Outstanding German geographer and geomorphologist Carl Ritter (1779–1859)

Abstract

A vast body of geographical information about different countries, its assessment and criticism and creation of a scientific method are the main achievement in geography and geomorphology of outstanding German geographer Carl Ritter. He strove to formulate the tasks of geographic science, its place in the system of other branches of knowledge, its importance as a science that had its own philosophical meaning that not only “described” but also “explained.” In an effort to put geography on a new foundation and enrich it with a new spirit he created comparative geography and gave it a new name Erdkunde, Earth Science or physical geography. It became the title of his vast (10 volumes divided into 19 parts) work that covered Africa and Asia. He was interested in nature and history hence his treatment of the Earth’s surface as something living; each of the continents being an organism with typical features of its own, with qualities expressed by unique shorelines, relief, climate, flora and fauna as well as cultural development associated with natural conditions of human types or “species.” He was the first to define relief as plastics of Earh’s surface; he suggested that in mountain ranges (or countries) we should distinguish between main ridges and foothills, between ridges and watersheds, terraces and terrace scarps. His brilliant lectures at Berlin University invariably stirred up enthusiastic response from his audience while his works were highly appreciated by a chorus of his colleagues and criticized by lonely voices of the dissatisfied.