Dietrich Bartels (1931–1983): a “modern classic” of German geography

Abstract

This obituary note on the German geographer, professor D. Bartels (1931-1983), aims to familiarize Spanish readers with some of his principal teachings, which are a fundamental source for the analysis of the evolution of geography in German-speaking countries in recent years, although, strangely, they are not well-known in Spanish geographical circles.

Towards the end of the 1970s, traditional German geography was suffering a two-fold crisis of identity, on both the scientific and educational fronts. The origins of this crisis can be found, in part, in the difficulty of approaching the spatial problems of modern industrial societies from the epistemological and methodological standpoints of the historical-geographical paradigm; and, in part, in the alarming loss of importance of geography in the school curriculum.

The work of D. Bartels can be interpreted as an attempt to provide this geography with a new kind of scientific rationality -the neopositivist- wich would allow the community of geographers to overcome the already mentioned two-fold crisis, bearing in mind at the same time, that Prof. Bartels dedicated special attention to the field of non-educational investigation.

Prof. D. Bartels dissertation on taking his chair, titled «On the theoretical and scientific foundations of a Geographie des Menschen» was structured into three major blocks, and indication of what were later to be his principal preoccupations. These were, in fact, a statement of the basic hypotheses of the neo-positivist rationality model, the presentation of what he considered to be the geographic method, and the development of a concept of «Geographie des Menschen» which clearly situated the discipline in the field of the social sciences.

Prof. Bartels was also active in the important task of making the work of geographers in English-speaking countries better known in the German Federal Republic. In this respect, 1970 is a particularly significant year, due to the appearance of the famous work «Zwischen Theorie und Metatheorie» in Geographische Rundschau, and, secondly, on account of the publication, in that year, of a book edited by D. Bartels, consisting of the translation into German of writings by renowned English-speaking authors. Finally, brief reference is made to the interest which Prof. Bartels showed in educational topics.