Karl Spruner von Merz (15 November 1803, in
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
– 24 August 1892), or Karl von Spruner as he preferred to be known, was a German
cartographer
Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "papyrus, sheet of paper, map"; and , "write") is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an im ...
and scholar.
He spent most of his long life in military service. He joined the
Bavarian army, aged 11, in 1814, and was promoted to lieutenant in 1825.
He established a reputation as a scholar, but it was not until 1851 that this came to the notice of his military superiors, leading them to promote him to major in 1852 and to lieutenant colonel in 1855. He was promoted to general in 1883, and finally retired in 1886, after 72 years in the Bavarian army.
He is best known for his historical atlases. The first of these was his ''Historischer Atlas von Bayern'' (historical atlas of
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
), published in 1838. His greatest work was his ''Historisch-Geographischer Hand-Atlas'', whose first edition appeared in parts from 1848 to 1853.
Heinrich Theodor Menke
Heinrich Theodor Menke (24 May 1819 – 14 May 1892) was a German geographer, who was born and lived in Bremen. He is remembered for his work in historical geography.
Menke studied theology and philology at the University of Bonn, and in 1842 rec ...
made major contributions to its second and third editions.
In 1842, he was made a member of the
Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities
The Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (german: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften) is an independent public institution, located in Munich. It appoints scholars whose research has contributed considerably to the increase of knowledg ...
.
Prof. Dr. Karl Spruner von Merz
Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Verstorbene Mitglieder
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Spruner von Merz, Karl
1803 births
1892 deaths
People from Stuttgart
Bavarian generals
German cartographers
Members of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences