Social geographical research in Germany ? a balance sheet for the years 1950?1980

Abstract

Theory and practice in German social geography reflect back on thirty years of an arduous search for identity as a discipline. Both its friends and its adversaries are in agreement that this identity has yet to be achieved. The development of the foundation phase of the 1950s — late because of specifically German conditions — led to the rapid growth of several distinctive research lines. Thereafter the pace of development slowed as various concepts were abandoned, accompanied by hesitancy over material questions, especially as some were revealed to be impractical by completed research. Up to the present there appear to be thresholds that cannot be crossed even by informed geographers. Since 1980 social geography in Germany has stagnated, and become absorbed in behavioural research. This article has attempted a balance of the more important contributions that have tried to develop themes dealing with the social complex from the geographical viewpoint.