Ferdinand von Richthofen

Ferdinand Freiherr von Richthofen, known as Ferdinand von Richthofen, was a German geographer and geologist born May 5, 1833, in Pokoj, then called Carlsruhe, in Prussian Silesia, who died October 6, 1905, in Berlin, and who coined the terms Seidenstrasse and Seidenstrassen, meaning Silk Road and Silk Routes, in 1877 and helped standardize the practices of chorography and chorology. His extensive travels through China produced the five-volume China: Ergebnisse eigener Reisen und darauf gegruendeter Studien, published with an atlas between 1877 and 1885 and covering the country geology, economics and ethnology. He held professorships of geology at the University of Bonn from 1875, of geography at the University of Leipzig from 1883, and of geography at the Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin from 1886 until his death, established a weekly geographical colloquium there, mentored the explorer Sven Hedin, received the Wollaston Medal in 1892, and received the Vega Medal in 1903.