WALTER CHRISTALLER Geography & Nazism: A Symbiotic Relationship KYLE

Life & Times of Christaller Born on Friday, April 21, 1893 in Berneck, Germany to Erdmann Gottreich and Helene Christaller Before 1914, began studies in philosophy and political economics, but stopped to serve in the German army during WWI Home schooled and then educated at the Universities of Heidelberg and Munich. 1929, resumed graduate studies, and eventually came up with famous dissertation on the Central Place Theory, published in 1933

Involvement in WWII Joined Nazi party in 1940 as part of Heinrich Himmler’s SS- Planning and Soil Party Job was to figure out how to configure Eastern Germany’s captured lands after they won the war. Especially Czechoslovakia and Poland Given special job of planning occupied Poland, which he based entirely on the Central Place Theory “But nobody’s perfect”- Jack Forte

C PLACE N THEORY R A L

So What the Heck was that Map? The map was of Christaller’s perfect Poland. Each dot represents a “low-order” central place: a village or small town. As the number of concentric around each dot increases, so does the human population, creating “high-order” central places such as cities. High order places had more products, and they were of a higher quality. As population decreases, so does number and quality of products.

Christaller’s Assumptions He disregarded all terrain in order to lay out the cities and ignore impediments to human movement. Two assumptions about human behavior: Humans will always purchases any goods from the closest available option When demand for a specific good increases, it will be found closer to the consumer population. When demand falls, so does accessibility of the product

Central Place Geometry The map of Poland shows a honeycomb pattern that was found by Christaller to be the most space efficient organization. Each single polygon fits with the next, and each either includes a major city or is in close proximity to a high order area. Each cluster of polygons around a city also forms a honeycomb Bigger and bigger honeycombs all combine

Activity 1. Set up desks in a hexagon with lots of space in the middle 2. Draw a card 3. Arrange by card shape, largest population in middle 4. Choose a product 5. Compare

To learn more, please visit: Pages for a discussion of the theory in terms of Services ( the book section). This focuses on the range, or the distance people will go to buy something, and its importance in market areas, or the nodal regions surrounding any given service (nodal because of the core in the middle of the area). Page 392 for a picture of a lot of hexagons and more market area discussion.

Works Cited Arlinghaus, Sandra Lach. "Visualizing a Map of Walter Christaller, Poland 1941." Solstice, Volume XVII, Number 2, University of Michigan, Web. 16 Sept Briney, Amanda. "Central Place Theory." Geography.about.com. About.com, n.d. Web. 17 Sept "Central-place Theory | Economics and Geography." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 19 Sept "Geographic Travels." : Central Place Theory and Its Dark Origin. N.p., 2 Sept Web. 19 Sept "Walter Christaller." NNDB. NNDB, n.d. Web. 17 Sept Images: Slide Two Portrait: tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQBSDXtWNQAmrDDom5TG8gwgSK2nE7hLoIE0z1r_g3vErbpp517qA Slide 4 Map: Slide 7 Geometry: & dark.htmlhttp:// dark.html Slide 8: I made that, be impressed.