Technical information
Geography/Earth Sciences
Lectures covering geographical content have been offered since the university’s early days. However, these were delivered as part of degree programmes in theology, philosophy, mathematics or economics (political science). It was not until 1873 that a separate chair for the subject of geography was established at the University of Halle-Wittenberg. Since then, geography has been represented there continuously as an independent department of the university….
Contact person
This link takes you to a list of all the subjects that person supervises.
You can find the contact details of the relevant contact person here.
Library Collection & Acquisitions
The University and State Library possesses a rich collection of older works on geography, which stems from the subject’s long tradition. After 1945, in addition to literature produced in the GDR, a substantial amount of Western literature was also acquired through purchase or via extensive exchanges and donations. The collection also still contains a significant number of specialist works in Russian. As part of the GDR’s third higher education reform in 1969, the Institute of Geography at the University of Leipzig was dissolved. Its library and teaching collection were transferred to the Geography Department at the University of Halle.
The current collection priorities are based on the research interests of the Institute’s staff. A particular focus is on the collection of national atlases and teaching materials for geography education. The acquisition of electronic resources is becoming increasingly important.
Research
Geographical specialist literature is mainly housed in the Earth Sciences Branch Library. Publications from 1990 onwards are shelved in RVK. The various older collections are organised according to an in-house classification system.
Training courses
At regular intervals, we organise library induction sessions, literature search and reference management workshops, as well as advisory services on publication strategies and research data management.
Collection of subject-related links
You can find the subject’s electronically available journals in the Electronic Journals Library (EZB).
To search for historical literature, there are various specialist databases available, which you can find in the ULB’s Database Information System (DBIS).
Please remember that when carrying out research from outside the university network, you must first VPN- Activate the connection.
History and Profile of the Subject
From the very beginnings of the University of Halle, students were offered lectures covering geographical content. However, this took place as part of a degree programme in theology, philosophy, mathematics or economics (political science). It was not until 1873 that a separate chair of Geography was established at the University of Halle-Wittenberg. Since then, Geography has been represented there continuously as an independent department of the university.
In the early years of the discipline, the primary focus was on training geography teachers. However, new areas of specialisation soon began to emerge within the still-fledgling field of geography in Halle. These included regional studies of Germany and historical geography.
The Second World War and the GDR’s higher education policy from 1969 onwards marked a major turning point for the discipline. Separate geography departments were established at the universities of Berlin, Greifswald and Halle, as well as at the teacher-training colleges in Potsdam and Dresden. By contrast, the geography departments at the universities of Rostock, Jena and Leipzig were disbanded. The subject, which had also been offered as a diploma course in Halle since 1951, now focused on a more politically driven approach to landscape ecology, (Marxist-Leninist) economic geography, agricultural geography and spatial planning.
After 1989, a number of new professorships were established at the Institute of Geography, the subject areas of which were aligned with contemporary research priorities in geography. Consequently, chairs in cartography and remote sensing, as well as spatial and environmental planning, were filled for a time. The current focus of geography teaching and research lies in the fields of physical geography/geoecology, anthropogeography, sustainable landscape development and digital geography. In addition, following a prolonged vacancy, there is once again a professorship in the didactics of geography, with a focus on sustainable education.