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Ernst Debes

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ernst Debes
Portrait c. 1880s
Born(1840-06-22)June 22, 1840
Neukirchen by Eisenach, Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Germany
DiedNovember 22, 1923(1923-11-22) (aged 83)
Leipzig, Saxony, Weimar Germany
Known forDebes crater
Scientific career
WorkplacesUniversity of Giessen (1908–1923)

Ernst Debes (Anglicized as Ernest Debes; /ˈdɛbəs/; DEB-ess; June 22, 1840 – November 22, 1923) was a German cartographer and publisher based in Leipzig. After training under August Heinrich Petermann at the Perthes Cartographic Institute,[1] he co-founded the firm Wagner & Debes, which produced maps and atlases for use in German schools and maps for Karl Baedeker's guidebooks.[1][2] His comprehensive atlas of the world was regarded by geographers as his principal work,[1] and it was later adapted into several other languages.[3]

In his final years, Debes produced maps of the lunar surface by hand.[4][5] In 1935, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) named Debes crater in honor of his contributions.[6]

Biography

[edit]

Debes was born in 1840 in Neukirchen, a town near Eisenach in the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. His father, August Debes, was a cantor. He studied mathematics and art in Eisenach and apprenticed as a surveyor in Gotha.

Map of China and Korea (1869)

He began studying at the Perthes Cartographic Institute in Gotha in 1858 as an apprentice under August Heinrich Petermann.[1][7] In 1867, he and Petermann produced a manuscript map of Eduard Rüppell's journey through Abyssinia in modern-day Ethiopia, drawing the map by hand.[8][9] He is considered one of Petermann's most important students.[10]

In 1873, Debes began working with Heinrich Wagner in Darmstadt, soon after Eduard Wagner passed the lithography business that he had established in 1835 to his son.[1][2] The pair operated under the name H. Wagner & E. Debes[11] and operated out of Leipzig,[12] considered the center of German book-making.[13] founded their own publishing house two years later, focusing on the production of maps and atlases.[1][14] They also published maps for use in guidebooks published by Karl Baedeker,[2] who had first given a contract to Eduard Wagner in Koblenz in 1839.[15]

He once began a treatise on cartography with the words:

The art of drawing maps is called cartography."

— Ernst Debes[16]

Map of Europe published in Debes' school atlas (1914)

Debes became recognized in the early 1880s as these became widely used to teach geography in German schools.[1][15] His New Hand Atlas, published between 1893 and 1895, was widely considered by geographers as his most masterful work.[1] A second edition, published in 1899, contained 185 individual maps.[17] The atlas captures a period of "imperial and exploratory interests" among European nations during the Scramble for Africa.[17] It also included Europa, Sprachen & Völkerkarte, a map of the languages and peoples of Europe printed at a scale of 1 to 12 million.[3] According to Rafael Company i Mateo, it was the best map of its kind in any atlas published between the Franco-Prussian War and World War I,[3] and showed Andalusians and Castilians as distinct groups within the Spanish population.[3] The atlas was later adapted into other languages, with two Russian editions appearing in Saint Petersburg before 1914, editions in Czech and Hungarian, and a third Russian edition followed in 1916 or 1917.[3]

Burial in Leipzig

In 1922, Debes produced an atlas with thirty-seven maps of the near side of the Moon, titled Kleiner Mondatlas in 37 Einzeldatstellungen[18] after the stone plates that he and Wagner used to print maps.[19] In his maps, he named a lunar mountain range after the Jura Mountains,[20] which was later adopted as Montes Jura.[21] He also produced a hand-map of the lunar surface the same year, titled Handkarte des Mondes.[22]

He died in Leipzig in 1923, aged 83. His ashes were buried in the Debes family grave in Leipzig.

Awards and legacy

[edit]
Debes crater on the moon

Debes was an influential figure in the development of German cartography, and Max Eckert-Greifendorff was cited as an influence.[13] In 1908, on the fiftieth anniversary of his career, Debes was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Giessen. He was also appointed a professor of geography by King Frederick Augustus III of Saxony.

