Alfred Kirchhoff (23 May 1838 in

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...

– 8 February 1907 in Mockau) was a German

geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...

and naturalist.

Biography

He was educated at

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a popu ...

and

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

, and for several years was an instructor at schools in

Mülheim an der Ruhr Mülheim, officially Mülheim an der Ruhr () and also described as ''"City on the River"'', is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. It is located in the Ruhr Area between Duisburg, Essen, Oberhausen and Ratingen. It is home to many compan ...

and Erfurt. From 1871 to 1873 he was a lecturer on geography at the Kriegsakademie of Berlin, and in the latter year was appointed to the chair of geography in the

University of Halle Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (german: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg and the largest and oldest university i ...

. He was an editor of th
''Anleitung zur deutschen Landes- und Volksforschung''
He was elected member of the

Academy of Sciences Leopoldina The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (german: Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina – Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften), short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founded ...

in 1878 and of the

Royal Society of Arts and Sciences in Gothenburg The Royal Society of Arts and Sciences in Gothenburg ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskaps- och Vitterhets-Samhället i Göteborg, abbreviated KVVS and often known simply as ''Samhället'') is a Swedish Royal Academy. Its predecessor was founded in Gothenburg ...

in 1888.

Selected writings

* ''Schulbotanik'' (1865) – School

botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

. * ''Die Südseeinseln und der Südseehandel'', 1880 – The South Sea islands and trade. * ''Schulgeographie'', 1882 – School geography. * ''Allgemeine Erdkunde: Pflanzen- und Tierverbreitung'', with

Julius von Hann Julius Ferdinand von Hann (23 March 1839 in Wartberg ob der Aist near Linz – 1 October 1921 in Vienna) was an Austrian meteorologist. He is seen as a father of modern meteorology. Biography He was educated at the gymnasium of Kremsmünster an ...

and

Eduard Bruckner Eduard Model Accessories is a Czech manufacturer of plastic models and finescale model accessories. Formed in 1989 in the city of Most, Eduard began in a rented cellar as a manufacturer of photoetched brass model components. Following the suc ...

(1899) – General geography; plant and animal distribution. * ''Mensch und Erde; Skizzen von den Wechselbeziehungen zwischen beiden'' (3rd edition 1910); later translated into English as "Man and earth; the reciprocal relations and influences of man and his environment"; London, G. Routledge & sons, limited (1914). * ''Unser Wissen von der Erde. Allgemeine Erdkunde und Länderkunde'', in collaboration with other scholars (1886–93) – Our knowledge of the Earth. General and regional geography. * ''Volapük : easy method of acquiring the universal language'' (constructed by Johann Martin Schleyer, prepared for the English-speaking public on the basis of Alfred Kirchhoff's "Hilfsbuch"; with the addition of a key to the exercises and a Volapük-English and English-Volapük vocabulary, by Klas August Linderfelt).HathiTrust Digital Library
published works

Notes

References

* 1838 births 1907 deaths German geographers German naturalists Scientists from Erfurt University of Jena alumni University of Bonn alumni Academic staff of the University of Halle Members of the Royal Society of Sciences and Letters in Gothenburg Members of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina {{Germany-academic-bio-stub