Johann Georg Kohl

Son of a wine merchant, he attended a Gymnasium in Bremen, and then studied law at the University of Göttingen, Heidelberg University, and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. When his father died in 1830, he had to break off his studies, and he spent six years working as a tutor in Courland. He then traveled to St. Petersburg and other parts of Russia. In 1838, he returned to Germany and settled in Dresden, from where he visited much of Europe and wrote about his experiences.

Kohl's main scholarly work, Der Verkehr und die Ansiedlungen der Menschen in ihrer Abhängigkeit von der Gestalt der Erdoberfläche (Transportation and Settlement of People and Their Dependence on Surface Terrain) (1841, 1850) is regarded as the founding text of modern transport and urban geography. Using Moscow as an example, he formulated a mathematical theory for the development of spherical cities, and described how eventually these cities would develop skyscrapers and underground shopping centers. His Die geographische Lage der Hauptstädte Europas (The Geographical Location of the Capitals of Europe) (1874) was also fundamental to theoretical geography.

Kohl's record of his 1842 journey to Ireland and the English port of Liverpool provides important insights into the condition of both locations before both were beset by the disaster of the Great Famine. In 1842, Kohl also visited York. He wrote a lengthy description of the Minster and York's Quaker community (see pp. 62–69 in Palliser and Palliser eds. 1979 York as They Saw It: From Alcuin to Lord Esher. William Sessions Limited.

From 1854 to 1858, he traveled in the United States. He prepared some valuable maps for the U.S. government, and at the request of the United States Coast Survey he prepared two reports: History of the Discovery of the U. S. Coast and History and Investigation of the Gulf Stream (Bremen, 1868). In Washington and at Harvard, Kohl made friends with many writers including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Washington Irving, and scholars including George Bancroft, Charles Bennett Deane and Louis Agassiz. Kohl's book Reisen in Canada und durch die Staaten von New York und Pennsylvanien (Travels in Canada and Through the States of New York and Pennsylvania; 1856) is still consulted by historians of Pennsylvania Dutch. On his return to Europe, he settled in Bremen, where he was appointed city librarian in 1863.