Wilhelm Liebenow

Johannes Wilhelm Liebenow (born October 13, 1822 in Bad Schönfließ , † July 17, 1897 in Berlin ) was a German topographer and cartographer .

Life

Family and education

Wilhelm Liebenow was born as the son of a farm owner in Schönfließ in New Mark near Frankfurt an der Oder . He attended the large boys' school in his hometown and began an apprenticeship as a merchant in Königsberg in Neumark in 1836, after the early death of his father . In 1841 he joined the Prussian Army as a volunteer in Berlin , where he served as a fireworker in the Guards Artillery .

Professional background

In self-study he read a large number of scientific works and listened to lectures at the Berlin University , among others with the geographer Carl Ritter , for whose Atlas of Asia he drew a map of Galilee . But he also attended seminars with the physicist Heinrich Wilhelm Dove and the chemist Eilhard Mitscherlich . In 1847 he was transferred to the topographical department of the General Staff because of his skill in drawing and drafting . The head of the department, Major Gustav Eduard von Hindersin , has since been one of his supporters, as has the Major in the General Staff Albrecht von Roon , who later became Field Marshal and Minister of War.

After Liebenow had familiarized himself with land surveying techniques , he was frequently assigned to survey work. When, towards the end of the 1840s, plans were made to convert Trier into a first-rate fortress, he spent a whole year doing reconnaissance in the Moselle region . This awakened his interest in archeology and prompted him to publish a map of the Trier area with details of all known remains from Roman times . Accompanied by his former teacher Eilhard Mitscherlich, he undertook a trip through the Eifel in 1850 and used this opportunity to make a large number of sketches, maps and relief models of the extinct volcanoes, which Mitscherlich later published in his work Ueber die volcanischen Phenomena in der Eifel und on the metamorphosis of the rocks due to increased temperature .

Returning to Berlin, Liebenow came into closer contact with Alexander von Humboldt , who remained his mentor until the end of his life. On his advice, he dedicated a map of the Hohenzollernsche Lands he had designed on a scale of 1: 100,000, which also appeared in print in 1854, to the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. In 1852 he was awarded the large gold medal for science. In 1854 Liebenow was employed as a technical officer in the railway department of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Public Works. As such, for 40 years he played a major role in the processing of the official railway maps and the annual statistical reports from the Prussian State Railways .

In addition to his official duties, he also took on numerous private jobs, especially for the Berlin map publishers Schropp , Nicolai and Dietrich Reimer . In 1866 he resigned from the Prussian army as a prime lieutenant . At the end of the 1860s he was extensively employed at the Prussian Land Registry. About 350 measuring table sheets from Central Germany are mainly from him. Further results of these measurements were two topographical maps of the principalities of Lippe-Detmold and Schaumburg-Lippe from 1870. His main work, the special map of Central Europe in 164 sheets on a scale of 1: 300,000, which was only completed in 1884 , was published around this time at the suggestion of the Chief of General Staff Helmut started by Moltke . The western sections of this map, which included the landscapes from the Rhine to Paris , had to be produced under great time pressure because of the impending war against France . They appeared before France declared war and had rendered essential services to the German troops, who had 50,000 withdrawals at their disposal, during the march. During the war, Liebenow himself was a member of the Railway Executive Commission belonging to the Great Headquarters and earned the Iron Cross and the Bavarian Order of Military Merit for his services . During the peace negotiations at Versailles and Brussels , Otto von Bismarck called on him as a cartographic expert to determine the new German-French border . The final frontier was entered in two copies of his special map of Central Europe, and this was attached to the official contract records of February 26, 1871.

After the Peace of Frankfurt , Liebenow was appointed secret accountant and director of the cartographic office of the Ministry of Public Works in Berlin, and later also chairman of the planning chamber for the building department. In this position, too, he found time to publish a large number of maps, most of which had multiple editions. In 1882 he was awarded the gold medal for art and science from King Karl von Württemberg and the medal for art and science from Grand Duke Friedrich Franz II of Mecklenburg-Schwerin . On October 1, 1891, he celebrated his 50th anniversary with great sympathy. In the same year he was awarded the Prussian Order of the Crown, 2nd class, for his services . In the following year he received the character as a professor . In 1894 he retired and was appointed Privy Councilor. Even now he continued to work, revising his maps and issuing various new editions.

