Wladimir Köppen

This is the complete English translation (and the original German language version) of the biography of famous and influential Russian-German meteorologist/climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940), edited by his daughter Else, with an updated bibliography of his publications. Köppen’s life stands out among the lives of many of his peers, in that he has made lasting contributions to atmospheric sciences and climatology (e.g. the Köppen-Geiger Classification of Climates which is still being used, and refined to this very day). He also made other important contributions to meteorological research and the organisation of weather services. At the same time, Köppen has a scholarly publication record that spans eight (!) decades and comprises 560 publications. All this between many twists and turns in his life in Russia and Germany, moves, and unexpected events he had to endure, among them copious private problems such as the untimely deaths of two sons, the loss of a third, and later, the loss of his closest collaborator and son-in-law Alfred Wegener. It is fascinating to read how the successful and influential Köppen managed to wiggle out of all these personal quandaries, successfully building and refining his career in climate research until his death in 1940. For those working in the sciences today, Köppen’s autobiographic remarks bear witness, among other things, to the fact, that the nuisances of bureaucracy, theft of ideas, and heckling, grudges, and minor malevolence among peers are not new developments, but have been around from the beginning of the scientific disciplines, although Köppen never engaged in them.... Mehr