The use of ‘cultural landscape’ in 19th century German geographical literature

Abstract

The short article makes a small selection of early German literature containing the term ‘cultural landscape’ accessible for an English-language readership with the aim of enabling a broader discussion of the term. After a brief overview of the usage of ‘cultural landscape’ in geographical research, four German authors and their publications are presented. Carl Ritter appears to have been the first to use Culturlandschaft, in 1832. He was followed by Carl Vogel in 1851, Joseph Wimmer in 1882 and 1885, and Friedrich Ratzel in 1893. Analysis of their use of ‘cultural landscape’ reveals different dimensions of the term: a developmental perspective on cultural landscapes, i.e. cultural landscapes developed from natural landscapes; an opposition of nature and culture; and an understanding of cultural landscape as agricultural or park landscape. The process of cultivation is described with words with a positive connotation. The comparison of these dimensions with recent geographical literature shows that long-standing ideas continue to influence present-day usage.

Keywords:

• Carl Ritter
• Carl Vogel
• Culturlandschaft/Kulturlandschaft
• Friedrich Ratzel
• Joseph Wimmer

Acknowledgements

I thank Michael Jones for suggesting that I should carry out this research. Thanks are also due to Sebastian Eiter, Gerhard Hart, Arild Holt-Jensen, Michael Jones, Hans-Dietrich Schulz, and two reviewers for help with finding early German literature sources on the term ‘cultural landscape’ and for valuable comments on the manuscript.

Notes

1. Other early users of the term ‘cultural landscape’ may exist, for example, among the followers of Carl Ritter (see Dickinson 1969 for a presentation of Ritter's followers and of the first generation of geographers after Ritter) or among the explorers of the 19th century (see, for example, their reports in early issues of the journal Die Erde). With increasing interest in landscape studies, the number of users is likely to have increased towards the end of the 19th century.

2. Translations from the German originals into English were made by the author of this article.

3. Ritter uses the German term Wüstenei, which can also be translated as ‘desert’ but most likely means wasteland or wilderness in this context.

4. This is the title of the third volume. The subtitle of the third volume differs slightly from that of the first and second volumes.

5. Vogel does not mention the author of the chapter but refers to the journal or newspaper Ausland.

6. Wimmer had already published some chapters of his book in a publication series issued by a secondary school in the town of Munich – among them one on the historical cultural landscape (Wimmer 1882). A comparison of several pages in his publication from 1882 and his book from 1885 reveals that the latter appears to be a reprint of the earlier publication.

7. The idea of humans changing the natural environment through their work is represented also in Paul Vidal de la Blache's work (Holt-Jensen 1999).

8. See Dickinson (1969) for an appraisal of Ratzel's contribution.