Max Eckert and his master piece "Die Kartenwissenschaft"

Max Eckert wrote the first comprehensive German textbook on mapping science "Die Kartenwissenschaft". His intention was, similar to Karl Peucker, to establish cartography as a new scientific discipline. The main goal of this paper is to examine whether Eckert's "Die Kartenwissenschaft" can be considered as a milestone in the development of theoretical cartography? With 1,520 pages, more than 1,000 references and over 2,000 map references Eckert created a work that adopts an integrative approach towards all aspects of contemporary cartography, including previously neglected subjects, such as thematic cartography. This synthesis of material, which made the wide variety of cartography manifest, was an important building block in the development of cartography as a science. On the other hand, one must note that this extensive work primarily contains a descriptive systematization of empirically-traditionally incurred elements and only few theoretically-based components, which are limited to the topics of relief representation and to map projection theory. There are several reasons why Eckert was not able to elevate this rich body of empirical material to a higher level of abstraction. The main reason was that general theories such as semiotics, information and communication theory were not yet developed to a sufficient extent.