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graphische Gessellschaft, located at the Gessellschaft für Erdkunde, H. 
Bobek, Geographer, Head. 
2. Abteilung für Landeskunde of the Reichsamt für Landesaufnahme. E. 
Meynen, Geographer, Head. 
3. Forschungsstaffel zur besonderen Verwendung, Oberkommando Wehr- 
macht. O. Schulz-Kampfhenckel, Geographer, Head. 
The Wissenschaftliche Luftbildstelle had a dual purpose mission: to pro- 
mote aerial photo interpretation research on a world-wide basis, and to make 
airphoto materials accessible to scientific agencies. The Abteilung fiir Landes- 
kunde was devoted solely to furthering regional geography within Germany. 
Among other means to this end, including a library, a map collection and bibli- 
ography, it kept an extensive airphoto collection designed primarily for develop- 
ing internal scientific regional geography (Troll, 1949, p. 121). 
The Forschungsstaffel zur besonderen Verwendung, Oberkommando Wehr- 
macht, commonly called the Forschungsstaffel, was outstanding in its photo re- 
connaissance and photo interpretation work applied to special military needs, 
its mobility from one theater of war to another, the celerity with which it pro- 
duced the required information, and its famous “combination mapping method” 
by which mature scientists from the different earth sciences worked in teams in 
performing the air reconnaissance, the photogrammetry and especially the photo 
interpretation necessary to produce military maps (Smith and Black, 1946, pp. 
1946, pp. 401-402). 
Forschungsstaffel operations were frequently one-package affairs. The staff 
included photo reconnaissance pilots equipped with suitable aircraft, photo 
technicians, photogrammetrists and a corps of about 80 mature, welltrained 
scientists from the fields of geography, geology, plant association botany, fores- 
try, pedology, etc., who worked not as individuals, but in teams in the process 
of securing information by photo interpretation and plotting the results in map 
form. 
The outstanding German exponent of photo interpretation during World 
War II was the geographer, promoter and Nazi, Dr. Otto Schulz-Kampfhen- 
kel, who was not only the founder and the scientific director of the Forschungs- 
staffel, but the official of the German National Research Council (Reich- 
forschungsrat) responsible for all problems in geographic research. Troll still 
retained a very active and constantly growing interest in geographic airphoto 
analysis, but his efforts to advance photo interpretation were overshadowed by 
the aggressive activities of the younger Schulz-Kampfhenkel, a fact which is 
largely attributed to the latter’s considerable political influence with high Nazi 
officials including Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering, (Fischer, 1948, p. 308; 
Troll, 1949, p. 126). Probably not less than two score other geographers parti- 
cipated regularly in the analysis of aerial photography for geographic research 
and military operations. More than half of these were members of the For- 
schungsstaffel 8). 
  
  
8) Drs. F. Bartz, H. Bobek, W. Credner, H. Ellenberg, E. Ewald, R. Finsterwalder, Kreuger. 
W. Groteluschen, E. Neynen, E. Otremba, G. Pfeifer, W. Pillewizer and S. Schmithüsen are 
included. In related fields, the following scientists engaged in the interpretation of airphotos 
closely associated with geographic research: Plant association botanists Drs. H. Gams, F. Has- 
ke, H. Hesmer, H. Hueck, and R. Tucxon; geologists Drs. H. Cloos, Splechter; pedologists 
K. Kuron and E. Vageler; and Limnologist Dr. E. Wasmund. K. von Klebelsberg interpreted 
  
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