Heinrich Karl Wilhelm Berghaus (3 May 1797 – 17 February 1884) was a German geographer and cartographer who conducted trigonometric surveys in Prussia and taught geodesy at the Bauakademie in Berlin. He taught cartography and produced a pioneering and influential thematic atlas which provided maps of flora, fauna, climate, geology, diseases and a range of other information. He was a friend of Alexander von Humboldt and produced some of the maps used in his publications. A nephew Hermann Berghaus also worked in cartography.

Life

Berghaus was born at Kleve. He was trained as a surveyor, and after volunteering for active service under General Tauentzien in 1813, joined the staff of the Prussian trigonometrical survey in 1816. He carried on a geographical school at Potsdam where he trained Heinrich Lange, August Heinrich Petermann, his nephew Hermann Berghaus and others, and long held the professorship of applied mathematics at the Bauakademie. He died at Stettin (Szczecin) on 17 February 1884. He is most famous for his cartographic work. His greatest achievement was the Physikalischer Atlas (Gotha, 1838–1848), with which, as in others, his nephew Hermann Berghaus (1828–1890) was associated with him. This atlas was used to illustrate Alexander von Humboldt's Cosmos. It was planned to publish this atlas in Britain too, together with Alexander Keith Johnston, but it later was published in a different form by Johnston alone. Berghaus 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. The sections of the Physikalischer Atlas were: Berghaus's written works were numerous and important, including Allgemeine Länder- und Völkerkunde (Stuttgart, 1837–1840), Grundriss der Geographie in fünf Büchern (Berlin, 1842), Die Völker des Erdballs (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). In 1838, Berghaus became a correspondent, living abroad, of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands. When that institute became the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1851 he became a foreign member. Berghaus is the namesake of Berghaus Island, one of the islands of the Franz Josef Land Arctic archipelago.

Works