Niemieckie mapy turystyczne Karkonoszy do 1945 roku

W artykule omówiono kształtowanie się mapy turystycznej Karkonoszy od momentu pojawienia się pierwszych górskich wędrówek do końca II wojny światowej. Najwięcej uwagi poświęcono prywatnej kartografii niemieckiej w XIX i pierwszej połowie XX w., gdy Karkonosze wraz z ziemią jeleniogórską stanowiły ważny i liczący się w Europie region turystyczny.

Karkonosze have played an important role in Central European tourism since the time when travels began to be perceived as a form of insight and leisure. Fast development of tourism in Karkonosze took place in the 19th century when the mountains became one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe. As a result there appeared a large number of guides and tourist maps. An evident mountain range depicting Sudetes and its peak Śnieżka appeared on the map of Silesia in 1:550 000 by Martin Helwig, dated 1561. On the break of the 19th century the first detailed topographic survey of Sudetes was conducted, giving a solid base for later tourist maps. J. Hoser's map in 1:100 000 from 1806 is considered to be the first tourist map of Karkonosze, the highest range of Sudetes. Fast development of tourism in Karkonosze and the resulting demand for tourist maps brought cartographic production in Silesia to significant volume. Maps were prepared by numerous private publishers-printers, which used the names of geographic or cartographic institutes or publishers. The estimated number of such enterprises in Germany and Austria combined is 40, while in Silesia alone there were 20 of them. Among the largest Silesian publishers at the time there were: K. Flemming in Głogów (founded in 1833), G. Brieger in Świdnica (1880) and P. Baron in Legnica (1897). In other parts of Germany there were many more: C.C. Meinhold and A. Kohler in Dresden, R. Mittelbach in Leipzig, J. Straube, A. Goldschmidt, M. Pasch, A. Kiessling and Grieben in Berlin. Most of them published also maps of Karkonosze and the region. Many maps were published as appendices to tourist guides. All of them are a valuable source of information about the development of tourism in the area.