S∣EVERS,W∣LHELM b. December 3, I860; Hamburg d.June II, I92I; Gieβen, Hesse
German geographer who explored Venezuela, Colombia, and Puerto Rico and who published popular regional-political studies of South America. From 1879 to 1882, he studied history and geography at the universities of Jena and Gottingen before he received his PhD in 1882.
Beginning in 1883, Sievers deepened his knowledge of physical geography under the guidance of Ferdinand von Richthofen at the University of Leipzig. Financially supported by the geographical societies of Hamburg, Leipzig, and Berlin, Sievers toured Venezuela and Colombia from 1884 to 1886, during which time he explored the Andean parts of both countries (Die Cordillera von Merida [The Merida Cordellera], 1888; Venezuela, eine Lan- deskunde [Venezuela: A Regional Geography], 1888). In 1887 he received his second doctoral degree (Habilitation) in geography from the University ofWurzburg, where he taught until 1890. In 1891 he became an associate professor at the University of Gieβen, where he remained until his death.In 1892 and 1893 Sievers toured Puerto Rico and Venezuela, supported by the Geographical Society of Hamburg. In 1909 he set out on another research trip, which led him this time into the high Andean regions of Peru and Ecuador. Sievers became well known in German academia for a series of extensive regional geographical handbooks, starting in 1891. He wrote the volumes, which sold out quickly and were immediately revised and reissued, on Asia (1892), South America (1893), Australia and Polynesia (1895), as well as on Africa (1901). Moreover, he penned other regional geographies addressed to a larger public, especially on the South American area (Die Cordillerenstaaten [The Cordillera States], 2 vols., 1913; Peru und Ecuador [Peru and Ecuador], 1914).
Ute Wardenga
References and Further Reading
Mertins, Gunter. “Wilhelm Sievers 1860—1921.” In Geographers. Biobibliographical Studies. Vol. 8. Ed. Walter T. Freeman. London: Mansell, 1984, pp. 107-110.