Ethnicity Cartography During World War II: Wilfried Krallert and the Volkstumskarte

In 1941 four series of ethno-linguistic maps of Yugoslavia, Romania, Slovakia, and Hungary were published in Vienna under the direction of Wilfried Krallert. In addition to being geographer and historian on the topic of ethnicity in Southeastern Europe, Krallert was also a member of the SS, an intelligence agent, and the group leader of the RSHA VI G (Scientific and Methodological Research Service of the Reich Security Main Office). The four series of Vofkstumskarte maps comprise a total of 116 thematic maps at the scale of 1:200 000. Each map depicts in detail the wartime administrative boundaries and the ethnolinguistic breakdown of the population at the municipality level. The data visualized on the maps are derived from census data from the early 1930s from each country. This paper aims to provide a visual introduction to the thematic representation of information on these maps, including an analysis of the accuracy of the representation of the census data, the visualization of international and internal boundaries, and the germanizing of place names. It also intends to shed new light on how and why these maps were produced, and how these maps were used after their publication in 1941. The University of Alberta Libraries have produced high resolution scans, which are currently available on DVD. Given the content and scope of these maps, their digital version will be useful for geographers and historians engaged in the study of thematic and ethnicity cartography, cartography of war, genocide research, and the geopolitics of Southeast Europe. This presentation took place at the International Conference on the History of Cartography, Helsinki Finland, July 2, 2013.