Albrecht Penck (25 September 1858 – 7 March 1945) was a German geographer and geologist and the father of
Walther Penck.
Biography
Born in Reudnitz near
Leipzig
Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...
, Penck became a university professor in
Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
, Austria, from 1885 to 1906, and in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
from 1906 to 1927. There he was also the director of the Institute and Museum for Oceanography by 1918. He dedicated himself to
geomorphology
Geomorphology () is the scientific study of the origin and evolution of topographic and bathymetric features generated by physical, chemical or biological processes operating at or near Earth's surface. Geomorphologists seek to understand wh ...
and
climatology
Climatology (from Greek , ''klima'', "slope"; and , '' -logia'') or climate science is the scientific study of Earth's climate, typically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of at least 30 years. Climate concerns the atmospher ...
, and he raised the international profile of the Vienna school of physical geography.
With
Eduard Brückner, he coauthored ''Die Alpen im Eiszeitalter'', a work in which the two scientists identified the four ice ages of the European
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...
(
Gunz,
Mindel,
Riss,
Würm
Wurm or Würm may refer to:
Places
* Wurm (Rur), a river in North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany
* Würm (Amper), a river in Bavaria, southeastern Germany
** Würm glaciation, an Alpine ice age, named after the Bavarian river
* Würm (Nagold ...
); these being named after the river valleys that were the first indication of each glaciation.
In 1886, he married the sister of the successful
Bavaria
Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...
n regional writer
Ludwig Ganghofer.
In Vienna, he taught the Polish geographer
Eugeniusz Romer and Ukrainian geographer
Stepan Rudnytsky, who led the ethnographic efforts at the
Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920)
The Paris Peace Conference was a set of formal and informal diplomatic meetings in 1919 and 1920 after the end of World War I, in which the victorious Allies set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers. Dominated by the leaders of Br ...
.
Penck arranged for the posthumous publication of his son's work ''Der Morphologische Analyse'' in 1924.
However he did not take any stance for or against his son's theories on geomorphology.
[
In 1928, Penck taught as a visiting professor at the ]University of California at Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...
led by Carl O. Sauer.
Albrecht Penck was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences () is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for promoting nat ...
in 1905, elected an International Member of the American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
in 1908, elected an International Member of the United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
in 1909, and awarded the Founder's Medal
The Founder's Medal is a medal awarded annually by the Royal Geographical Society, upon approval of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom, to individuals for "the encouragement and promotion of geographical science and discovery".
Foundation
From ...
of the Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...
in 1914.
Death
In 1945, Penck died in Prague
Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
.
Legacy
The glacier of Penckbreen in Wedel Jarlsberg Land at Spitsbergen
Spitsbergen (; formerly known as West Spitsbergen; Norwegian language, Norwegian: ''Vest Spitsbergen'' or ''Vestspitsbergen'' , also sometimes spelled Spitzbergen) is the largest and the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipel ...
, Svalbard
Svalbard ( , ), previously known as Spitsbergen or Spitzbergen, is a Norway, Norwegian archipelago that lies at the convergence of the Arctic Ocean with the Atlantic Ocean. North of continental Europe, mainland Europe, it lies about midway be ...
is named after him.
Criticism; political geography
While Penck's physical geography is highly regarded, his forays into political geography after 1914 have been criticized. During World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
he supported German expansionism, helping to develop the existing concept of Lebensraum
(, ) is a German concept of expansionism and Völkisch movement, ''Völkisch'' nationalism, the philosophy and policies of which were common to German politics from the 1890s to the 1940s. First popularized around 1901, '' lso in:' beca ...
(living space: territory necessary for a nation state, specifically for its prosperity and security). This led the American geographer Davis to write: "He used to be liked as much as admired, but during the war some of his statements have lessened the esteem formerly felt for him: into that matter we do not enter farther here". After World War I Penck continued to develop and promote Lebensraum concepts. This thinking was seized upon by German nationalism of the period. For instance, the annexation by Germany of the Reichsgau Wartheland
The Reichsgau Wartheland (initially Reichsgau Posen, also Warthegau) was a Nazi Germany, Nazi German ''Reichsgau'' formed from parts of Second Polish Republic, Polish territory Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, annexed in 1939 during World War ...
after the 1939 invasion of Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
was justified using Penck's concept of kulturboden (or "German soil").
