Machatschek, Fritz

Born Sept. 22, 1876, in Wischau, present-day Vyskov, Czechoslovakia; died Sept. 25, 1957, in Munich. Geomorphologist and physical geographer.

Machatschek studied at the University of Vienna and schools in Berlin and Zurich under the direction of E. Suess, A. Penck, F. Richthofen, and A. Heim. Between 1906 and 1915 he was a privatdocent at the University of Vienna and a professor at higher educational institutions in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, and Argentina. In 1951 he retired and took up residence in Munich. He carried out field studies in Western Europe (the Swiss Jurassic and the Czech Massif, for example) and Middle Asia (the Tien-Shan) and visited a number of regions in South America (the Pampas, puna). Machatschek studied the earth’s relief and its relationship to geotectonics on a broad paleogeo-graphic basis. He compiled a Geomorphological Dictionary in six languages (the main language was German with translations into Russian, French, English, Italian, and Spanish).