science

Paul Langhans

Paul Langhans is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Paul Langhans rather than just read about it. In short: Paul Max Harry Langhans (Hamburg, 1 April 1867 – Gotha 17 January 1952) was a German geographer and cartographer. Paul Langhans, son of the innkeeper Paul Langhans (1838–1922), attended the Hamburg Realgymnasium from 1878 to 1886.

Key takeaways

Paul Langhans belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Paul Langhans to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Paul Langhans from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Paul Max Harry Langhans (Hamburg, 1 April 1867 – Gotha 17 January 1952) was a German geographer and cartographer. Paul Langhans, son of the innkeeper Paul Langhans (1838–1922), attended the Hamburg Realgymnasium from 1878 to 1886. From 1886 to 1889 he studied geography, natural science and economics at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel and at the Leipzig University. In 1889 he became an employee of Justus Perthes (publishing company) in Gotha. In the decades that followed, Langhans published numerous maps and atlases, including the Deutschen Kolonialatlas (German Colonial Atlas, 1897). In 1902 he founded the magazine Deutsche Erde, which agitated for the 'Alldeutscher Verband' (1891–1939) and statements of the 'Volks- und Kulturbodenforschung' which supported ethnocentristic and geopolitical issues and aspects of national politics in German Reich, especially in the interwar period. Langhans is considered one of the most important German representatives of this policy. In his capacity as a member of the antisemitic 'Deutschsoziale Reformpartei' (German Social Reform Party), Langhans edited the Antisemitischen Monatsblatts from 1896 to 1907. From 1909 to 1942, he was Federal Director of the Deutschbund, whose members regarded themselves as the 'racial elite', which strove for a deepening of being German. In 1931 Langhans joined the NSDAP, for which he worked as a training speaker at the NSDAP district school in Schönau vor dem Walde. He became a Gotha councilor (from 1936) and cultural advisor to the city council (since 1938). Partly because of these merits, he was granted honorary citizenship of the city of Gotha on April 1, 1940. In its honorary citizenship letter, the city especially praised him "for his always self-sacrificing commitment to building the NSDAP, for his decades-long work as an advocate for national awakening", and only afterwards "for his outstanding work of world renown as a geographic scientist of the German kind". From 1909 to 1937 he was editor-in-chief of Petermann's Geographischen Mitteilungen and since 1923 editor-in-chief of the Gothaischer Hofkalenders. The 'Langhans Volcano' in the Pacific Ocean and the 'Langhans Glacier' on Spitsbergen are named after him. Langhans was married with Rosa Rasch, (1870–1960), with whom he had a daughter, Irmtrud (1907–1998).

Works Deutscher Kolonial-Atlas, Gotha 1893–1897. (15 Lieferungen) Kleiner Handels-Atlas für Lehranstalten, Gotha 1895. Justus Perthes’ Staatsbürger-Atlas, Gotha 1896, 4. Aufl. 1904. Deutscher Marine-Atlas, Gotha 1898. Deutscher Armee-Atlas, Gotha 1899. Handelsschul-Atlas, Gotha 1901. Links und rechts der Eisenbahn, Gotha 1901–1909. (74 Hefte) Deutsche Erde, Gotha 1902. Die Förderung der Landkultur in Schleswig-Holstein von 1914–1929, Kiel 1929. Wandkarten zur Wirtschafts- und Kolonialbewegung, Gotha o. J.

Literature Gerhard Engelmann (1982). Langhans, Paul. In: Deutsche Biographie. Philipp Julius Meyer (2021). Kartographie und Weltanschauung. Visuelle Wissensproduktion im Verlag Justus Perthes 1890–1945. Wallstein, Göttingen.

References

Media related to Paul Langhans at Wikimedia Commons

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Paul Langhans

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Paul Langhans claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Paul Langhans before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Paul Langhans ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Paul Langhans

In research: Paul Langhans appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Paul Langhans in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Paul Langhans is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1867 births, 1952 deaths, German cartographers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Paul Langhans outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Paul Langhans in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Paul Langhans means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Paul Langhans out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Paul Langhans in simple terms?

Why does Paul Langhans matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Paul Langhans?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Paul Langhans.