkelerdtheil” for Europe found few fans. The word Südfeste for Africa found its way into the German dictionary with the meaning "southern mainland" . Jahn's use of the terms did not correspond to the geographical use that followed the map image of the world maps.
Individual evidence
- ^ Daniel Völter: Outline of Geography . Eßlingen 1859, p. 37. books.google.de
- ↑ HEW In: The German oak. First magazine to promote German senses and morals and pure German . Edited by JDC Brugger. 2nd year 1851, p. 254, Heidelberg, books.google.de
- ↑ South Fortress. In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm (Hrsg.): German dictionary . tape 20 : Strom – Szische - (X, 4th section). S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1942 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).