Conference Agenda

The paper examines the evolving scientific and political agendas of the geographical societies in Budapest and Vienna, focusing on their role in shaping colonial geographical research in the late Habsburg Monarchy and, later, interwar Austria and Hungary during the 1920s and 1930s. Although Austria-Hungary did not pursue direct forms of overseas colonization, it was indirectly involved in imperial pursuits by organizing expeditions and contributing to the production and dissemination of knowledge tied to colonial frameworks.

The geographical societies founded in Vienna in 1856 and in Budapest in 1872 played a distinguished role in this process as institutional platforms for the promotion of geographical research not just within the empire and its broader surroundings, but also in Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the polar regions. Their activities included the accumulation and scientific accreditation of knowledge, the coordination of research projects, and the dissemination of findings that reinforced imperial or national identities and claims to global relevance. In addition to promoting the Habsburg Monarchy’s cultural and economic dominance, the geographical societies also contributed to articulating the particular and sometimes clearly conflicting geopolitical interests of the Austrian elites in Vienna and the Hungarian elites in Budapest.

Drawing on printed and archival materials, this paper analyzes how these societies navigated the political and social constraints of the prewar period and how their agendas were reconfigured after the collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy in 1918. The comparative study highlights both geographical societies’ role as arenas for negotiating the tensions between imperialism, nationalism, and scientific internationalism. It also provides new insights into how these societies framed colonial aspirations through research and rhetoric, aligning them with broader imperial and national goals. We pay particular attention to how discourses of colonialism and exploration adapted to changing geopolitical and institutional contexts, reflecting wider transformations in the relationship between science, statehood, and civil society in Central Europe.

There is very little research on German colonial geography in general, and the boom in this subdiscipline during the National Socialist period has not received any scholarly attention so far. Against that backdrop, this paper aims to contribute: a) to a finer-grained picture of colonial, racial-Völkish thinking – and its application – in German geography during the National Socialist period and b) to our understanding of the continuities and ruptures in German (colonial) geographical scholarship after WW II. For that end, I focus on the biography of Oskar Schmieder (1891–1980) who, after holding professorships at the Argentine National University of Córdoba (1920–1924) and the University of California, Berkeley (1925–1930), moved to Kiel University and went on to become one of the most influential German (colonial) geographers of the 1930s and 1940s. More specifically, two strongly interrelated aspects of Schmieder’s writings will guide the analysis: firstly, his conceptualization of race, Volk, and soil with regard to South America and particularly South American Germans and, secondly, the political colonial project that he pursued for (Nazi) Germany drawing heavily on fascist colonization experience in Mussolini’s Italy. Studying Oskar Schmieder shows that German geographers not only stood up for the re-establishment of a German colonial empire during the National Socialist period, but also fought for its Fascist orientation – which, at least for Schmieder, was to differ from the German colonial empire pre-WW I in a number of key areas. Being primarily known as a representative of Länderkunde, Schmieder‘s institutionally and conceptually influential career after WW II can certainly be seen as a prime example of the continuities within the discipline in Germany.

Despite the renewed critical interest in the colonial traces of much geographical knowledge, many geographies and geographers from the era of inter-imperial rivalry (1875-1945) remain under-explored, for instance that of Dutch colonial geography. This paper traces Dutch colonial geopolitics of present-day Indonesia through a biobibliographical reading of the work of Louis van Vuuren (1873-1951), whose lifespan almost perfectly aligns with the era of late European imperialism. While Van Vuuren is mostly remembered for his contributions as one of the founding figures of Dutch human geography and spatial planning, navigating German and French influences, much less attention has been paid to his colonial career and geography. Born in colonial Indonesia in 1873, Van Vuuren participates as a young Dutch colonial officer in the final violent phase of the Aceh war, which was instrumental in bringing the outer reaches of present-day Indonesia under Dutch territorial control. Under the tutelage of his commanding officer and future oil magnate and prime minister of the Netherlands, Hendrik Colijn, he consecutively becomes a colonial administrator and director of an encyclopaedic bureau for regional geography of colonial Indonesia, which would eventually lead him to a professorship in human geography at Utrecht University in 1927. Because of his positionality and proximity to powerful colonial circles, Van Vuuren’s geography is indicative of an important conservative strand of Dutch geopolitical thought. In the paper we analyse Van Vuuren’s colonial writings and geographical theorizing from a critical geopolitics framework utilizing Agnew’s notion of the “geopolitical imagination” and Toal’s concept of geopower. We subsequently trace the civilizational, naturalised and ideological dimensions of Dutch interbellum geopolitics, including its alignment with German geopolitics. The sobering result is that the history of Dutch geography loses its innocence as a colonial legacy that equals its great-power counterparts comes into focus.

The influence of religious positionalities on late 19th- and early 20th-century geographical research has often been overlooked, despite its centrality to regional geographical discourses. In regional geographical accounts, religion served as a key criterion for spatial differentiation. Religious phenomena played a pivotal role in territorialization strategies, where religious affiliation delineated boundaries, defined group belonging, and reinforced geopolitical agendas. The intersection of religious beliefs and geographical concepts highlights religion’s dual role as both a stabilizing and disruptive force within the discipline.

This exploration will be framed within a transnational perspective, examining how religious spatial concepts were shaped not only by national contexts but also by broader global discourses, particularly in relation to imperialism and the rise of new nation-states. The analysis draws on regional geographical writings from various scholars around the turn of the century, who addressed religious phenomena from within their respective national communities. The role of Christian missions, for instance, was deeply contested in the context of territorial domination and colonial exploitation. Moreover, religious affiliation (e.g., with so-called "primitive religions") often served as an indicator through which societies were subjected to temporal frameworks of order, such as evolutionary cultural stage models. These frameworks, in turn, legitimized corresponding political practices, including "civilizing missions". Furthermore, the relationship between religious phenomena and physical-geographical factors warrants closer examination. This includes exploring how religious beliefs were linked to natural conditions and how these connections shaped interpretations of the relationship between religion and space.

Insights into the research processes shed light on the self-conception of geographers at the time. Examining research practices reveals how geographers' self-perception, often presented as impartial, was shaped by political and religious convictions. By focusing on religion's role in regional geographical research, this presentation will offer new insights into the social conditionality of geographical knowledge and its cultural influences.