Johann Eduard Wappäus

Johann Eduard Wappäus (17 May 1812, Hamburg – 16 December 1879, Göttingen) was a German geographer. He was a son-in-law to mineralogist Johann Friedrich Ludwig Hausmann.

Gravesite of Wappäus at Cheltenhampark, Göttingen

He studied at the Universities of Göttingen and Berlin, where he was a student of Carl Ritter. In 1833–34 he took part in a study trip to Cape Verde and Brazil. In 1838 he qualified as a lecturer at Göttingen, where in 1845, he became an associate professor. In 1854 he was appointed professor of geography and statistics at Göttingen.^[1]

His most widely known work was a new edition of the "Stein-Hörschelmann" Handbuchs der Geographie und Statistik, of which, he published three exceptional volumes on the Americas.^[2] From 1848 to 1863, and from 1874 to 1879, he was editor of the Göttingischen Gelehrten Anzeigen.^[1]

Selected works

• Untersuchungen über die geographischen Entdeckungen der Portugiesen unter Heinrich dem Seefahrer : ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Seehandels und der Geographie im Mittelalter, 1842 – Studies on the geographical discoveries of the Portuguese under Henry the Navigator:. A contribution to the history of maritime trade and geography in the Middle Ages.
• Deutsche Auswanderung und Colonisation, 1846 – German emigration and colonization.
• Handbuch der allgemeinen Geographie und Statistik, 1855 – Textbook of general geography and statistics.
• Allgemeine Bevölkerungsstatistik. Leipzig : J.C. Hinrichs, (1859-1861, two volumes) – General population statistics.^[3]
• Handbuch der Geographie und Statistik von Ost- und Nord-Europa, 1858 – Textbook of geography and statistics of eastern and northern Europe.
• Geographie und Statistik von Mexico und Centralamerika, 1863 – Geography and statistics of Mexico and Central America.
• Patagonien, die Argentinische Republik, Uruguay und Paraguay geographisch und statistisch dargestellt, 1870 – Patagonia, the Republic of Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay presented geographically and statistically.
• Handbuch der Geographie und Statistik des Kaiserreichs Brasilien, 1871 – Textbook of geography and statistics of the Empire of Brazil.
• Einleitung in das Studium der Statistik. Vorlesungen Gehalten an der Universität Göttingen, 1881 – Introduction to the study of statistics. Lectures held at the University of Göttingen.^[4]

References