Astronomers from the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in Paris named a lunar crater on Mare Crisium after Debes in 1935.[23][6] Debes crater is visible on the eastern part of the near side of the moon.[6][24]

References

[edit]
  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Schmidt, Rudolf (1908). Deutsche Buchhändler. Deutsche Buchdrucker. Vol. 6. Berlin; Eberswalde: J. Guttentag. pp. 1018–1020.
  2. 1 2 3 Hinrichsen, Alex W. "Baedeker's Travel Guides 1832-1990 Bibliography 1832-1944; Listing 1948-1990 History of the publishing house With illustrations and additional overviews" (PDF). pp. 41–42; 57. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Mateo, Rafael Company i (March 23, 2015). Cartografia, ideologia i poder: Els mapes etnogràfics del Touring Club Italiano (1927-1952). Universitat de València. ISBN 978-84-370-9619-3.
  4. ↑ British Astronomical Association (1937). Memoirs of the British Astronomical Association. Vol. 32–34. London. p. 38.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. ↑ Greeley, Ronald; Batson, Raymond (November 29, 2001). The Compact NASA Atlas of the Solar System. Cambridge University Press. p. 356. ISBN 978-0-521-80633-6.
  6. 1 2 3 "Planetary Names: MOON – Debes". planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov. United States Geological Survey (USGS). Retrieved September 19, 2026.
  7. ↑ Smits, Jan (December 20, 2021). Petermann's Maps: Cartobibliography of the Maps in ""Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen"", 1855-1945. BRILL (published 2004). p. 49. ISBN 978-90-04-47528-1.
  8. ↑ Pichler, Verena (August 12, 2024). "A Cartographer in the Archives. Ernst Debes' Manuscript Map of Eduard Rüppell's Abyssinian Journey (1867)". Mapping Africa and Asia. doi:10.58079/125w1. Retrieved September 16, 2026.
  9. ↑ Rüppell, Eduard (1838). Reise in Abyssinien. Frankfurt am Main: Gedruckt auf kosten des verfassers und in commission bei S. Schmerber – via University of California Libraries.
  10. ↑ Cartographica. York University, Department of Geography. 1977. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-919870-19-2.
  11. ↑ Espenhorst, Jürgen (2003). Petermann's Planet: The great handatlases. Pangaea Verlag. pp. 640, 647. ISBN 978-3-930401-35-2.
  12. ↑ Organisation and General Program of the 7th International Geographical Congress. Berlin: International Geographical Congress. 1899. p. 13.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  13. 1 2 International Catalogue of Scientific Literature, 1901-1914. Vol. 8. Royal Society. 1910. p. 280.
  14. ↑ University, Harvard (1880). Harvard University Bulletin. Vol. 2. Library of Harvard University (published January 1, 1880). p. 103.
  15. 1 2 Debes, Ernst; Wagner, Heinrich (1886). "Venezia". Library of Congress (in Italian). Geograph. Anstalt v. Wagner & Debes. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
  16. ↑ York, American Geographical Society of New (1908). Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York. American Geographical Society of New York. p. 346.
  17. 1 2 Debes, Ernst. "E. Debes' Neuer handatlas". David Rumsey Map Collection: Cartography Associates. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
  18. ↑ Kleiner Mondatlas in 37 Einzeldatstellungen [Small Lunar Atlas in 37 Individual Plates] (in German). 1922.
  19. ↑ Monmonier, Mark (May 18, 2015). The History of Cartography, Volume Six: Cartography in the Twentieth Century. University of Chicago Press. pp. 1690–1691. ISBN 978-0-226-15212-7.
  20. ↑ Rükl, Antonín (1991). Atlas of the Moon. Hamlyn. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-600-57190-2.
  21. ↑ Garfinkle, Robert A. (July 15, 2016). Luna Cognita: A Comprehensive Observers’ Handbook of the Known Moon. Springer New York. p. 3255. ISBN 978-1-4939-1663-4. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
  22. ↑ Debes, Ernst (1922). E. Debes' Handkarte des Mondes [Hand Map of the Moon].
  23. ↑ Moore, Patrick; Rees, Robin (January 16, 2014). Patrick Moore's Data Book of Astronomy. Cambridge University Press. p. 58. ISBN 978-1-139-49522-6.
  24. ↑ Paino, Ivan (February 22, 2015). El Diseño Universal: Geometría Sagrada De La Gran Pirámide [The Universal Design: Sacred Geometry Of The Great Pyramid] (in Spanish). Vol. II. Toledo, Spain: Ediciones Isthar Luna Sol (published February 2015). p. 279. ISBN 978-84-940658-7-3.
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