Wilhelm Sievers

Sievers was born into a merchant family in Hamburg. He was educated at Jena, Göttingen, and Leipzig, and became a Privatdozent at Würzburg in 1887 after extensive travels in Venezuela and Colombia. In his education, he broke with his mercantile family's tradition to study the emerging academic field of geography. He was one of Ferdinand von Richthofen's first students. On instructions from the Geological Society of Hamburg, he made three expeditions to South America to carry out geographical and geological studies on the different regions of the country, inspired by the expeditions of Alexander von Humboldt. Sievers mainly focusing on documenting evidence for a South American ice age. In 1902, from the cathedra of Geography of the University of Giessen, he publicly opposed the naval blockade that Germany, England and Italy imposed on Venezuela to force the collection of the foreign debt. In 1909, he established the headwaters of the Marañón, the main source of the Amazon river. Wilhelm Sievers published the Allgemeine Länderkunde (several editions 1891–1935), which for several decades was the leading international geographical publication covering all continents.

Reise in der Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, 1887 Venezuela, 1888 Die Cordillere von Mérida, nebst Bemerkungen über das Karibische Gebirge, 1888 Zweite Reise in Venezuela in den Jahren 1892-93, 1896 Die Quellen des Marañon-Amazonas, 1910 Reise in Peru und Ekuador, Ausgeführt 1909, 1914

Allgemeine Länderkunde: Erste Ausgabe in fünf Bänden, First edition in five volumes, 1891–95 Allgemeine Länderkunde: Zweite Ausgabe in sechs Bänden, Second edition in six volumes, 1901–05 Allgemeine Länderkunde: Kleine Ausgabe in zwei Bänden, Compact edition in two volumes, 1907 Allgemeine Länderkunde: Dritte Ausgabe in sechs Bänden, Third edition 1914 (Due to the outbreak of World War I, this edition remained incomplete) Allgemeine Länderkunde: Begr. von W. Sievers, Third/fourth edition, 1924–35