Wilhelm Liebenow died on July 21, 1897, at the age of 76, in Berlin-Schöneberg of a heart attack . For many years he was a member of the Brandenburgia, the society for local history of the province of Brandenburg .

Works

Of his map series, some of which had high editions, the overview map of Central Europe, six sheets on a scale of 1: 1,250,000 from 1860, the general map of the province of Silesia two sheets in a scale of 1: 400,000 from 1861, a special map of the Giant Mountains in a scale of 1: 50,000 from 1862, a special map of northwestern Germany in six sheets from 1864, the atlas of the more recent description of the earth for school and home in 30 maps from 1865, special map of the County of Glatz from 1865, a map of South Bohemia and Moravia from 1866, a special map of Schleswig-Holstein and Lauenburg from 1867, a new special map of the provinces of Rhineland and Westphalia in 35 sheets from 1867, a map of the Prussian state in 12 sheets from 1867, a situation plan of Berlin and the surrounding area in nine sheets on a scale of 1: 6,250 from 1867, a special map of West Germany in 10 sheets with a scale of 1: 300,000 from 1868, a map of Germany for practice View of the railways, waterways and main roads from 1869, a map of the Principality of Birkenfeld from 1869, as well as numerous maps of Prussian administrative districts and counties.

After the Franco-German War, a map of the realm of Alsace-Lorraine in four sheets from 1872, a railway and travel map of Central Europe from 1874, a map of European Turkey in two sheets from 1876, the work signatures for plan drawing according to the for the recordings of the Royal Prussian General Staff regulations from 1876, special maps of the individual Prussian provinces and most of the other German states on a scale of 1: 300,000, which appeared from 1879, a railway and travel map of the German Empire from 1880, a map of Africa with special consideration of the German colonies from 1886 and a map of the island of Rügen from 1889.

An improved version of his large special map of Central Europe with an edition for cyclists first appeared in 1899 by Ludwig Ravenstein .

Publications (selection)

• General map of the Royal Prussian Province of Silesia. Wroclaw 1861.
• Atlas of the modern description of the earth for school and home. Berlin 1865.
• Map of the Rhine Province and the Province of Westphalia. Berlin 1868.
• Map of Germany for an overview of the railways. Including the projected lines, the waters, and the main roads. Berlin 1870.
• Map of the Giant Mountains. Berlin 1870.
• Map of European Turkey. Berlin 1876
• Map of European Turkey and neighboring countries. With the borders after the Peace of San Stefano of March 3, 1878. Berlin 1878.
• Map of the province of Brandenburg. Hanover 1883.
• W. Liebenow's Central Europe. Berlin 1890–1898.

literature

• Viktor Hantzsch :  Liebenow, Wilhelm . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 51, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1906, pp. 705-707.
• Wilhelm Wolkenhauer: Liebenow, Wilhelm. In: Anton Bettelheim (Hrsg.): Biographisches Jahrbuch and German Nekrolog. Volume 2, page 295, Georg Reimer, Berlin 1898, ( digitized ).
• Wilhelm Wolkenhauer: Liebenow, Wilhelm. In: Hermann Wagener (Hrsg.): Geographisches Jahrbuch. Volume 20, page 474, Justus Perthes, Gotha 1897, ( digitized ).
• Liebenow, Wilhelm. ( Nekrolog ), In: Brandenburgia (Hrsg.): Monthly newspaper of the society for local history of the province Brandenburg. 6th year, pages 271–274, P. Stankiewicz, Berlin 1898, ( digitized version ).
• Liebenow, Wilhelm. (Nekrolog), In: Richard Andree (Ed.): Globus. Illustrated magazine for country and ethnology. Volume 72, No. 1, page 116, Friedrich Vieweg & Sohn, Braunschweig 1897, ( digitized version ).

Web links

• Entry on Wilhelm Liebenow in Kalliope
• Works by and about Wilhelm Liebenow  in the German Digital Library
• Entry about Liebenow, Wilhelm in the index of the German biography
• Entry on Liebenow, Wilhelm (1822–1897) in the CERL Thesaurus