Zur Vollendung des „Atlas de France“

Summary

This article provides a comprehensive review of the planning, content, and cartographic characteristics of the Atlas de France, situating it within the broader context of European national atlas development. The author begins by noting that since its submission to the International Geographical Congress in 1931 and the publication of its first sheets in 1933, the atlas, through its overall conception, the composition of its editorial staff, and the solidity of its technical execution, aspired to become a pinnacle of French cartography. The article emphasizes that national atlases, unlike official topographic maps—which serve practical military, economic, and scientific purposes and demand accuracy, measurability, and legibility—are "applied maps" resulting from collaboration between cartographers and subject-matter experts. Their thematic choices and modes of representation thus serve as a measure of a nation's cultural standing. The author traces the tradition from Berghaus's Physical Atlas (1836) and Spruner's Historical Atlas (1837) to the Atlas of Finland (1899/1910) as a pioneering model, also referencing Germany's Atlas of the German Lebensraum and various regional atlases. Structurally, the article compares the chapter divisions of the French, Finnish, Swiss, and German atlases, noting broad similarities (e.g., the nature-culture dichotomy) alongside differences in the treatment of specific issues. Particular attention is paid to the evolution from purely analytical maps toward synthetic and correlational presentations, exemplified by the "cinematographic" sequences on population dynamics in the French atlas. The article also addresses editorial organization, production conditions, and the impact of wartime circumstances on cartographic work. The concluding section reports on the 1943 annual meeting of the German Cartographic Society, including reports from the board and research committees, the conferral of honorary membership on Prof. Dr. Hermann Haack, the establishment of the Carl Wagner Foundation to support young cartographers, and the progress of the Yearbook of Cartography and the Handbook of Practical Cartography. The article ends with book reviews of several new maps and publications, including a textbook on aerial and terrestrial photogrammetry, three world maps, and a political map of Europe, evaluated from the perspectives of projection choice, political coloring, relief representation, and legibility.