Heinrich Berghaus

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 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.

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.

[1] The sections of the Physikalischer Atlas were:[4] 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.