Berghaus, HEINRICH

Berghaus, HEINRICH, an eminent geographer, was born at Cleves, in Rhenish Prussia, in 1797. His early services as an engineer in the French and Prussian armies largely advanced his knowledge of geodesy. After being employed on the trigonometrical survey of Prussia, he became (1824) professor of Mathematics in the Architectural Academy of Berlin, and (1836) director of the Geographical School in Potsdam. The best-known of his cartographical works is his Physical Atlas (90 plates, 2d ed. 1852). He edited several geographical periodicals, and wrote numerous valuable works on physical and political geography, including the Länder- u. Völkerkunde (1840). His correspondence with A. von Humboldt, published at Leipzig in 1863, fills 3 vols. He died at Stettin, 17th February 1884.