Langhans Paul

(01.04.1867 - 17.01.1952)

German cartographer.

Born in Hamburg, in the family of an innkeeper.

From 1878 to 1886 he attended the Hamburg Real Gymnasium, and from 1886 to 1889 he studied geography and economics in Kiel and Leipzig. During his studies, he joined the Association of German Students in Kiel and Leipzig.

In 1889, Langhans became a member of the Justus Perthes Geographical and Cartographic Institute in Gotha. In the following decades, he published many maps and atlases, including the German colonial atlas.

In 1902, he founded the magazine Deutsche Erde, which was close to the Pan-German association and supported the theses of research on folkloric and cultural soil.Langhans was considered one of the most important representatives of German ethnocentric geopolitics. From 1909 to 1937, he was the editor of the Geography of Miteilungen, Augustus Peterman, and from 1923 he was the editor-in-chief of Gothaischen Hofkalenders.

As a member of the anti-Semitic Social Reform Party of Germany, Langhans was the editor of the anti-Semitic Monatsblatz from 1896 to 1907. From 1909 to 1942, he was a member of the Federal Guard of the Confederation of Germany, whose members considered themselves the "racial elite" and sought to "deepen Germanism".

In 1931, Langhans joined the National Socialist German Workers' Party, was an instructor in the district party school in Schönau.

In 1940, for his services he was awarded the honorary citizenship of the city of Gotha. In the letter on honorary citizenship, he was, first of all, noted as an active member of the party, and only secondly, he was thanked for the outstanding work that made him famous throughout the world as a geographer.

He died in Gotha, buried in the main cemetery.

Glacier on the western shore of the Sturfjord, Sabina Land, West Spitsbergen Island. The coordinates are 78° 20'N   18° 30'E.