Kreślarze ojczyzn : geografowie i granice międzywojennej Europy

Górny, Maciej (1976– )

doi:978-83-65880-05-5

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Title: Kreślarze ojczyzn : geografowie i granice międzywojennej Europy

Abstract:

At the turn of the 20th century geographical sciences entered the phase of rapid growth both scientific and institutional. Under the influence of Paul Vidal de la Blache and Friedrich Ratzel a new discipline developed within geography – anthropogeography. Another new development was geomorphology – a field of William M. Davis’ and Albrecht Penck’s international achievements. Seminars of the latter, held in Vienna and Berlin in the years before the outbreak of World War I, proved to be a powerful magnet for young geographers from Central and South-Eastern Europe. Their biographic entries are the starting point of the present book. The war opened up the possibility to put into effect new concepts of space. Rudolf Kjellén, a Swedish student of Friedrich Ratzel, interpreted a conflict as a struggle for survival, fought by states regarded as living organisms. Central and South-Eastern Europe played a special part in this reflection. As the war was dragging on, German geographers ceased to perceive this region as a mosaic of different countries and nationalities. Instead, they saw areas inhabited by amorphous human masses, and spaces that in their eyes represented a void eager to have a new landlord and host. How far did the politicization of this discipline go is demonstrated by the peace negotiations held in Paris. Unexpectedly, geography turned out to be a confidante of the knowledge that shaped the future of the world, and it was geographers from new states that emerged in the Eastern and South-Eastern part of the continent that largely contributed to this development. And despite the fact that, until the second part of the Great War, it was the German-language geography that played a decisive role in this discourse, the scientific landscape rapidly changed. Experts cooperating with institutions or organs representing nation-states during the war turned out to be at least on a par with their German counterparts. Geographers from Central and South-Eastern Europe were especially efficient in the area of science and propaganda supported by this science. They successfully influenced the spatial perception of “just borders”. The book combines the methods of collective biography, history of science and spatial history. Political developments are presented next to an analysis of geographical achievements – texts and maps, narrative strategies and personal connections, friendships and animosities. The history of “national science” – which geography had become in the twentieth century – is also a collection of individual lives of the multinational cohort of eminent scholars and equally brilliant politicians.