Otto Karl Siegfried Passarge (28 November 1866 – 26 July 1958) was a German geographer from East Prussia.

Life

Siegfried Passarge was born in

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was name ...

, the son of travel writer Ludwig Passarge. He attended Collegium Fridericianum, and after graduation studied geography in

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 ...

and

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 po ...

. He also trained in medicine, and worked as a doctor during his military service. In 1894 Passarge took part in an expedition to Adamawa, at the northern boundary of the former German colony of

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

., p.66 From 1896 to 1899 Passarge worked as a geologist and surveyor for the British West Charterland Company in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

, during which time he made extensive ethnographic studies of the Khoisan and Bantu. In 1901–1902 he took part in an expedition to the Orinoco, followed by travel in Algeria in 1906 and 1907. His travel memoirs record his experiences, including the violences he committed whilst in Africa. From 1904–1905 Passarge held the post of Associate Professor of Geography in Berlin and in 1905 he became Professor of Geography in Breslau. In 1908 he joined the Colonial Institute in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, where he worked until 1936. He theorised that it should be possible for geographers to set up a taxonomic system for landforms, in much the same way as the biological sciences, although he favoured an empirical, descriptive system rather than a genetic one. Passarge's theories of racial geography (expounded in the 1920s in ''Das Judentum als landschaftskundlich-ethnologisches Problem'') were embraced by the Nazi Party after 1933. On 11 November 1933, he was among the signatories of the commitment of the professors at German universities and colleges to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi state.

Works (selection)

*''Die Kalahari'', 1904 *''Südafrika'', 1908 *''Physiologische Morphologie'', 1912 *''Die Grundlagen der Landschaftskunde'', 3 Bde. 1919–1920 *''Die Landschaftsgürtel der Erde'', Breslau: Ferdinand Hirt 1923 *''Das Buch vom Kahal, 2 Bände''. Leipzig: Hammer-Verlag 1928 *''Das Judentum als landschaftskundlich-ethnologisches Problem'', München: J. F. Lehmanns Verlag 1929 *''Geographische Völkerkunde'', Berlin: Safari-Verlag 1951

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Passarge, Siegried 1866 births 1958 deaths German geographers German geomorphologists Academic staff of the University of Breslau Academic staff of the University of Hamburg Members of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences Scientists from Königsberg