Germany

Alois Mayr; Sabine Tzschaschel

The Atlas of the Federal Republic of Germany is a major national project in German geography and cartography, planned in twelve volumes. The Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography in Leipzig has completed and presented its pilot volume, containing 25 broadly distributed thematic contributions that provide a basis for discussion on the concept, design, cartographic execution, and content orientation of the planned atlas. The pilot volume is accompanied by a demo CD featuring an interactive map construction section with predefined datasets and a view-only section with multimedia presentations of two sample topics. The project has received support from the Federal Chancellor and several ministers, as well as broad public interest. The atlas aims to serve as a comprehensive showcase of German geography and cartography, with volumes covering topics such as society and state, natural environment, population, cities, economy, labor, mobility, education, culture, leisure, Germany in the world, and an overview. Future volume coordinators will have the opportunity to determine thematic priorities within volumes in consultation with the editor.

Alois Mayr

This paper systematically discusses the background, concept, organization, and realization process of the National Atlas of the Federal Republic of Germany (Nationalatlas Bundesrepublik Deutschland). As the largest project of the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography (IfL), the atlas aims to comprehensively present the spatial structures of reunified Germany through maps, graphics, and texts. The article reviews the historical tradition of national atlases and elaborates on the complex journey from project initiation in 1992 to the publication of the first volume in 1999, including conceptual design, fundraising, organizational development, and multi-party coordination. The project was ultimately planned as a 12-volume work covering society, economy, environment, and other domains, with both print and electronic editions. The atlas is regarded as an important scientific tool reflecting Germany's spatial disparities, combining academic rigor with public accessibility, and its successful publication marks a significant achievement in German geography and cartography.

Wolfgang Aschauer

Reviewed work: National Atlas of the Federal Republic of Germany : Population. - Heidelberg : Spektrum Acad. Publ., 2001. - 164 pp., CD-ROM. : Diagr.; Photo; Lit.; Transl.; Map.; Subject index. ISBN 3-8274-0944-6

Konrad Großer; Christian Hanewinkel; Sabine Tzschaschel

After an introductory review of the prehistory of the National Atlas project, the editorial concept and organizational structures are briefly presented. The focus of the article is on the work on the printed edition of the atlas as well as the concept and processing of its electronic version. One section is dedicated to the organizational, structural, and content-related special features of the National Atlas. Finally, its impact on the professional community and the public is briefly summarized, and an outlook on the continuation of the project is provided.

Sabine Tzschaschel

This article reviews the "National Atlas of the Federal Republic of Germany," which was completed in spring 2007. In a concluding overall assessment, it reflects on the conceptual design and the form in which it was realized. To enable an evaluation, the work is compared with other recent national atlases. Before a final section addresses the various options for keeping the atlas current and updating it, some thoughts are expressed on how relevant national atlases still are today and what their societal role and future entail.

Konrad Großer

This article continues the report on the National Atlas of the Federal Republic of Germany published in KN 4/2007 (Tzschaschel, 2007). The focus is on the cartographic editorial and cartographic work on the twelve printed volumes of the atlas and related issues. It addresses the initial situation for the project, the map bases, and the workflow for one volume. Finally, comparisons are drawn and an attempt at evaluation is made. A further article in one of the next issues of KN will deal with the electronic edition of the atlas.

Christian Hanewinkel

This article is the final part of a trilogy on the National Atlas of the Federal Republic of Germany and continues the articles from KN 4/2007 and KN 6/2007. Following the general overview and cartographic insight provided so far, this piece offers an insight into the development, production, and workflow of the electronic edition. In addition to the initial situation, it examines the overall production process and the transfer of the graphic material prepared for the printed edition to the screen-based edition.

Alexander Wolodtschenko

This contribution attempts to highlight some semiotic peculiarities of the index volume of the <National Atlas of Germany> (NAD). In doing so, table-of-contents-related information as well as information-semiotic modules of the atlas index are analyzed, ontologically structured, and considered as name collections (directories of landscape, map, figure, contribution, and author names).

Sebastian Lentz; Jana Moser

Thematic atlases are a specific kind of storages for knowledge: On the one hand series of thematic maps are a very suitable instrument to represent a complex world in a clearly depicted way as their production entails steps of selection of information and their visual condensation. On the other hand the making as well as the reading of maps is a cultural technique, requiring certain experience. Therefore knowledge transfer by atlases has to take into consideration in a communication model technical requirement, capabilities and expectations from the side of the users. The article reflects on challenges and on the transfer-strategy via cartographic products of Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography. The exemplification is given through the National Atlas Federal Republic of Germany and follow-up products which were derived from the original.