Supan, Alexander

Born Mar. 3, 1847, in Innichen, Tirol; died July 6, 1920, in Gotha. German geographer, of Slovenian origin. In 1881, Supan became professor of geography at the University of Chernovtsy; from 1884 to 1909 he was editor of the geographical journal Petermanns geographische Mitteilungen (in Gotha); and from 1909 to 1916 he was professor of geography at Breslau.

Supan’s main work, the university course Principles of Physical Geography, was published in Leipzig in 1884, and went through six editions. Twice, in 1899 and 1914, it was published in Russian, edited, with additions, by D. N. Anuchin. Other works by him are devoted to the geography of Austria-Hungary, surveys of the earth’s population, and the territorial development of European colonies. V. I. Lenin, in his Imperialism, kak vyshaia stadiia kapitalizma (see Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 27, pp. 373, 376–77), referred to Supan’s work Die territoriale Entwicklung der europdis-chen Kolonien (Gotha, 1906).