Der „Atlas der Donauländer“ - ein Großraumatlas der österreichischen Kartographie

This review examines the conception, thematic structure, cartographic methods, and scholarly significance of the Atlas of the Danubian Countries, a major Austrian regional atlas. Following approximately twelve years of preparation, the work began appearing in installments in 1970. It was conceived after Austria’s 1955 declaration of neutrality as a contribution to the country’s intended role as a bridge between Eastern and Western research. Organized by the Austrian Institute for East and Southeast European Studies and produced with the participation of specialists from several Danubian countries, the atlas is international in both purpose and presentation. Titles, legends, and explanatory texts are provided in German, English, French, and Russian, while geographical names consistently follow the official language of each country. At a scale of 1:2,000,000, it completely covers Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia, Albania, and Bulgaria and also includes adjoining portions of Austria, Germany, Poland, the Soviet Union, Turkey, Greece, and Italy, thereby offering a coherent representation of the Danube region and Southeast Europe. The article assesses selected sheets devoted to topography, hypsography, relief, administrative divisions, geology, geomorphology, climate, and tourism. The basic maps establish a dependable framework of settlements, transportation routes, hydrography, and elevation. The geological sheet successfully synthesizes stratigraphic and tectonic information that differs substantially among national sources. The exceptionally detailed geomorphological map combines structural, lithological, orographic, morphogenetic, and chronological classifications, permitting close analysis of individual landscapes. Climate sheets use standardized periods, scales, and colors to portray temperature, precipitation, and climatic types in relation to relief. The tourism sheet, based mainly on accommodation capacity and visitor motivation, reveals state investment in tourism infrastructure more clearly than tourism activity itself. The reviewer particularly praises the enormous effort devoted to collecting, reconciling, and standardizing heterogeneous materials published in many languages. Rather than relying primarily on easily produced statistical cartograms, most sheets depict the actual spatial distribution of phenomena at an appropriate level of generalization, often integrating several informational layers within a single map. The main shortcomings are the absent or inconspicuous reference dates on many sheets, which hinder comparison across themes during a publication process extending over two decades; explanatory texts that describe symbols more readily than source disparities or degrees of harmonization; and unwieldy multilingual text sheets. Moreover, the individual maps remain insufficiently connected by an overarching regional synthesis. Nevertheless, the atlas represents a major scientific achievement, filling a longstanding gap in the systematic cartographic documentation of Southeast Europe. The reviewer recommends adding dates and a comprehensive concluding essay and calls for a smaller, more portable, affordable edition to disseminate its knowledge beyond specialist audiences.