RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
A1 Urban, Martin
T1 Friedrich Ratzel (1844-1904). Contribution to the Personality and the Work of the 19th Century German Geographer
JF Historica Olomucensia
YR 2016
VO 51
IS 2
SP 99
OP 112
DO 10.5507/ho.2016.034
UL https://historica.upol.cz/artkey/hol-201602-0006.php
AB The name of Friedrich Ratzel has been connected especially with geopolitics and the term Lebensraum in our geographical location. However, the truth is that he gained such a reputation thanks to the generation which followed after him. During his life, he was a respected scientist and writer. Originally, he had studied zoology and botany, however, the lack of finances forced him to become a journalist. As a travelling correspondent of Kölnische Zeitung he travelled a major part of Europe and Nothern America. Experience of travels influenced him in such a way that during the rest of his life he focused more on geography than on zoology. Despite this, his original education and primarily the work of Charles Dickens influenced his work forever. He started his academic career in Munich where the first part of his central work Anthropogeography (1882) was published. When in 1886 the position at the more prestigious university in Leipzig became vacant, Ratzel definitely moved there. The work in Leipzig was essential for his profession. During next 18 years he published his most significant books. Apart from the second volume of Anthropogeography it was his work Die Erde und das Leben, then Political Geography and quite known study Der Lebensraum, which was however not very considerable in comparison with other books and where he described one of his biogeographical hypotheses. Nevertheless, his work remained uncompleted. Ratzel died in summer of 1904 in the middle of his unfinished book.