Geography as Political Economics

The history of economic geography at LMU began with the appointment of Wilhelm Credner in 1948. Credner, who at the time had held the Chair of Geography at the Geographical Institute (TUM) for 18 years, was to establish a seminar for economic geography at the newly founded Faculty of Political Sciences & Economics. Unfortunately, this was never to happen, as Credner died shortly after his appointment.

As a result, Erich Thiel was first appointed as a substitute before being appointed as an associate professor of economic geography in 1951 and finally as a full professor in 1958 . One year after Thiel's appointment, in 1959, the department was upgraded to the Institute of Economic Geography.

When Erich Thiel's retired in 1964, Karl Ruppert succeeded him; first as a substitute before taking over officially the following year. In 1974, the institute, which was also greatly expanded during this time, became part of the newly created Faculty of Business Administration as part of the reorganization of the university into 21 departments (today: faculties).

There was also a reorientation with regard to the institute's academic direction. Under Karl Ruppert, who, like his contemporaries at TUM, belongs to the Munich School of Social Geography , there was a shift towards social geography as a new overarching category, which also included economic geography.

In 1979 Hans-Dieter Haas took up his position at the Institute as an associate professor. Hans-Dieter Haas arrived as an expert in the economic geography of Latin America and was thus able to broaden the Institute's geographical horizons enormously. Above all, however, he dealt with issues of raw materials, waste and disposal management as well as the recycling of raw materials at a comparatively early stage.

In the winter semester of 1992/93, Haas finally succeeded Ruppert as chair of economic geography. Under Haas, who saw the spatial dimensions of economic processes and activities as the actual core topic of economic geography, the institute began to understand itself as a center for geographically inclined economists.

The year 2006 was to bring a major change for Economic Geography in Munich, both in institutional as well as academic terms. Economic geography was no longer a separate institute within the faculty for business administration, but part of the newly founded Department of Geography. The tourism researcher Jürgen Schmude was to 2008 succeed Haas. In addition to his academic achievements,

Schmude succesfully completed the task of integrating economic geography as a permanent pillar of the young department. Economic geography is currently represented in the department by Johannes Glückler (Chair for Economic Geographies of the Future since 2023) and Gordon Winder (Economic Geography and Sustainability Research).