It is with great regret and deep respect that the international geographical community has to mourn the death of Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. Walther Manshard, former Secretary General and Treasurer of the International Geographical Union (IGU). He passed away peacefully on March 23rd, 2023 in the 100th year of his life.

Walther Manshard, born November 17th, 1923 in Hamburg, led a geographer’s life par excellence, scientifically as well as academically. Receiving his Ph.D. in 1949, he was one of the first German geographers who, after World War II, were offered scholarships and appointments abroad: 1950/1951 by the British Council as a research scholar and Assistant Lecturer at the University of Southampton, to be followed by an eight-year-appointment as a Lecturer in Kumasi (1952-1957) and Accra (1957-1960). Those years in Africa, accompanied by the dramatic changes from colonial rule to national independence, should become formative for Manshard’s future work as a Professor of Geography at the Universities of Cologne (1960-1963), Giessen (1963-1970) and finally Freiburg (1970 until his retirement in 1989). Africa and the humid tropics, political change and its impacts on social and economic developments of regions and people as well as environmental aspects, these and related issues became the “trademark” of Manhard’s academic work.

Much more than most other geographers – and probably not only in Germany – Walther Manshard succeeded in continuing his academic career with high and very influential positions in the international political arena. Based on generally granted leaves of absence from his university obligations, he served for three years (1970-1973) as the “Directeur Principal” of the UNESCO Department of Environmental Sciences in Paris. In this function he was responsible for its sections geosciences, ecology, hydrology and oceanography. The early years of UNESCO’s programme “Man and the Biosphere (MAB)” bear Walther Manshard’s footprint, not to speak of many other initiatives in the fields of trans- and interdisciplinary global change research. – A second major international position was his position as Vice-Rector of the newly founded United Nations University (UNU) in Tokyo (1976-1980). Most appropriately, he was entrusted with the development of a new global research programme on “Use and Management of Natural Resources”, a focus that is pursued by quite a few of UNU’s many international branches until today.

It goes without saying that Manshard’s professional background in combination with his wide science- and policy-based network was an almost ideal precondition for his appointment as Secretary General and Treasurer of the International Geographical Union.

Elected in Moscow on the occasion of IGU’s 23rd International Geographical Congress in 1976 and re-elected for another 4-year-term in Tokyo 1980, his terms of office coincided with the IGU presidencies of his good friends Professor M.J. Wise (UK) and Professor A.L. Mabogunje (Ghana). More than ever before, Walther Manshard could rely during those eight years on his broad network of friends and colleagues in the geosciences and beyond – to the benefit of IGU and the research activities of its commissions and working groups.

On the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the First International Geographical Congress held in Antwerp/Belgium in 1871, the IGU Commission “Histoire de la pensée géographique” under the leadership of Philippe Pinchemel laid the foundation for a remarkable review of IGU’s “prehistory” and its foundation in 1922 until the end of the 20th century. This publication contains an interview with Walther Manshard, reflecting his academic career and his visions and expectations for geography and IGU in the years to come. His final statement in this interview reads as follows:

“As an optimist I look fairly confident into the future of our subject
and also at the IGU as an international organization. After all, our
foci on space, on spatial distribution and relationships, on man-
environment interactions and on regional development issues
are so important, that international work at local, regional or
global levels will have to recognize this. And I do hope – and this
is essential – that we as geographers will “get our act together”,
and that we can demonstrate also in future with well thought out
contributions the relevance and usefulness of our subject.”

Today this statement can be considered as a kind of legacy of Walther Manshard’s lifelong commitment to geography. In 1991 he received an honorary Ph.D. from the University of Accra-Legon/Ghana in recognition of his achievements in the promotion of academic geography in Ghana and beyond. IGU honoured Walther Manshard by awarding him its Lauréat d’Honneur in 1992.

Reference: Robic, M.-C. – A.-M. Briend – M. Rössler, eds.: Géographes Face au Monde (L’Harmattan: Histoire des Sciences Humaines): Géographes Face au Monde. L’Union Géographique Internationale et les Congrès Internationaux de Géographie / Geographers and the World. The International Geographical Union and the International Geographical Congresses. Paris – Montreal 1996.  Chapter 16: “International Experiences”. Walther Manshard Interviewed by Mechtild Rössler; pp. 305-309.

E Ehlers June 2022