Albrecht Penck was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 geographer

Geographer

A geographer is a scholar whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society.Although geographers are historically known as people who make maps, map making is actually the field of study of cartography, a subset of geography...

 and geologist

Geologist

A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...

 and the father of Walther Penck

Walther Penck

Walther Penck was an Austrian geographer, born in Vienna as son of geographer Albrecht Penck.Walther Penck worked 1912-1914 in Argentina as a geographer, and is best known for his contributions to the field of geomorphology...

.

Born in Reudnitz near Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

, Penck became a university professor in Vienna

University of Vienna

The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...

 from 1885 to 1906, and in Berlin from 1906 to 1927. There he was also the director of the Institute and Museum for Oceanography by 1918. Penck dedicated himself to geomorphology

Geomorphology

Geomorphology is the scientific study of landforms and the processes that shape them...

 and climatology

Climatology

Climatology is the study of climate, scientifically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of time, and is a branch of the atmospheric sciences...

 and raised the international profile of the Vienna School of physical geography. In 1945, Penck died in Prague. Since 1886, he was married to the sister of the successful Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

n regional writer Ludwig Ganghofer

Ludwig Ganghofer

Ludwig Ganghofer was a German writer who became famous for his homeland novels.-Biography:Born in Kaufbeuren, he graduated from a gymnasium in 1873 and subsequently worked as a fitter in Augsburg engine works...

. In memory of Penck, the painter and sculptor Ralf Winkler adopted the nom de plume A. R. Penck in 1966.

Albrecht Penck was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences or Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. The Academy is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization which acts to promote the sciences, primarily the natural sciences and mathematics.The Academy was founded on 2...

in 1905.

Works

• Morphologie der Erdoberfläche; 2 vols, 1894
• (with E. Brückner) Die Alpen im Eiszeitalter; 3 vols, 1909

Further reading

• Schultz, H.-D.: "Ein wachsendes Volk braucht Raum." Albrecht Penck als politischer Geograph. In: Nitz, B.; Schultz, H.-D.; Schulz, M. (Hrsg.): 1810 – 2010: 200 Jahre Geographie in Berlin (= Berliner Geographische Arbeiten 115). Berlin 2010, S. 91-135 [2. verb. u. erw. Aufl. 2011, S. 99-153]