Institute of Geography Kurt Hiehle Foundation

Kurt Hiehle was born on August 15, 1882, in what was then Russian Riga, Latvia. He was the son of a German engineer and attended primary and secondary school in Moscow. He had to interrupt his university studies at the Polytechnic in Riga, in 1905, due to his involvement in revolutionary student associations. He later completed his studies at the Technical University of Berlin-Charlottenburg, today TU. From 1907 onwards, he worked first as a design engineer and then as a director, helping to develop among others engines for ships, aircraft, tractors, machine tools at M.A.N., B.M.W. and other large companies. As a director, he worked to promote the sale of heavy tractors for agriculture in the Soviet Union. Starting in 1926, he spent 18 months traveling mainly in semi-arid regions of North Africa, India, Indonesia, and Japan, focusing on the use of agricultural machinery. This experience made him realize the great importance of regional knowledge—especially of arid regions—for practical applications. His favorite topic was the importance of dew precipitation for plant growth. Since traveling abroad was very expensive in the early years after 1945, Kurt Hiehle wanted to enable geography students, among others, to gain experience abroad. Today, the foundation also promotes promising geographical research to the same extent as travel funds. 

As early as 1937, Hiehle retired from practical work to devote himself to developing various scientific ideas that had accumulated over the course of his life. His appointment in 1929 to the supervisory board of what is now Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (until 1951) enabled him to move from Eisenach in the Soviet occupation zone to Heidelberg after the division of Germany. Up until 1959, he published 34 mostly short articles on technical, climatic topics. Additionally, he published on orthography issues, as in 1956 he was appointed to a ministerial working group on the so called “New Orthography”, which produced the Wiesbaden Recommendation on Spelling Rules in 1959; he himself was an advocate of lowercase spelling.

He clearly felt very much at home as a member of the Association of Students and Supporters of Geography at the University of Heidelberg, founded in 1948, which was the origin of today's Heidelberg Geographical Society, as he enjoyed the discussions during the lectures and the social contact with the students at the after-meetings in the Backmulde in Schiffsgasse. Even today, former participants still talk about the scientific discussions they had with him and how he generously rewarded their help in obtaining literature for his publications. They describe him as a meticulous worker who combined a sense of reality with idealism and humanity.

Kurt Hiehle died suddenly on August 18, 1960. The generous and purposeful foundation he established 50 years ago keeps his memory alive among geographers to this day.

With his foundation, the successful mechanical engineer Kurt Hiehle wanted to express his appreciation for the field of geography and his friendly connection with young geographers in a lasting way. He left the foundation an apartment building on the corner of Gaisbergstraße and Zähringer Straße and his library to the institute. Due to the maintenance costs that consumed the rental income, this listed building with its gold leaf-decorated Art Nouveau façade has since been sold by the university's foundation administration and the assets invested in a stable manner. For many years, a professor of geography was also a member of the university's foundation board, which administers numerous bequests.

© Werner Fricke based on Fezer, F. and Fricke, W. (1982): Kurt Hiehle Festschrift. Heidelberger Geographische Arbeiten, Volume 75.