János Hunfalvy, Hunsdorfer

* Nagyszalók, January 21, 1820 – † Budapest, December 6, 1888 / geographer, statistician, university professor, member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1865) ; ; younger brother of Pál Hunfalvy. He began his studies in Késmárk and Miskolc, studied law and then theology in Prešov. In 1845–1846 he was a student at the universities of Berlin and Tübingen. For a while he was a tutor, then made a study trip to Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. In 1846 he became a professor of statistics and history at the Késmárk Law Academy. In 1848 he participated in the War of Independence, for which he suffered 7 months in prison. From 1855 he edited the journal Család Könyve with Ágost Greguss (Prešov). From 1861 he was a professor of geography, statistics and history at the Buda Polytechnic. In 1861–1864 he was the editor of the Statistical Bulletins, in 1865–1868 of the Statistical and Economic Bulletins. In 1870 he was appointed to the new department of geography at the University of Pest. He was the first university professor of geography in our country. In 1875–1876 he was the dean of the Faculty of Humanities, and in 1887–1888 he was the rector of the university. He was one of the founding members of the Hungarian Geographical Society (1872) and its president until his death. He represented Hungarian geography at several international congresses. He is the first scientific practitioner of geography in the modern sense. In his youth he was a supporter of the teleological approach of the German geographer Karl Ritter, and in his later work he significantly developed this geographical concept. His data are reliable, his works are valuable sources. He published the travel notes of László Magyar and János Xantus from America, which he sent home. The Hunfalvy Pass in the High Tatras was named after him. A plaque was placed in his native village in his honor. He also wrote secondary school textbooks. ; ; His main works: ; Universal History I–III., 1851–1852, ; Hungary and Transylvania in Original Pictures I–III., 1855–1864, ; Statistical Outline of the Relations of Hungary, 1862, ; Description of the Natural Relations of the Hungarian Empire I–III., 1863–1865, ; Hungarian Hand Atlas, 1865, Latest Hungarian Atlas, 1867, ; Brief Statistics of the States of Europe, 1868, ; Heaven and Earth (Astronomical Geography), 1873, ; History of Geography, 1878, ; Geography of Africa, 1878, ; Universal Geography I–III., 1884, 1886, 1890, ; Universal Ethnography, n. n.