Werner Bätzing, cultural geographer, is considered the doyen of Alpine research. He was born in 1949 in Kassel and grew up on the countryside of North Hesse. Between 1968 and 1974, he studied Evangelical Theology and Philosophy at the Bethel University and at the University of Tübingen and Heidelberg. Graduating with a first Theological Degree. Between 1976 and 1983, he completed an apprenticeship to become a stationer and worked in this field as bookseller, employee of a publishing house and publisher’s reader in West Berlin.
Between 1983 and 1987, he studied Geography with a focus on the Alps at TU Berlin, where he earned his master’s degree. Between 1988 and 1995, he had the positions of Research Associate and Lecturer at the Department for Geography at the University of Bern / Switzerland (where he earned his PhD in 1989 and habilitation in 1992). Between 1995 and 2014, he held the professorship for Cultural Geography at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg. In 2014, he was given the emeritus status and has been Head of the Archive for Integrative Alpine Research in Bamberg.
Main focus of his research and teaching: The Alps and rural areas in Europe (developments in connection with economic, societal, and environmental aspects) and relations between human beings and the environment in a global perspective–from the origin of humans to date. Books, including: Die Alpen – Geschichte und Zukunft einer europäischen Kulturlandschaft (The Alps—History and Future of a European Cultural Landscape) (C.H. Beck), 4. ed. 2015 Zwischen Wildnis und Freizeitpark. Eine Streitschrift zur Zukunft der Alpen (Between Wilderness and Theme Park. Polemic on the Future of the Alps) (published by Rotpunktverlag), 2. ed. 2017. Recent work: Homo destructor. Eine Mensch-Umwelt-Geschichte. Von der Entstehung des Menschen zur Zerstörung der Welt (Homo destructor. A Story of Humans and the Environment. From the Origins of humans to World Destruction) (C.H. Beck), 2023.
