Theodor von Liechtenstern

Theodor Freiherr von Liechtenstern (born November 9, 1799 in Vienna ; † 1848 ) is one of the founders of methodical school cartography and a pioneer of the physical atlas map , along with Emil von Sydow .

Life

The son of the Austrian cartographer Joseph Marx von Liechtenstern worked as a geography teacher at various cadet schools after joining the Prussian army. He belonged to the group of reformers around Carl Ritter (1779-1859) and Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) who carried the development of geography into a modern science into schools since the turn of the century. The experienced lieutenant developed new teaching aids and also campaigned against the "old" school geography, which, as state studies, offered an abundance of topographical and statistical subjects purely enumerated. The new foundation for teaching should be physical or physical geography as a teaching of the natural composition of the earth's surface and the scientifically derived laws that work in it.

The cartographic implementation of this new direction initiated the development of the physical atlas map, the most distinctive features of which have become the representation of the mountains and the regional colors , the colored elevations . As far as can be ascertained, von Liechtenstern was the first school geographer to write “ Physical Maps ” in 1834/1838 . H. Maps without political boundary representations, as included atlas components of equal value and provided these maps with colored, brown mountain hatches to make the vertical dimension stand out more clearly. For the first time he used a lighter and a darker shade of brown on a map of Europe in his “School Atlas of Geography and State Studies” to mark plateaus and high mountains. In the second edition of the atlas, the plains of the physical maps were then given a green-beige surface color in 1844/1846. For the mountain representation, von Liechtenstern used a greatly simplified, generalized version of the slope hatching, which had been developed by Johann Georg Lehmann in 1799 and modified for teaching purposes by the Prussian general staff officer Otto August Rühle von Lilienstern .

Von Liechtenstern saw the characteristic of his map designs in the fact that they were "able to give the entire physiognomy of an earth space at the first and fleeting sight [...] and to leave an indelible impression". From this main demand he developed further principles of map and atlas design for schools. The colored maps of the first edition of atlas served some school geographers as samples and food for thought. Above all, Emil von Sydow should be mentioned, who further developed Liechtenstern's ideas in his wall maps and atlases published from 1838.

literature

• Jürgen Espenhorst: Andree, Stieler, Meyer & Co. Hand atlases of the German-speaking area (1800–1945). Bibliographic manual. Swords 1994.
• Jürgen Espenhorst u. a .: Diercke - an atlas for generations. Background, history and bibliographical data up to 1955. Schwerte 1999.
• Verena Kleinschmidt: In the beginning there was the “Liechtenstern / Lange”. From the early history of Westermann cartography. Geographical Review 5/2004.
• Theodor Freiherr von Liechtenstern: The latest views of geography in their application to school lessons. Brunswick 1846.
• Theodor Freiherr von Liechtenstern: School atlas for geography and national studies for higher schools. Reimer, Berlin 1834/1838 and 1844/1846.
• Theodor Liechtenstern and Henry Lange : The latest school atlas for teaching geography. George Westermann, Braunschweig 1853.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen , Vol. 1, 1855, p. 92 .