Berghaus, Heinrich

(1797 - 1884)

Heinrich Berghaus (May 3, 1797 - February 17, 1884), German geographer, was born at Kleve.

He was trained as a surveyor, and after volunteering for active service under General Tauenzien in 1813, joined the staff of the Prussian trigonometrical survey in 1816. He carried on a geographical school at Potsdam in company with Heinrich Lange, August Heinrich Petermann, and others, and long held the professorship of applied mathematics at the Eauakademie.

But he is most famous in connection with his cartographical work. His greatest achievement was the Physikalischer Atlas (Gotha, 1838-1848), in which work, as in others, his nephew Hermann Berghaus (1828-1890) was associated with him. He had also a share in the re-issue of the great Stieler Handatlas (originally produced by Adolf Stieler in 1817-1823, see: Stielers Handatlas), and in the production of other atlases.

His written works were numerous and important, including Allgemeine Lander- und Volkerkunde (Stuttgart, 1837-1840), Grundriss der Geographie in funf Buckern (Berlin, 1842), Die Völker des Erd balls (Leipzig, 1845-1847), Was man von der Erde weiss (Berlin, 1856 1860), and various large works on Germany. In 1863 he published Briefwechsel mit Alexander von Humboldt (Leipzig). He died at Stettin on the 17th of February 1884.