Walter Emmerich Behrmann (May 22, 1882,

Oldenburg Oldenburg may also refer to: Places *Mount Oldenburg, Ellsworth Land, Antarctica *Oldenburg (city), an independent city in Lower Saxony, Germany **Oldenburg (district), a district historically in Oldenburg Free State and now in Lower Saxony *Olde ...

– May 3, 1955,

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

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 ...

. He is remembered for introducing a

cylindrical map projection In cartography, map projection is the term used to describe a broad set of transformations employed to represent the two-dimensional curved surface of a globe on a plane. In a map projection, coordinates, often expressed as latitude and longitu ...

known as the " Behrmann projection".

Biography

From 1901 to 1905, he studied geography, mathematics and physics at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

, where he was a student of Hermann Wagner. Later on, he worked as an assistant to geographer

Joseph Partsch Joseph Partsch (4 July 1851 – 22 June 1925) was a German geographer, born at Schreiberhau, Silesia. Biography He studied at the University of Breslau, receiving his doctorate in 1874, and began teaching at the university (privat-docent, ...

at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

(1908/09).Leibniz Institut für Länderkunde
biographical sketch In 1912/13 he participated as a geographer in the ''Kaiserin-Augusta-Fluss Expedition'' to

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

along with Richard Thurnwald. In 1918 he was appointed director of the ''Landeskundliche Kommission'' in

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

. In 1922 he was named an associate professor of

cartography 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 i ...

at the

University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative ...

, and afterwards was a professor of geography at

Frankfurt University Goethe University (german: link=no, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) is a university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealt ...

(from 1923) and at the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

(from 1948). In 1954 he attained "

professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

" status.

Selected works

* ''Über die niederdeutschen Seebücher des fünfzehnten und sechzehnten Jahrhunderts'', 1906 (doctoral thesis). * ''Nach Deutsch-Neuguinea'', 1914. * ''Der Sepik (Kaiserin-Augusta-Fluss) und sein Stromgebiet'', 1917. * ''Im Stromgebiet des Sepik, eine deutsche Forschungsreise in Neuguinea'', 1922. * ''Das westliche Kaiser-Wilhelms-Land in Neu-Guinea'', 1924. * ''Rhein-Mainischer Atlas für Wirtschaft, Verwaltung und Unterricht'', 1929 (with Otto Maull). * ''Aufgaben der Kolonialkartographie'', 1936. * ''Die Entschleierung der Erde'', 1948.OCLC Classify
published works

References

German geographers German cartographers 1882 births 1955 deaths People from Oldenburg (city) University of Göttingen alumni Academic staff of the Free University of Berlin Academic staff of Goethe University Frankfurt Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin 20th-century geographers {{Geographer-stub