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Stieler’s Atlas of Modern Geography: Part Second (1925)

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Saint Mary’s College’s Rare Book Room has both volumes of the 1925 edition of Stieler’s Atlas of Modern Geography. “Part First” includes maps and indexes of Europe and Asia, while “Part Second” includes Africa, Australia, and America. Each map is incredibly detailed, showing a country’s name and its borders, as well as major regional terrestrial biomes and bodies of water. While the intricacies of the maps and indexes are of value to researchers of maps within the past century, Stieler’s Atlas of Modern Geography is set apart from other atlases for its languages. The title of the atlas insinuates that both volumes are entirely in English; this could not be further from the truth. The unassuming nature of a 99-year-old set of atlases offers the Saint Mary’s College community the chance to examine the politics of language, borders, and names through a western colonialist mindset in 1925. The colonialist projects of Western Europe on Africa, Australia, and America make “Part Second” of Stieler’s Atlas of Modern Geography the primary focus of “Establishing Boundaries, Defining Cultures.”

Stieler’s Atlas of Modern Geography was created by the German cartographer and lawyer, Adolf Stieler. The first edition, Handatlas, was published in 1817. He worked on the following editions until his death in 1836, but the Justus Perthes Geographical Institute in Gotha, Germany continued his work until the final edition was published in 1945. Stieler’s original “Handatlas was the leading German world atlas until the middle of the 20thcentury…his atlases are deservedly held in high esteem for their excellence” (Geographicus). The painstaking details of each map underscore both the respected reputation garnered, as well as the German and broader western colonialist opinions. 

Each regional map has an introductory page: the primary country is first written in German, followed by translations into French, English, Italian, and Spanish. The full maps, however, label countries in German, the native language, or the language of the colonizers. Map 85 of Kongoländer, German for Congo countries, labels present day Democratic Republic of Congo as “Belgisch Kongo,” or “Belgian Congo” in Dutch. Dutch is one of the three languages used in Belgium, so the colonized country was labeled in Dutch instead of the native language. More importantly, the regular shift in use of German to a western colonizer’s language signifies the intention of the publisher: to normalize the idea that Congo will always be a Belgian colonial region. 

Map 85 also labels “German Southwest Africa” in German-the language of its colonizer. Interestingly, Germany did not recognize the loss of its territory until the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. This atlas, however, was published six years later. Could this signify that the German population did not acknowledge the loss of their territory? Or could it simply mean that they labeled “Deutsch-Südwestafrika” in German defacto? Regardless, labeling the country in the language of its recent colonizers conveys political opinions of Germans. 

Maps are inherently political through language and names, but also through boarders. Map 81 details the country boarders in the surrounding region of Egypt. In particular, the country of Palestine maintains its historical boarders. Those same boarders became a massive point of contention only 25 years after this atlas’ publication¾a contention that has only increased in polarity to this day. The Palestine on Map 81 maintains a fraction of its land on a map today. Palestine and Israel both exist as states today in the land depicted as Palestine on Map 81. Many maps today label the region as Palestine or Israel, and detailed maps distinguish between the two; no matter the case, these boundaries are inherently political. This 1925 map of the country of Palestine remains highly political, as do many other countries labeled in Stieler’s Atlas of Modern Geography.

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  1. Establishing Boundaries, Defining Cultures Sarah Noonan

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