Works
* ''Morphologie der Erdoberfläche''; 2 vols, 1894
* (with Eduard Bruckner) ''Die Alpen im Eiszeitalter''; 3 vols, 1909
* '' Die Gipfelflur der Alpen'' (1919)
* With geographer Eduard Richter, he was editor of the ''Atlas der Österreichischen Alpenseen'' (Atlas of the Austrian Alpine Lakes, 1895).
* International Map of the World
Further reading
* Hanna Bremer: ''Albrecht Penck (1858–1945) and Walther Penck (1888–1923), two German Geomorphologists.'' In: ''Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie'', Vol. 27, 1983, pp. 129–138.
* Richard J. Chorley, Robert P. Beckinsale & Antony J. Dunn: ''The History of the Study of Landforms or the Development of Geomorphology, Vol. 2., The Life and Work of William Morris Davis'', London 1973.
* Nicolas Ginsburger: ''"La guerre, la plus terribles des érosions". Cultures de guerre et géographes universitaires. France, Allemagne, Etats-Unis (1914-1921)"'' rchive unpublished PhD, Université de Paris-Ouest-Nanterre-La Défense, 2010, 1682 p.
* Nicolas Ginsburger: ''"Der Berliner Geograph Albrecht Penck im Ersten Weltkrieg: Die Mobilmachungen eines Akademikers (1914-1920)"''. In: ''Acta Historica Leopoldina'',75, 2019, pp. 151–163.
* Michael Heffernan: ''Professor Penck's Bluff: Geography, Espionage and Hysteria in World War I.'' In: ''Scottish Geographical Journal'', Vol. 116, no. 4, 2000, pp. 267–282.
* Norman Henniges: ''"Sehen lernen": Die Exkursionen des Wiener Geographischen Instituts und die Formierung der Praxiskultur der geographischen (Feld-)Beobachtung in der Ära Albrecht Penck (1885-1906).''] In: ''Mitteilungen der Österreichischen Geographischen Gesellschaft'', Vol. 156, Wien 2014, pp. 141–170
(online)
* Norman Henniges
''"Naturgesetze der Kultur“: Die Wiener Geographen und die Ursprünge der „Volks- und Kulturbodentheorie“''
In: ''ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies'', Vol. 14, 4, 2015, pp. 1309–1351.
* Norman Henniges: ''Die Spur des Eises: eine praxeologische Studie über die wissenschaftlichen Anfänge des Geologen und Geographen Albrecht Penck (1858-1945).'' (= ''Beiträge zur regionalen Geographie.'' Vol. 69), Leibniz-Institut f. Länderkunde, Leipzig 2017, , 556 p
(online)
* Norman Henniges: ''Albrecht Penck''. In: Ingo Haar, Michael Fahlbusch (eds.): ''Handbuch der völkischen Wissenschaften'', 2nd ed., Berlin 2017, pp. 570–577.
* Alexander Pinwinkler: ''„Hier war die große Kulturgrenze, die die deutschen Soldaten nur zu deutlich fühlten …“ Albrecht Penck (1858–1945) und die deutsche „Volks- und Kulturbodenforschung“.'' In: ''Österreich in Geschichte und Literatur.'' Vol. 55, 2011, pp. 180–191.
* Ingo Schaefer: ''Der Weg Albrecht Pencks nach München, zur Geographie und zur alpinen Eiszeitforschung.'' In: ''Mitteilungen der Geographischen Gesellschaft in München.'' Vol 74, 1989, pp. 5–25.
* Hans-Dietrich Schultz: ''„Ein wachsendes Volk braucht Raum.“ Albrecht Penck als politischer Geograph.'' In: Bernhard Nitz, Hans-Dietrich Schultz, Marlies Schulz (eds.): ''1810–2010: 200 Jahre Geographie in Berlin'' (= ''Berliner Geographische Arbeiten.'' Vol. 115). Berlin 2010, pp. 91–135. nd ed. 2011, pp. 99–153.* Hans-Dietrich Schultz
''Albrecht Penck: Vorbereiter und Wegbereiter der NS-Lebensraumpolitik?''
In: ''E&G Quaternary Sci. J.'', Vol. 66, 2018, pp. 115–129.
* Steven Seegel: ''Map Men: Transnational Lives and Deaths of Geographers in the Making of East Central Europe'', University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2018.
Citations
References
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Penck, Albrecht
1858 births
1945 deaths
German geographers
German geomorphologists
19th-century German geologists
German climatologists
Quaternary geologists
Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences
Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)
Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin
Academic staff of the University of Vienna
Scientists from Leipzig
International members of the American Philosophical Society
Recipients of the Cothenius Medal