German geographer, pioneer of touristic studies in Karkonosze
Brilliant German researcher Hans Poser (1907-1998) is considered to be a trailblazer of tourism Geography, and his trailblazing work Geographische Studien über den Fremdenverkehr im Riesengebirgefrom 1939 is also the first monography about tourism in Karkonosze area that is stricte scientific. Born in the house of gardeners in Hanover, was 4th of 5 children, when he was 41, he earned a title of Professor in Brunswick’s polytechnic, in 1960 he joined the Academy of science in Göttingen.
After finishing agricultural education, Poser sign up to extramural high school, after that he studied geography at the Göttingen university. When he as 23 years old he became Ph. D thanks to his work about morphology of the Meissen area. Next year he went on expedition to Greenland, after his return he worked as assistant of Prof. Wilhelm Meinardus in Göttingen, under his wings Poser successfully defeated his postdoctoral about valley research in the western Spitsbergen and eastern Greenland. After that he went to the Higher agricultural School in Hannoversch Münden, where he was teaching economic geography. Anthropogeography became his passion for next 10 years.
In that theme in late 30s he released groundbreaking work about geographical tourism in Karkonosze area. In 1936r, relatively 1939 he released contributions about economy of mountain pastures and abandoned shepard’s huts in Karkonosze area and about geographical- touristic connections with lowlands regions of northern Germany. It is also worth notice that Poser wasn’t connected to the Silesia family wise, his interest in research of Sudeten was strictly scientific. In his Studia geograficzne na temat turystyki w Karkonoszach he wrote "I’m not intend to write about sightseeing works about Karkonosze. Let me be clear. In this particular work I am not interested in Karkonosze as such, in a way I’m also not interested in tourism in Karkonosze, but tourism as a whole. Karkonosze with its tourism are barely a good example that can be replaced by any other that have tourism geography to explore […] My goal is rather methodical."
Poser’s Studia Geograficzne…., to this day, is considered to be trailblazing work which includes cultural effects of landscape transformation, infrastructural and functional aspects in geographical studies. Mostly thanks to Poser’s achievements, geographical tourism sub-discipline is respected part of scientific research. Thanks to compressed knowledge about local area those works are “valuable for modern Polish explores of that theme.” As written in his necrology by his fellow professional known explorer Janusz Czerwiński. Ironically modern knowledge about tourism was able to “catch” Poser’s pioneer works decades after his study of Karkonosze was publishede.
In July of 1939 he was drafted. Exact course of his military career is unknown. However, it is known that he stayed at French coast of Atlantic ocean, where he had a chance to collect information about usage of aquatic plants and economy of salina. After war, he used those information in 2 publications. It is possible that he was captured while being there, in 1945 he was released. During war, he was delegated to university doctors corps in Brunswick, where in 1941 he took over the position of the acting head of Geographic Institute. After war, 1948, he became unscheduled professor there.
After years of war, Hans Poser became interested in something new – climatology and periglacial morphology. Thanks to his accomplishments, in 1950, he became a member of international commission of periglacial morphology within International Geography Union. It was there, where had a chance to meet his polish counterparts such as; prominent geographer from Wroclaw, Alfred Jahn, scientific editor of the first monography about polish Karkonosze, published by Ossolineum in 1985. Those contacts came to play when he was invited to Joseph Partsch International Symposium in Wroclaw and Szklarska Poręba (1994), it was the last conference that Poser took part in. He himself recommeneded polish geographers for a position in Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher "Leopoldina" in Halle.
Finally in 1962 he came back to his alma mater in Göttingen where he took over department of geography and was active in university matters. Until his retirement in 1971 he was counselor for 21 PhDs. His students and friends honored him by releasing memorial book in 1972, which contained articles by Jan Dylik from Łódź, Rajmund Galom from Toruń and Alfred Jahn. At last in 1986, university in Brunswick which he was involved in, gave him a honoris causa title. However, the most important thing for him was progress in his field of study, rather than friends approval . Poser’s trailblazing work about tourism in Karkonosze , that back then was considered to be novelty. Since 50s traveling studies were concentrated about economical aspects, then sociological . His methodical approach can be seen in Studia Geograficzne…., intriguing aspects of geography, economy and culture are years ahead “the balanced growth” postulate that connect all this things into one. In that way “geographical studies about tourism […] can go back in time and re-discover what Hans Poser said”, as said by German Geographer Werner Kreisel.